Man stole street sweeper, ended up tackled in ‘mud-filled ditch,’ Florida cops say

A man suspected of stealing a pickup truck used as a street sweeper led cops on a three-hour chase before sheriff’s deputies tackled him in a “mud-filled ditch,” according to a Florida sheriff’s department report.

Deputies were alerted on the morning of June 13 of an armed carjacking of the street sweeper in Daytona Beach, according to a post on the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office Facebook page.

At around 4:15 a.m., deputies saw the vehicle and then saw a man get out and start to run away on foot. He fled with what deputies thought was a firearm in his hand, the statement says.

The sheriff’s department searched for him with K9 teams, and another department responded with an air unit.

At around 7:30 a.m. a deputy saw the man and tackled him to the ground, “landing in a mud-filled ditch,” the statement says.

The deputy sustained minor injuries during the arrest.

The suspect initially gave a false name to police and told them he was 17 years old, the sheriff’s department said.

The sheriff’s office shared photos of the arrest on their Facebook page showing the suspect covered head to toe in mud.

He faces charges in Flagler County of two counts of resisting an officer without violence, providing a false name to law enforcement, violation of probation and felony trespass on a construction site, according to the sheriff’s office.

Flagler County is about 290 miles north of Miami.

The Daytona Beach Police Department is investigating the suspected carjacking.

The suspect, who is currently on probation for a juvenile grand theft charge, has a criminal history dating back to 2014 including 18 misdemeanor offenses and 18 felonies, such as burglary of an unoccupied structure, grand theft of a motor vehicle, grand theft of a firearm and aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer.