For APB readers who can’t get enough of what-were-you thinking moves by suspects— such as those in last month’s Top Ten, “Arrest me, officer, I’m not the smartest crook” — here’s another one to add to the list.
A 19-year-old man in Florida was so piqued that police didn’t capture him for evading a traffic stop, he called in to 9-1-1 about an hour later to ask why. Yes, he had to brag about his crime … to the police.
Here’s how it went down, according to First Coast News, citing a St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office arrest report:
Subject: “I, like, ran from a cop 30 minutes to an hour ago. I was the guy … that … over there off of Kings Estates. Like, what do we pay you guys for? Like I’ve driven past four cops.”
Dispatcher: “What do you mean, you ran from a cop?”
Subject: “I mean he turned his lights on me and got behind me and as he was walking up to my car, I did a doughnut around him and left.”
Dispatcher: “OK, you want to now see the officer. Or, what’s your question?”
Subject: “My question is, I’m assuming he put an APB out that has someone looking for my car. So, like, he definitely got the plate number, but I’ve passed like four cops just driving around. Like, what are you guys doing?”
The kicker was that the officer who had attempted to pull the guy over hadn’t had a chance to get his license plate information before the car sped off — but deputies definitely had his number after the 9-1-1 call. They tracked the phone to someone named Nicholas Jones, wanted for a warrant in a separate matter. Jones was arrested the next day on charges of reckless driving, fleeing and eluding, misusing 9-1-1 and violation of probation.
Asked why he would call to gloat about evading police, Jones said, “That cop had no right to stop me. I saw him turn his lights and sirens on and was going to stop but I didn’t want to.” He added that he thought running from the cops would be “fun.”
When deputies told Jones that his 9-1-1 call, not his tag number, led to his arrest, he responded, “That’s funny. So I told on myself?” Then he added, “No cop can catch me in my Hyundai Elantra; that thing is fast.”
As seen in the July 2019 issue of American Police Beat magazine.
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