HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. (WFLA) — A man running from Florida deputies decided to make his own version of snow angels while hiding out in a dirt pit on Christmas Eve.
On Dec. 24, the suspect crashed his car at an intersection in Tampa around 7 p.m., and quickly ran from deputies before they could get his information, the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office wrote on Facebook.
The sheriff’s office said the driver, identified as 34-year-old Eliezer Armando Reyes Rios, then decided to run away from the crash and into a nearby construction site.
The department’s Aviation Unit ultimately spotted the suspect laying in a dirt pit, where he was observed “perhaps feeling the holiday spirit, making ‘Dirt Angels’ and making calls on his phone,” according to the sheriff’s office.
Moments later, the suspect hopped over a construction site fence, where he was apprehended.
“He sprang to the fence, up and over, only to find, not eight tiny reindeer, but 3 deputies and one dutiful K-9,” the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office wrote.
Reyes Rios was arrested and now faces several charges, including leaving the scene of an accident, driving with a canceled, suspended, or revoked license, and trespassing on a construction site.