2 arrested following illegal car meet-up in Somerton; other suspects sought

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- Surveillance video captured dozens of vehicles fleeing from a car meet-up that was disrupted by police on Sunday night in the Somerton section of Philadelphia.

The whole thing started to unfold at the end of the cul-de-sac on Sandmeyer Lane right around 11 p.m.

Mark Bachmann, who owns Yellowstone Landscaping, showed Action News the skidmarks outside his business. It's not the first time that this happened.

"The last year, year and a half, there's been issues with cars coming here and to our circle right in front of our business and doing donuts and drag racing up and down the street," said Bachmann.

Investigators were able to get a decent jump on Sunday night's meet-up thanks to the proactive efforts of officers keeping an eye on social media.

Investigators say some of the people involved in the stunt show were live-streaming it on TikTok.

Several citations were issued and two arrests were made as the search continues for others involved, including the people in one vehicle that fled to New Jersey.

"We used our aviation unit to track that vehicle. It was going at a tremendously high rate of speed," said Philadelphia Police Inspector D.F. Pace.

This is all part of the police department's effort to crack down on those so-called car meet-ups, which really came to a head back in September when hundreds of cars, in several locations across the city, performed dangerous stunts resulting in thousands of dollars in damage and several arrests.

Bachmann says he's optimistic that the road outside his business will soon go back to being a quiet street.

"We run a business," he says. "People coming in and out, our trucks coming in and out. It's a dangerous situation. I have clients come in and it's embarrassing when you have a client sitting across from the desk and there's somebody in front of your place doing burnouts."

Investigators are now looking through surveillance video from city cameras and sorting through license tag numbers they were able to record in an effort to hand out more citations.

In the meantime, anyone with information about this case is asked to contact police.