Two police officers in Bellingham, WA, narrowly missed being injured over the weekend when a man threw a 25-pound piece of railroad tie into the windshield of their patrol vehicle. Police say when he threw the chunk of wood, he did not know that his intended target was a police car.

“Imagine driving along in the early morning hours and suddenly your windshield explodes in front of you and glass sprays everywhere. That is what two of our officers faced early Saturday morning,” states the Bellingham Police Department in a social media post. “We are so grateful our officers were not seriously injured during the reckless and dangerous actions of the suspect.”

The officers were patrolling around 4:30 a.m. Saturday when they saw a man hunched over just past a blind corner. As the car passed, the man hurled the piece of wood into an arc directly aimed at their windshield.

The officers called for assistance, turned on the emergency lights while fishing through the glass shards, and turned the car around. They contacted the suspect, who stopped for them, but then refused all other commands.  When other officers arrived, he still would not cooperate. They devised a plan to approach and physically take him into custody safely. He was arrested and booked into jail without incident.

Police report “The officers spent a considerable amount of time getting glass shards out of every pocket and crevasse of their uniforms, off their skin, and out of their hair and mouths.”

According to police, the same man has been contacted by police 26 times this year and arrested 15 times, including the arrest related to this incident. He also had eight warrants for his arrest.