While most people in Seattle are drifting off to sleep, Hellcat supercars roar around, the roar of their engines and explosive backfires from their exhaust pipes reverberating off the downtown skyscrapers.
Windows rattle, pets jump frantically, and even people used to the hustle and bustle of the city wake up in fear and rage.
City leaders and police have been inundated with complaints for months, and they have responded with warnings, citations, criminal charges and lawsuits, prompting renegade drivers to move their modified Dodge Charger SRT Hellcats from city streets to race tracks. But the “Belltown Hellcat” with its distinctive tiger-striped wrap continues to roll.
To the hundreds of thousands of people with Instagram accounts, the driver is a familiar face: @srt.miles, aka Miles Hudson, is a 20-year-old man who lives in an upscale apartment building in the Belltown neighborhood, where angry residents increasingly despise him and celebrate a life unconstrained by self-consciousness or regret. “The whole neighborhood is angry and sleep-deprived,” one resident wrote to a local council member. Many more follow his adventures on social media.
After posting a video (350,494 likes) showing his speedometer topping 100 mph while downtown to get bubble tea, Hudson's followers asked, “How does it feel to make your dreams come true?”, while another video (698,712 likes) showing the rumble of the Hellcat elicited responses like, “You make nights on the town so much more fun.”
In one introspective post, Hudson filmed a video (68,715 likes) of himself watching a TV news show discussing the city's concerns about his driving, then frantically running around his apartment pretending to be afraid he was being caught by police. One follower replied, “I love your content and if you get arrested I'll come get you.”
When Hudson was pulled over by a police officer one recent night, she pulled out her phone to show the officer her Instagram account and tried to explain that her job meant she couldn't change her late-night driving habits.
“No disrespect, but I think I'm doing what I want to do,” he told officers, according to body camera footage. “I made it a job, my car paid for itself, I have 650,000 followers.”
To some residents, the city's failure to stop Hudson's misdeeds was just another example of its failure to end the homelessness, street crime and occasional unrest that have plagued downtown since the pandemic. And it all raised puzzling questions about the motivations of modern life: What happens when fame and infamy are equally lucrative?
In recent decades, the Belltown neighborhood has transformed from a dingy, semi-industrial arts district to bike-friendly streets, trendy cafes, and The condo towers are so popular that one penthouse was the setting for the erotic novel series “Fifty Shades of Grey.” This month, one such luxury tower displayed a $1.7 million McLaren sports car on its roof to lure potential buyers. Other rooftops have decks with lounge chairs and fireplaces, with views of the Space Needle on one side and oceanfront sunsets on the other.
Hudson's Belltown apartment boasts panoramic views and is decorated with neon lights and anime art, and online posts show him playing video games and sipping iced pumpkin cream chai tea lattes.
He debuted the Hellcat on Instagram seven months ago, showing off the car's powerful engine and night-sky-like overhead lights, while also taking viewers on a casual trip to Starbucks.
But it didn't take long for another story to appear on social media: a tale of chaotic unfolding as Hudson drives around town, swearing under his breath. When he's not hurtling through the streets in his car, he's cooking in his apartment late at night.
In one video (669,768 likes), Hudson gets off the couch and hops on his hoverboard into the kitchen to try to cook a burger, but the pan quickly bursts into flames and Hudson races around on his hoverboard to try to put out the flames. In a later video, he has a fire extinguisher at hand as he tries to deep fry some Twinkies. There's no fire this time, but the Twinkies are burnt to a crisp. “I can't cook,” Hudson yells.
In another video (886,343 likes), his fridge appears to be empty except for condiments and a lunchbox.
He posted about his car modifications during Seattle's brutal winters, and in a video that has garnered nearly 700,000 likes, he can be seen starting up his car on the street at 2 a.m. “It sounds like a shotgun,” he said, asking his followers if it was too loud.
“It's never too loud, it's just not loud enough,” someone replied.
The noise was so loud to neighbors that city officials were inundated with complaints. One woman wrote that she suffers from PTSD and woke up in fear to the sound of a backfiring car that sounded like gunfire outside her building. “For the first time in 13 years I'm seriously considering moving out of downtown,” she wrote. Another woman wrote that a tiger-striped Hellcat had been racing up and down her street for two hours just after 6 a.m. “I wonder what we can do to make this end,” the man wrote.
Chris Allen, who lives in the city centre, said the backfire sounded like an explosion and rattled the windows of his 17th-floor home. He regularly uses a white noise machine to drown out the noise of motorbikes and emergency vehicles, but it was no match for the Hellcat, Mr Allen said, adding that he had asked Meta, which owns Instagram, to remove Hudson's account.
“He's clearly committed a crime,” he said. “He's documented it on Instagram. It's infuriating that Instagram won't take this down.”
But eventually the bureaucratic wheels began to turn. Officers stopped Hudson once in January and gave him a warning, then again in February and gave him another warning.
One night in early March, police stopped Hudson again in the early hours of the morning, this time accusing him of possessing a modified exhaust system that increased noise. He quickly paid a $155 fine.
And the complaints continued. A few weeks after the allegations, Hudson posted a video (76,700 likes) of him remotely starting a car from the balcony of his apartment. The car roars to life on the street below, exhaust fumes billowing from the tailpipe, before Hudson pans across the Seattle skyline.
“I'm the Arkham Knight,” he said, referring to the Batman villain. “Actually, I'm the Arkham Knight. My city actually hates me.”
To police, the Instagram videos, complete with narration, timestamps and even speedometer footage, provided a trail of criminals around the city.
In late March, the city charged Hudson with two counts of reckless driving, alleging he “knowingly or willfully operated a motor vehicle with disregard for the safety of persons or property.” During another traffic stop a few days later, an officer pulled out a decibel meter and recorded 84 decibels from the Hellcat, even while idling — the same noise as a diesel train.
Hudson would not speak to The New York Times without compensation, but told a Seattle Times reporter in March that the city needed to focus on other issues. “There are much bigger problems than black men driving fancy cars and making noise every now and then,” he said.
At that point, another city department stepped in. The Building and Building Inspection Department sent a notice saying, “After an investigation, violations of the Seattle Noise Code have been found.” Hudson was ordered to modify his vehicle and “not to operate a motor vehicle that produces noise in violation of the Seattle City Ordinance.” The notice came with a potential fine of $1,300 per day.
Hudson has become a role model for Seattle's newly elected city leaders, many of whom ran on a law-and-order platform. Belltown City Councilman Bob Kettle said something needed to be done about Seattle's “environment of tolerance.”
“It's shocking that someone can make money off of disrupting and influencing thousands of people every night,” he said in an interview.
Hudson fought back with a new tactic: In response to the city's driving ban, he posted a new video (516,003 likes) in which he climbed into the passenger seat of a Hellcat with a woman at the wheel, and the car again roared off.
Now the city is trying a new tactic: City lawyers filed a civil lawsuit this month, seeking a court order to force Hudson to modify the vehicle, as well as fines totaling tens of thousands of dollars.
The response came from another authority: Hudson's mother, Rebecca Hudson. In an email to city officials, she said the Hellcat was off the road and in a shop.
“This letter is to let you know and respond that I am taking action and that he no longer drives or owns the vehicle,” she wrote.
Hudson's Instagram account (which currently has 760,884 followers) had been quiet for several weeks, leading some to hope that the turmoil was nearing an end.
Then late last week, residents reported hearing the Hellcat again. Someone had taken video of the tabby-striped vehicle, and residents said the noise was just as loud.
Hudson posted the video on Instagram, writing, “Villain Edition.”