Florida authorities said three teenagers – one 14-year-old and two 16-year-olds – stole a sport utility vehicle, sped away from officers and died in a fiery, violent crash early Sunday morning.
The 4:30 a.m. crash happened in Pinellas County.
A fourth teen in the SUV, who is 14, survived and is hospitalized.
All the teens all had criminal histories – including one who had gotten out of jail on July 31.
Reports indicate that a Ford Explorer and a Chrysler Sebring were stolen from a Clearwater car dealership Thursday. Both vehicles were spotted by deputies early Sunday morning. Deputies tried to apprehend the drivers of the cars, but didn’t pursue them. The sheriff’s office’s pursuit policy generally does not allow deputies to chase stolen cars.
Deputies believed the teens were using the stolen cars to commit burglaries. At one point, they set up a perimeter to try to catch the teens, but a deputy spotted the vehicles outside of the perimeter.
According to reports, the cars were in a “cat and mouse” game with each other, accelerating and slowing down, hitting speeds of 100 mph or more.
The deputy that spotted them did not initiate a high-speed chase, but the Explorer continued at about 100 mph when it hit another vehicle, caught fire and went airborne. The Explorer also hit a billboard pole.
The driver hit by the Explorer suffered minor injuries, reports indicate.
Officers found the Chrysler Sebring and arrested the two in that car; one is 16 and the other 18.
The teens involved were being monitored under a program for repeat offenders.
In 2015, police in Pinellas made 499 felony arrests for juvenile auto theft, more than any other county in Florida going back eight years, and more than the most populous counties in America, including Los Angeles. The Tampa Bay Times did an investigation into teen car thefts in April of 2017; the paper found that every four days, a teen crashes a stolen car in Pinellas County. It also found that in nearly every other county in Florida, most people arrested for auto theft are adults. But in Pinellas County, 62 percent are younger than 18 – the largest rate of juveniles arrested for grand theft auto of any sizable Florida county for at least a decade.
Auto theft is a serious charge in the state of Florida. If your child has been arrested for this crime, they could be facing either a third degree felony or even second degree felony depending on the value of the car. Theft of any vehicle is considered grand theft and at the very minimum a third-degree felony. Grand theft is the theft of property valued at $300 or more. The consequences of stealing a vehicle are escalated if the vehicle had a firearm in it, if the value of the vehicle was over $20,000, or if property damage or bodily injury occurred in the theft.
Juveniles that form a habit of breaking into and stealing cars usually get into a pattern of committing more and more crimes, racking up numerous criminal charges. The court does take this into account and will do everything in their power to punish young offenders. Our Florida Juvenile Defense Lawyers at Whittel & Melton realize that severe punishment is not always in a juvenile’s best interest. A child placed in an adult detention facility could have devastating long-term effects, which is what we can try to avoid. Call us today at 727-823-0000 or contact us online for a free consultation to learn more about how we can help your child achieve the most positive outcome.