Stolen Car Chase Ends in Crash, Man’s Arrest

BRADENTON, FL — An 18-year-old man faces a number of criminal charges after Manatee County deputies say they caught him behind the wheel of a stolen vehicle Monday night.

According to the agency, one of its deputies spotted a vehicle around 8:15 p.m. that was confirmed stolen and attempted to stop it. When the driver didn’t stop, the deputy activated his lights and began a pursuit.

The sheriff’s office said that pursuit continued into Sarasota County where the driver struck a curb at Old Bradenton Road and caused the vehicle’s front bumper to fall off. The man bailed out of the vehicle, but it kept going, striking the front bumper of a sheriff’s office cruiser.

A second deputy was able to “run down the vehicle, jump in and get it stopped,” an email from the agency said. At that point other deputies arrived on the scene. The driver was brought into custody after one of the deputies deployed a taser, the email said.

Benjamin A. Ford now faces grand theft auto, resisting arrest, fleeing to elude, leaving the scene of a crash with property damage and no valid driver’s license charges, the sheriff’s office said.

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