A stolen forklift led Gulf Breeze Police on a “slow speed pursuit” across the Three Mile Bridge into Pensacola on the 4th of July.
WEAR News received the bodycam video on Friday.
Homeless man Joseph Turner, 39, is charged with burglary, grand theft and resisting arrest.
Gulf Breeze Police Chief Rick Hawthorne says this kind of incident is a first for his department.
“This one reached the top of the chart,” he said.
Chief Hawthorne says officers were patrolling and quickly noticed the vehicle wasn’t near any construction project.
Dashcam video shows the moments officers caught up with the forklift — and a slow pursuit ended at the foot of the bridge near Wayside Park.
The suspect is believed to have stolen the forklift from a work site on Pensacola Beach.
Chief Hawthorne says it wasn’t reported stolen until after an arrest was made. No one alerted police of the forklift driving down the bridge.
“I think it’s the first time we’ve chased a forklift off the Pensacola Bay Bridge,” Chief Hawthorne said. “I don’t know if you really want to call it a chase, but we got him stopped on the north end of the bridge.”
“I believe he made the statement to one of the officers that he was trying to get to a friend’s house in Pensacola and it was a long walk,” he added.
Turner is in Escambia County Jail on $51,500 bond.
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Source: weartv
