MSP Sobriety checkpoint. A neat event

I got word to a sobriety checkpoint in Lowell on Saturday night into Sunday morning. I made my way to the area around 10 PM and spotted lots of police all over the roads- both local and state police units. They call this the saturation patrol. A few arrests and some citations were issued during this. The real fun begun around 11:45 when the trap was set up. That's right. they pretend like they are setting up a construction work zone but when in fact they aren't. They narrowed down each side of the road way to 1 lane & people had no way out once they were in it. There were multiple "chase cars" staged nearby in the form of marked/semi marked & unmarked units at the ready. Anyone who tries anything stupid is just plain simply dumb because the checkpoint is manned by as many as 20+ troopers and a handful of local cops. The store opened at midnight and right off the bat 2 customers were already told to enter the "pit". Once inside, troopers converged on the vehicles & ordered the drivers to exit the vehicles- they complied & field sobriety was conducted. Both were immediately placed into custody & transported for booking on at least the charge of OUI. A few minutes went by & 2 more were asked to enter. Well lets say this is were it got great...A passenger in one of those cars thought it would be interesting to see what would happen if he were to perhaps bailout... well lets say he didn't get very far. He quickly had 15 troopers & several Lowell PD officers around him and he was taken into custody, The best part is where I was sitting; was in a parking lot directly across from the checkpoint at a school-there was also a Lowell PD unit there filling out a report and I was chatting with him as the subject ran towards us. I backed up a few feet to give him some running room and he immediately exited his cruiser and took the subject into custody. My guess would be he had maybe a warrant or 2 or had some illegal contraband on him. Whats great about these checkpoints is that even if the operator isn't drunk the chances are there is something else the troops will discover. I'm not sure on what the total results were but I will find out and post when they are available. Great work by all. I cant wait for the next one.