Keys cops say he took his mom’s car on a wild chase. He said she was trying to poison him
A West Palm Beach man is being held in Monroe County jail on a bond of more than $200,000 after deputies say he led them on a wild chase through the Florida Keys, crashing into two other vehicles and almost hitting several others.
The 20-mile chase didn’t end until a deputy laid down a strip of spikes at the southern end of the Channel 5 Bridge at mile marker 71 to pop the tires of Pablo Ortega’s Chevrolet Tahoe SUV.
And, even then, the Tahoe still traveled another two miles on two inflated tires and two rims before one of the remaining tires blew out and Ortega lost control of the vehicle, crashing it into a northbound Ford F150 pickup truck.
A judge set bond for Ortega, 25, at $220,000, and he’s jailed on Stock Island.
The chase began at mile marker 88 when a motorist flagged down a deputy to tell him that a Tahoe just crashed into his Chevy Silverado pickup truck and kept going, according to Deputy Nestor Argote’s report.
Argote turned his lights and siren on and went after the Tahoe, but it kept going. The sheriff’s office policy is not to speed after fleeing vehicles, so Argote turned off his lights and followed behind Ortega, radioing ahead to his colleagues.
Meanwhile, deputies say Ortega dangerously drove the Tahoe south down U.S. 1, passing in no-passing zones and almost colliding head-on with several other cars traveling in his opposite direction.
After Ortega crashed into the Silverado at mile marker 68, a deputy ordered him out of the car and cuffed him. The occupants of the F150 were not seriously injured, said Adam Linhardt, sheriff’s office spokesman.
According to Argote’s report, Ortega “spontaneously uttered” to the arresting deputy that “he didn’t stop because he stole the car from his mom and she was trying to poison him.”
The chase happened as the last of the remaining tourists were leaving the Keys Sunday to comply with a county order shutting down all hotels and other lodgings as a way to help stop the spread of the novel coronavirus.
