The Stolen Tank Rampage! (1995) 

Soldier "What do we do?" Other soldier "Call the police!"

Guard 1: Who's that guy? Guard 2: I don't know ... Guard 1: So anyway, on Seinfeld last night...

This is a strange rethinking of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. “The first tank had no fuel, the second tank wouldn’t start, the third tank was just right!”

Imagine calling your car insurance "hi my car got run over by a tank"

"He even dug a 7 feet shaft in his backyard" Who didn't tell this guy not to dig straight down? You could Fall into lava or abandoned Radioactive waste.

This guy literally lost everything he had. Kind of sad story...

Anything planned for the 1992 Los Santos Riots? I heard a guy crashed a firetruck off a bridge

*Guard* : "Hello 911?" *Operator* : "What's the nature of your emergency?" *Guard* :"I'd like to report a stolen vehicle." *Operator* : "What's the make and model?" *Guard* :"It's a green M60A3 Patton tank." *Operator* : "....."

"-Shoot at the tires, Eddie! -Eeeer, it's a tank, sir..."

"Hello police, this is the US Army, we need your help, our tank has been stolen"...... Bet the operator was questioning if this was real

Nelson: Goes in the military base and tries to start the tanks. Guards: “nah you cool”

This is the same incident that convinced my parents to support Dad's newly discharged high school best friend when they learned from his mother that he was going through a rough time. He wasn't addicted to drugs or alcoholic, but the depression he had was severe. For all the trouble Shawn Nelson caused, he really opened the eyes to a lot of people the need to support people with depression, especially among veterans and their dishonorably discharged counterparts.

A sad tale of a man who was left alone in a world that doesn’t care about him, when you’ve got nothing to live for, why not make the end entertaining?

Reminds me of: "Drunk Polish man captures Polish town with old Soviet tank"

The animators must’ve had fun making this. I laughed way too hard at the scene of dude running through the base

“He is in a vehicle” “Make and colour?” “It’s a black...tank”

National Guard soldiers: bruh were gonna get court martialed

Poor dude. His life was going so well then it just fell apart completely.

"Once a man runs out of reasons to live, he starts looking for reasons to die"

Whoever was on guard duty did not have a good day after this I'm sure.

"When man has nothing to lose, they have everything to gain." -Sun Tzu, The Art of War.

“Hi yeah, does my insurance cover my car being crushed by a tank?” “I beg your pardon?!” “Does my insurance cover tank damage?”

Imagine in like few months "911 what's your emergency" "This is the Air Force, yeah someone just stoled a B-2 Spirit, yeah we need a police helicopter"

His backstory sounds like it can be a Joker story. The cartoon version of him looks like Joaquin Phoenix

Old people: "The good ol days when we used to play grand theft auto in real life"

7:27 "Setting up road blocks is pointless" GTA cops: *Hold my beer*

Why steal one when you can make one? *Killdozer intensifies*

I was 18 when this happened, I remember watching this live on tv

"this kind of tank don't require any kind of keys" so star wars ships ARE realistic after all

Police Car: *Exists* Guy Inside Tank: Now This Is *GTA*

Killdozer: “Finally, a worthy opponent. Our battle will be legendary.”

The tank was stolen from the National Guard Armory next door to my High School in the Linda Vista neighborhood of San Diego. That's about 10 miles from downtown, contrary to what the video says.

Soldiers: what are you doing? Nelson: driving a tank Soldiers: UnDErStandeble HaVe a NIce day

"Wait a minute, I thought the army parade was in august?"

I was in my early 20’s when this happened. Wasn’t the tank driver disgruntled towards his VA treatment or benefits. He was driving the tank to the VA building in Mission Valley.

When you finally get into the military base in GTA V

"He'd help anybody. He just couldn't help himself. " -His brother, Scott,

"Nelson then got lucky when the third tank started up" You know what they say, third times a charm

Everyone gangsta until some crazy random person with a tank shows up.

That’s actually a very deep video from this channel! We should really pay attention to history , so we will never repeat it again

I feel for this guy. There’s only so much someone can take.

Tank related video: *exists* World of Tanks ads: It's free real state

7:53 The US military is so advanced that they developed an AH-1 Cobra that doesn't need a tail rotor to move

*Person steals a tank and goes on a rampage in 1995* Rockstar games: *"WRITE THAT DOWN, WRITE THAT DOWN"*

me when i had to speak in front of the class: 5:30

I think this sounds like the craziest "suicide by cop" stories ever.

Yo this kinda sounds like a backstory of a GTA V character,

As someone who works for police, I can only imagine dispatch receiving call from military about stolen vehicle and then giving information to patrols, that it is a tank.

I like how there's a five star and the font style is GTA: SA

I actually know this story all too well. I was born on the day this happened AND the tank drove past the hospital I was born in. 😅

Who needs magella? You explain history better than anyone ive seen, much better than the history channel.

Farmers: “We know a thing or two, because we have seen a thing or two!” (I can imagine this had a bunch of insurance agents scratching their heads, reading the fine print in their insurance policies). Edit. We are Farmers, bum bum bumbum bum...thanks for the likes!

"Florida man moves to California"

In 20 years time our children will be watching a simple history episode about the Covid19 pandemic of 2020

The SDPD officer that gained access to the tank was a SSgt who was a reserve at 4th Tank Bn. His dad retired from the Marines as a SgtMaj and very respected man.

"We got uhhhhhh......... artillery vehicle in uhhhhhh........ Grove Street." "Air support inbound."

I thought Trevor from GTA 5 was a FICTIONAL character.

The guy in the tank: Excuse me... *do you know where the sabaton concert is?*

To be honest I really feel sorry for the guy with most people in his life abandoning him

Police dispatcher: “911 what’s your emergency?” Guard: “this is the national guard we just had one of tanks stolen from us!” Police dispatcher: “what?!” The guards’ commanding officer: “WHAT?!?!”

This dude played GTA in real life before it exist

“Hey Shawn did you hear a tank was on the rampage?” “Yeah it’s on the news.” “Want me to head to your basement to stay safe?” “Yeah you’re just five streets away from me. Quickly get here before the tank gets here.” *sees Shawn turn the corner in the M60 with several cop cars on him*

Man, the 90's were great. You could be divorced, depressed, alcoholic, injured, broke, hooked on crystal meth, spending your free time digging holes in your back yard and STILL get a girlfriend ....

Let's see how many GTA references we can find in the comments

World of Tanks ad Plays...seems legit.

I remember watching this on the news in Germany. All the Germans were thinking “Only in America”.

This is quite sad for him... a military veteran and he didn’t get any help, but he also stole a tank

I can't help but feel empathy for the guy. He got screwed over COMPLETELY by life.

"My God, is she brave... standing up to that freaked-out junkie. " "Dad, that junkie is your son. " "Why don't you just tell everybody? "

He is a legend and a history person now. Not just a common guy anymore.

This is the most American story ever. The only way it could get even more American is if Michael Bay directed a movie about it.

This makes me think of the “Killdozer” Rampage that should have an episode on this channel.

When you get a Tank in GTA

Kids never steal a tank like him or you will get a 5 star Someone: *steals tank* Police: here we go again

Police Cars: *tries to run tank off the road* Tank: Am I joke to you?

For anyone wondering this is how people become homeless, many weren’t always junkies

9:03 wasted

Me: **puts the tank cheat code in** The tank: **spawns** Everyone at the parking lot: 0-o

Now all we needed was for this guy to face off against the killdozer to see who would win.

What we expected: Crazy guy wanted to reenact GTA What we got: Poor guy who had the whole world against him and snapped

*DarkViperAU:* _"So here at the beginning of the _*_Crystal Maze_*_ there is a feature where you can get into Fort Zancudo without getting any wanted levels. This allows you to steal a tank for free from the base, and also get the minigun from the watchtower for future missions."_

**Steals a tank in 1995** _Instantly gets 5 stars_

Nelson : has a back injuries and mental breakdown Also Nelson : *Lets* *steal* *a* *tank* !

Coming Soon:"The Dog who Who Stole a BattleShip"

What they are not mentioning here, whether purposely or not, is that during the struggle with the tank when it was caught on the freeway they actually had an off duty tank engineer with them. He was the one who pointed out where to get in and he was also the one who volunteered to go into the tank and get Sean out of there without killing him. During the stand still there was a police officer who was acting somewhat jittery and wasn’t responding to the engineer. If you watch the news report during the stand off you can see the engineer repeatedly tap the officer on the shoulder, trying to get his attention. When they were finally able to open the hatch the panicked officer fired into the opening without provocation or warning, killing Sean within seconds. This isn’t to knock the officer, even though it might have been hasty or unwarranted, it actually pointed out how seriously unprepared these officers were for a situation like this. It even highlights how completely disassociated the American public when it came to their understanding of how truly unstoppable these machines were, or how devastating just ONE of these vehicles could be. It could also be argued that this was an indicator of how even just 30 years ago the mental health of an an American citizen going through a crisis was simply viewed as a drug addicted crazy person. Who knows, if we had some system in place that truly cared about this man’s well being, or if the officers were trained to deal with situations like this more calmly and logically, he would still be here, talking about that one time he took a tank for a joy ride.

A Hungarian guy 11 years after this event: imma try that

If this was GTA Police man:We lost him Man driving the tank gets out from the tank Police man:GoOd dAY siR

Rockstar games- "Write that down!, write that down!" *scribbles*

Dude, the machinegun and firing mechanism of the smooth bore rifle are store in the units arms room. The ammo is stored at an active posts AHA or Ammo Holding Area. They bring ammo to you at a range when you request it. So you will not steal a tank and be able to use the weapons on them. Though the tank itself is really a huge weapon in itself. The only keys for any military vehicle are the ones locking the outer hatches on armored vehicles and the un armored vehicles have a cable running through the driver's wheel, making it unstearable. There are no ignition keys. You just turn a dial.

This is why the Grand Theft Auto games are a good thing. Before, you had to actually do these things in real life.

"The police had no choice but to open fire" "then he died in local hospital" *WASTED*

I remember this happening. Really sad that he was pushed off the edge like that. Not an excuse just sad 😭

" P A N Z E R " *cheat activated*

How did he turn the turret backwards from the driver’s seat? Edit: Turns out it was facing backwards all along.

Who would win: A Battalion of Police Officers and Deputies... *... Or one disgruntled Vet*

Normal crinals: steals car Nelson: hold my beer * steals an entire tank*

"How will i face the day tomooorooooww If i can't make it through todaaaayyyyy I got nothing left to lose but my sanity And the right to go insaaaanneee" -Dave Mustain

In a somewhat similar situation in Hungary in the late 70's or early 80' an armored vehicle had been stolen by a soldier, who had enough of the glorious communism here, and try to make his way to west. Our glorious government did not have any restrains using a Mi24 attack helicopter to blast it to grinded metal. My father was in the army that time, and he was on guard duty in the airbase when the choppers were scrambled, just to come back with burn marks on the rocket pods. Of course it was a state secret, but words went around about the tanker.

Everyone gangsta until driver starts loading the machine gun.

Even tho the story is VERY different, this video's name reminds me of one Adventures of Tintin episode where Tintin and captain Haddock stole a tank.