Big Pine man caught with stolen car

A Big Pine key man was arrested for possessing a stolen car after a deputy noticed him acting strangely at the Circle K store on Big Coppitt Key.

Deputy Lazaro Valdes was gassing up his patrol car at the gas pumps at 4:30 p.m. Friday when he saw a blue Oldsmobile Cutlass with an Ohio tag on it. A man was sitting behind the wheel. The man started to get out of the car, made eye contact with Deputy Valdes, hesitated and then got out walking into the store. Deputy Valdes waited until the man came out of the store and watched him. Instead of returning to the car, the man walked toward a bike rack and removed a red bicycle from the rack.

Deputy Valdes approached him and the man, identified as 48 year old Douglas Bondie, dropped the bike on the ground. Deputy Valdes asked him if it was his bike. Bondie said “what bike?”

The deputy asked Bondie to walk over to the blue Cutlass with him. Bondie told the deputy it wasn’t his car. When Deputy Valdes told Bondie he’d seen him behind the wheel, first Bondie began to argue with him and then he ran south on U.S. One.

Deputy Daryl Walraven was in the vicinity and heard Deputy Valdes call for help on the radio. Deputy Walraven spotted Bondie as he ran down Diamond Drive. Walraven followed him down the street until Bondie finally stopped and was taken into custody.

A check on the car’s license tag revealed it had been reported stolen from Lisbon, Florida on July 24th. Bondie was taken to jail, charged with grand theft and with resisting arrest.

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