Two County Sheriff’s Departments Combine Efforts To Nab Car Thief

Today, the DeSoto County Sheriff’s Office received a call from the Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office in reference to a stolen vehicle and trailer that was coming towards DeSoto. Unbeknownst to the driver of the stolen vehicle, we had an advantage in that it was being monitored by the Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office Aviation Unit.

DeSoto County Deputy Dumser located the stolen vehicle and attempted a traffic stop, however, the vehicle decided to flee from our deputy. A short time later we received a call that the stolen vehicle crashed into a fence off of SW Dishong Avenue and the driver fled on foot into a large wooded area. What the driver of the stolen vehicle didn’t know is that several DeSoto County Deputies including Corporal Bierman, K9 Lucy and Charlotte County Deputy Wedgwood with his partner K9 Bonzai were headed their way. Even more bad news for the driver of the stolen vehicle, the Sheriff’s Office Investigative Division along with Detective Friend and K9 Kita were also headed to assist. A little bit, well maybe more than a little bit of rain did not stop our deputies and K9’s. They were able to stay hot on the trail of the driver. Ultimately, the driver of the vehicle was pushed out of the woods by K9 Deputies towards a house, where again he had some bad luck and ran right into several DeSoto County Deputies where he was safely taken into custody.

The driver was identified as Jose Gutierrez. Jose now faces numerous charges in DeSoto and Charlotte County!