A grainy winter-night recording out of St. Cloud, Minnesota, is ricocheting across social media this week, and for many viewers, it feels less like a routine law enforcement encounter and more like something ripped straight from a dystopian thriller.
The short video, first shared on Reddit, shows a family pulling their vehicle to an abrupt stop on a residential street. The car is left running, doors flung open, as the family sprints for their front door in the dark, clearly aware that ICE agents are nearby. Moments later, ICE vehicles are seen patrolling the area, slowly circling the block as the family disappears inside their home.
Then comes the moment that ignited outrage online: ICE agents appear to get into the abandoned vehicle and drive away in it.
For many watching, that final detail turned a disturbing scene into something far more alarming.
“Did ICE just commit grand theft auto on video?” one Reddit commenter asked, a line that quickly became the thread’s most upvoted reaction.
The video itself is brief but its impact has been anything but. Viewers describe the frantic driving, the winter conditions, and the panicked dash to safety as deeply unsettling. One commenter darkly joked that, for a moment, they thought the chase would end with “being taken out by Black Ice whilst evading ICE.”
Others weren’t joking at all. Accusations of reckless behavior, intimidation, and outright theft dominate the discussion. Multiple commenters claim that this wouldn’t even be an isolated incident, alleging past cases where ICE agents or contractors took vehicles belonging to people they apprehended.
“This isn’t a vehicle confiscation,” one user wrote bluntly. “They straight up stole the car.”
A significant portion of the thread pushes back against the idea that the family should have simply complied. Several commenters argue that ICE is fundamentally different from local law enforcement, pointing to detention conditions, lack of due process, and the civil nature of many immigration violations.
“To all the people saying that they should not run. Why not?” one highly upvoted comment reads. “We know that ICE detention centers are hell holes… So might as well run.”
Another commenter summarized the sentiment even more starkly: “Running from the cops is moronic. Running from ICE isn’t.”
Whether or not one agrees with that framing, the video has clearly struck a nerve, tapping into broader anxieties about immigration enforcement, civil liberties, and the expanding reach of federal agencies.
As of now, there has been no official confirmation explaining why the vehicle was taken, whether it was logged as seized property, or if it will be returned. That silence has only fueled speculation and anger.
“Now report the car stolen!” one commenter urged, while another simply called the scene “literally a police state.”
In the end, what lingers isn’t just the unanswered questions, but the imagery itself: a family running through the cold Minnesota night, abandoning everything in a desperate bid to stay together, while the very people pursuing them allegedly drive off in their only means of transportation.
