Florida homeowner confronts armed intruders, chases them off the road as they tried to escape: BCSO
Courtesy: Bay County Sheriff's Office
WEST BAY, Fla. - Three suspected armed intruders were arrested this week after deputies say they crashed a vehicle while being chased by a homeowner who caught them stealing a large amount of cash from his residence.
The backstory:
According to the Bay County Sheriff’s Office, on February 10, the victim reported that two masked suspects entered his home and stole a large amount of cash.
He went on to say that he confronted the suspects and chased them outside.
The suspects then got into an SUV and took off.
The victim told deputies he followed the suspects and chased their vehicle off Random Rd. and eastbound on Highway 388.
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During the chase, the victim said he struck the suspects’ vehicle multiple times to try to get it to stop.
After the final impact, deputies said the suspect’s vehicle swerved and crashed into a ditch, and the suspect ran into the woods.
Investigators said they found a large amount of cash inside the vehicle and on the ground near the driver’s door.
Courtesy: Bay County Sheriff's Office
They added that the cash seemed to be consistent with the victim’s report of money taken during the home invasion.
Dig deeper:
The victim told deputies that one of the suspects, 22-year-old Sarra Swartz, called him and said she got his phone number from a mutual friend and wanted to go to his house.
The victim said she could come over and she was there for about 15-30 minutes.
He added that while Swartz was in his house, he displayed a large amount of cash while giving money to his girlfriend and believed she may have seen it.
After Swartz left, the victim told deputies that he fell asleep and was woken up by his girlfriend screaming that people were trying to steal his money.
The victim reportedly saw two masked men inside his home.
He described one as a tall, larger white male and the other as a shorter black male armed with a baseball bat.
The victim’s girlfriend reported seeing a gun on one of the suspects.
Deputies detained 37-year-old James Crowe in the woods. They said post-Miranda he gave details about two additional suspects and the events leading up to and following the robbery.
Investigators later found Swartz walking along the roadway west of the crash site.
A short while later, deputies found suspect Devarius Stewart seated in the passenger seat of a vehicle stopped in the area. Initially, deputies said Stewart refused to get out of the vehicle, but was eventually detained and taken to the Bay County Sheriff’s Office.
Swartz, Crowe and Stewart were arrested and charged with home invasion robbery with a deadly weapon.
The investigation is still ongoing.
The Source: This article was written with information posted by the Bay County Sheriff’s Office.