LAKELAND, Fla. (WFLA) — A Florida man tried to evade deputies through unconventional means before they ultimately arrested him on a charge of aggravated battery, the Polk County Sheriff’s Office said.
The sheriff’s office said at about 2:45 p.m. Saturday, deputies went looking for Johnny Yates, 41, at a home in Lakeland, only to be greeted by a whiteboard with the message “Johnny Yates does NOT live here!”
Seems legit, right? Well, the deputies didn’t think so.
“Gee…a dry-erase board never lied to us before—should we believe it?” the sheriff’s office later joked in a news release.
Deputies saw a person leaving the home, who told them that Johnny was inside with several other people, according to the release.
The deputies used a loudspeaker to command Yates to leave the home, but after about an hour, they used smoke to get the occupants out. The sheriff’s office said the “surrender smoke” forced several people outside, but not Yates.
After still getting no response, deputies used a K9 to search the home. The sheriff’s office said the dog sniffed out Yates, who was hiding “in a modified chest of drawers.”
Deputies said Yates and four other people who did not cooperate were arrested in the incident.
“One of the worst things about being a cop is you always have to be open to the possibility that people are going to lie to you,” the sheriff’s office said in the release. “No matter how sweet and innocent they seem.”
