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After officers in cruisers and a helicopter fail, a strip of spikes finally stops the man driving a stolen Cadillac.
By WILL VAN SANT
© St. Petersburg Times, published November 1, 2002
SPRING HILL -- Robert Scott Manley tried getting away from Hernando County sheriff's deputies and a patrol helicopter, authorities say.
He just didn't go fast enough.
Manley drove a stolen Cadillac slowly through a tangle of roads off California Street for about a half hour Thursday, according to sheriff's spokesman Lt. Joe Paez.
Manley ran over a strip of spikes deputies placed at the corner of California and Forzando streets, bursting the right-side tires on the green Cadillac, Paez said. The Cadillac rolled through several fences and some woods, then got caught in sand before wedging between two trees.
Manley was taken into custody without trouble and charged with aggravated fleeing and eluding, reckless driving, driving without a license, grand theft auto and criminal mischief.
Manley, a 37-year-old Spring Hill resident, told officers that his license had recently expired and that he refused to stop for police because he did not want to get in any trouble, said Lt. Joe Paez of the Hernando County Sheriff's Office.
"The guy was just trying to evade us but at low speed," Paez said. "I guess he thought that if he could outlast us he could get away with it."
A detective saw Manley driving the stolen 1996 Cadillac DeVille at 10:09 a.m. Tuesday and called in marked vehicles, who followed the suspect around Oakhurst Drive, Drew Street, Forzando Avenue and California Street at speeds up to 45 mph, Paez said.
"He was just driving around streets turning this way and that," he said. "He just would not pull over."
Finally, the patrol cars backed off and let the helicopter handle the pursuit while the spike strip was placed, a method that had failed several times earlier in the chase, Paez said. But in the end, the spike strip prevailed.
Manley was being held on $15,000 bail on Thursday.