Routine stop turns bizarre, Local man steals patrol car
August 18, 1997

Local man steals patrol car and
flees everything but his handcuffs,
which gave him away - Mike Cazalas

No one ever accused the county jail of
being a gene bank for the county's best and
brightest behavior, and Mexico Beach Police Chief
Mitch Pollock's department made another deposit
Sunday.

John Bennett - accused of stealing a patrol 
vehicle after being arrested Sunday morning on
misdemeanor charges, leading police on a chase,
then diving from the moving vehicle and escaping
on foot - was back in custody Sunday afternoon,
confined to Bay County Jail.

The Panama City man was arrested after police
spotted him walking down a road in Port St. Joe, 
a pair of handcuffs dangling from one wrist.

"He was walking down Garrison Avenue with a
handcuff on his hand, so it was sort of easy to
identify him," Pollock said. "Anybody who steals
a patrol car is not real bright anyway."

Unfortunately for Bennett, 31, Mexico Beach
several years ago decided to buy utility vehicles 
so its police officers could do beach patrols.

That decision led to an opportunity for Bennett,
under arrest for minor traffic violations, to steal 
a patrol vehicle while handcuffed Sunday morning
and lead police on a short but lively chase.

"He was looking at a couple of misdemeanors and
now he's looking at three felony charges," Pollock
said of Bennett.

Bennett is charged with grand theft-auto, escape
and aggravated assault on a police officer in
addition to the original traffic charges.

Pollock said the design of the department's Ford
Explorers prohibits the installation of a cage, or
protective shield between the front and back seats.

"The officer couldn't have done anything different,"
Pollock said. "Several years ago the Mexico
Beach City Council chose to go to utility
vehicles because we care about the safety of 
our citizens and we need to be able to respond 
to incidents on the beach.

"And by going to these utility vehicles, we gave
up a certain amount of security for safety because
the way the vehicles are designed a cage is almost
out of the question," he continued. "Despite what
happened this morning, I would still go with safety
over security to protect our citizens."

What happened was that Officer Nick
Vanstrandet stopped Bennett around 2:45 a.m.
Sunday because he noticed the tag appeared to 
have been altered. A Florida Crime Information
Computer check showed Bennetts license was
suspended and he was placed under arrest.

Pollock said Bennett, his hands cuffed behind his
back, was placed into the back of VanStrander's
Ford Explorer. Then a tow truck arrived to remove
Bennett's vehicle.

"When the officer got out to talk to the tow truck
driver, Bennett, still handcuffed, made his way to
the front seat and drove off in my officer's patrol
vehicle," Pollock said. "He almost hit my officer,
who tried to stop him and he tried to run over him
as he pulled out. And as he pulled out onto the road
another vehicle almost slammed into (Bennett)."

Pollock said his guess was that Bennett somehow
managed to slip his handcuffed hands underneath
his legs to get access to the steering wheel.

"My officer commandeered the vehicle that was
almost hit and he followed the patrol car into Gulf
County," Pollock said. "I'm sure the suspect was
hearing the pursuit ... so he made a left turn out
onto a road in Gulf County and while the vehicle
was still driving he dove out of the patrol car 
and fled on foot. The patrol car ran into a (wire
supporting a telephone pole) and came to a stop 
and he fled on foot."

The chase lasted about 1.5 miles.

Despite help from the Gulf County Sheriff's
Office, Bay County Sheriff's Office and tracking
dogs, the suspect could not be found, although
police do believe they tracked him back to the
beach before losing his trail. Poliock said that
before Bennett escaped, he had told the officer he
was on his way to Port St. Joe.

Although Bennett was captured with no harm to
anyone, Pollack said he is trying to find a way to
make his patrol vehicles more secure without giving
up the ability to patrol the beaches.

"I may have to put some type of restraining
device in there that will make the prisoner more
secure on top of what we already have in place," he
said. "We're going to be looking at upgrading safety
measures in regards to securing our patrol cars a
little better."


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