Looks like Steve with that beard...

SALISBURY - Using a high-pitched voice, television host Dr. Phil warned 21-year-old Rowan County resident Richard Blanscet that an alien invasion had begun near his home off Scout Road.

Anxious to save the life of his girlfriend, Blanscet left his home in his father's 1997 Jaguar XK8 and went to "rescue" her.

At least that's the story Blanscet told investigators after he crashed the Jaguar several times, while fleeing from deputies at speeds greater than 100 miles an hour.

Blanscet told deputies he had been smoking a "legal form of marijuana" called "Wicked X Herbal Smoke" when he had the dire warning from Dr. Phil.

The deputy's account is somewhat different.

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According to the Sheriff's report, deputies were called to 170 Sailboat Drive just after 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday to help EMS deal with a combative patient.  EMS had reported that Blanscet had nearly struck them with a car near the intersection of Scout Road and Bringle Ferry Road.

A deputy responding to the intersection saw Blanscet drive his Jag through the cemetery at St. Matthews Lutheran Church, then drive through the church parking lot, just minutes after the mid-week service had ended.

The deputy then began to follow Blanscet, and reported that Blanscet pushed his Jaguar to more than 100 miles an hour, then crashed trying to make a sharp left onto Poole Road.  After a brief slowdown, Blanscet again drove back to Bringle Ferry Road and headed towards Salisbury with the deputy in pursuit.

At one point, the deputy noted that Blanscet drove through the parking lot of the grocery store near Earnhardt Road, then crashed again "rendering his vehicle inoperable."

It was then that Blanscet began to tell the deputy his story of Dr. Phil, the alien invasion, and legal marijuana.

Blanscet talked to WBTV's David Whisenant on Thursday morning and said the 'alien invasion' felt very real to him.

 “When this was happening I was not high, the noises from the TV were hurting my brain in a way that made me want to vomit," Blanscet said, "That got rid of any sort of high I could have had because it was so painful.”

He says the aliens were coming through his electronics in his home.  After he slammed down two phones, pulled the smoke detector off the wall and turned off the televison, he left the home.  He stepped outside and believed he saw and heard a helicopter - which he believed to be aliens coming after him.

When he saw the blue lights from the deputy's cruiser during the chase, he says he also believed that to be the 'aliens.'

"I wasn't high," he told WBTV on Thursday. "This was reality to me."

He says he doesn't believe that the herbs should be illegal, he just wishes he hadn't bought 'the cheap stuff' and believes he got a bad batch.

Blanscet was taken to the hospital for a blood test, then to the Magistrate's Office where he was charged with felony fleeing to elude arrest, driving while impaired, and resisting an officer.

Blanscet was released from jail after posting $2,500 bond.

The crashed '97 Jaguar XK8 coupe now sits in a junkyard

Crime