Chase nabs 5 burglary suspects

The pursuit starts in Polk County and ends in a yard in Seffner.

By JESSICA VANDER VELDE, Times Staff Writer
Published January 17, 2008

Polk County Deputy Russ Hilson and his partner Moose corner the final burglary suspect after a three-hour, 25-mile chase.
	[Skip O'Rourke | Times]

ADVERTISEMENT [Skip O'Rourke | Times] Willie Smith, above, and Matt Tankersley, below, spotted the final suspect for authorities.

SEFFNER - Four burglary suspects were in custody and - after about three hours of searching for the fifth - the helicopters had been called off. Officers began to pack their cars.

That's when Matt Tankersley and Willie Smith saw a kid dart through the trees.

"He's over there," Tankersley, 21, hollered to police. "He's running through the back yards."

Smith, 23, ran after the youth and caught up with him as he hid in a neighbor's boat on Black Dairy Road.

The boy looked scared. Smith told him, "You should give up, man. You're already caught."

The boy asked, "Where I go?"

Not my house, Smith said.

Officers and their dogs ran toward them. The youth took off, sprinting across lawns and hurdling chain-link fences.

He didn't get far before Moose, a police dog with the Polk County Sheriff's Office, and his handler, Deputy Russ Hilson, caught up to him, ending a chase that started that morning.

At 10:46 a.m., a Lakeland woman saw some men carry a flat-screen TV from her neighbor's house. She called the police and described a maroon 2003 Ford F-250.

A Polk County deputy drove past the truck, which police say was stolen Wednesday morning in Lakeland. He tried to pull the men over. They didn't stop.

He followed them for about 25 miles, until they swerved their truck off Interstate 4 near Lazydays RV dealership and ran, Polk County sheriff's spokeswoman Donna Wood said.

Jason Morgan, 29, a 6-foot-5 man who works at Camping World, tackled one of the men, Wood said.

The five men were held in Hillsborough County on charges of auto theft, burglary, grand theft, fleeing police and resisting arrest, Wood said.

The Polk County Sheriff's Office identified them as Donald C. Steadman, 19, Deontray D. Clark, 19, Patrick O. Rivers, 15, Termaine A. Newton, 16, and Quinton T. Thompson, 18, all of Tampa.

Investigators think the men are connected to at least five break-ins in the Lakeland area in recent months, Wood said.

Times staff photographer Skip O'Rouke contributed to this report. Jessica Vander Velde can be reached at jvandervelde@sptimes.com or 813 661-2443.

[Last modified January 17, 2008, 01:12:55]