Gentlemen (and Florida woman), START YOUR ENGINES.
Though this story doesn’t take place in the Sunshine State, it still has plenty of Florida tie ins. The most important of those being the Florida woman herself.
The Stafford County Sheriff’s Office in Virginia reported that a Florida woman driving in their state was first pulled over for making an illegal u-turn. That woman, 34-year-old Johanna Contreras, was already in trouble, but she managed to dig herself an even deeper hole.
When she was pulled over by Deputy X.D. Bates, the officer discovered that Contreras was driving without a license. Obviously, doing so is against the law, so the Stafford Deputy returned to his patrol car to write summonses.
Once he got back to the Florida woman’s car (a Toyota Rav4), Bates informed Contreras that the vehicle would need to be towed. She didn’t like the sound of that, and reportedly put her car in drive and slammed down on the gas.
Deputy Bates explained the incident hilariously to 8News, saying:
“She obviously disagreed with the towing option as she sped from the traffic stop like the start of the Daytona 500, and initiated a pursuit.”
The Florida woman must have been booking it for her acceleration to be compared to the Daytona 500. But that speed didn’t last for long.
Deputy Bates pursued the woman and pulled her back over shortly after she had made it to the interstate. Contreras was then arrested and taken into custody (and based on reports, was cursing and yelling all the way to jail) on the original charges of her illegal u-turn and driving without a license.
On top of that, she was also hit with charges of eluding arrest and obstruction. And if “driving like she’s in the Daytona 500” was a chargeable offense, Contreras probably would have been hit with that one too…
