A man who was hospitalized after a suspect stole a coffee cart with him inside and led officers on a wild, multi-county pursuit recalls the terrifying ordeal.

“I thought I was going to die,” said the victim, Derek Strano, 37. 

On July 16, the suspect, Liam Preston Yanez, 28, jumped into a pickup truck that was also towing a coffee service trailer in Moorpark.

Little did the suspect know, Strano was still inside the coffee cart. At the time, Strano had gone inside the cart to prepare a drink for a family member who had arrived home for surgery.

As the truck suddenly took off, Strano was taken on a violent, wild ride through Ventura and Los Angeles counties as police officers chased the stolen truck.

“I feel the truck moving and I had been in there for two minutes,” Strano recalled. “I thought I had the parking brake off, but then the truck blows through the fence. It was hell.” 

Video of the chase showed the suspect driving erratically as the coffee cart swerved dangerously behind. 

Strano held on for life, grabbing a sink inside the coffee cart as the chase became more chaotic. Eventually, Strano could not hold on any longer.

“He took a turn and the side door was ripped off and I flew out of it when he made that turn,” Strano said.

The coffee cart later overturned as the suspect crashed the pickup truck into the Heartfelt Education through the Arts Center building in North Hollywood.

Strano was left hospitalized with serious injuries after the ordeal. The incident left him with severe pain and limited his mobility. 

Strano said he’s also been suffering from nightmares and flashbacks to the night of the crash.

The suspect, Yanez, was arrested on several felony charges including unlawful driving or taking of a vehicle and receiving stolen property.  He is being held on $20,000 bail.

Strano, however, believes those charges are not enough for the damage caused.

“His charges, not one of them are for my injuries,” Strano said. “My name isn’t in the report. I was just a worker, the assistant, and it kind of got to me.”

For now, Strano is focused on recovering and is undergoing physical therapy. He said he may also consider psychological therapy as well.

A GoFundMe page to help Strano with his medical bills can be found here.

A rapper faces prison time after he attempted to board a flight with a loaded pistol at Los Angeles International Airport.

Tiwan Raybon, 36, of Douglasville, Georgia, also known as “Fat Money” was sentenced Friday to 20 months in federal prison, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Raybon arrived at LAX and attempted to board a flight headed for Atlanta. He was selected for a routine luggage inspection by Transportation Security Administration officials.

Inside Raybon’s carry-on luggage, security officials discovered a Glock 9mm-caliber semiautomatic pistol and several rounds of ammunition.

Raybon then fled from TSA officers after the discovery, authorities said.

At the time, investigators said Raybon was in illegal possession of the pistol after being previously convicted of multiple felonies and a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence in Cook County, Illinois.

Raybon was later arrested and indicted by a federal grand jury in L.A.

In April 2024, he pleaded guilty to one federal count of being a prohibited person in possession of a firearm and ammunition. On Friday, he was sentenced to 20 months in federal prison.

“It is unlawful for a person convicted of a felony or a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence to ship, transport, receive, or possess a firearm or ammunition,” FBI officials said. “In addition, firearms are not permitted at checkpoints or in the secure area of airports, including in carry-on luggage or onboard aircraft.”

The iconic Ferris wheel on the Santa Monica Pier will light up nightly during the Paris Olympics to cheer on Team USA beginning Friday.

The nightly light display will feature the five colored rings to symbolize the Olympic rings, a 90-foot-tall waving American flag to celebrate Team USA, a French flag for the current host country and the American flag to represent the games returning to the United States, specifically Los Angeles in 2028.  

The Ferris wheel will be lit up from sunset until 12:30 a.m.

The Pacific Wheel is the world’s only solar-powered Ferris wheel, featuring 174,000 LED lights mounted on its 40 spokes and two hubs. The wheel’s lighting system features 16.7 million color value combinations to display dynamic, custom, computer-generated lighting entertainment, according to a news release.

Visitors can visit the theme park from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. to catch a ride on the nine-story carnival ride, which takes riders to heights of more than 130 feet over the Pacific Ocean.

If you can’t make it out to the Santa Monica Pier yourself, Pacific Park offers an online stream of the Ferris wheel.