DeLAND, Fla. – A Florida man who drank a bottle of wine that he was unable to pay for at a Winn-Dixie then fled the store, ran a red light and caused a hit-and-run crash all with an 11-year-old girl in tow, according to the DeLand Police Department.
Police said they were called to the grocer on New York Avenue on Sunday in reference to 51-year-old John Roe drinking a bottle of wine in the store and leaving without paying after the multiple gift cards he presented were all declined.
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He left the store in a black Hyundai but not before an employee took a picture of his license plate and watched as he ran a red light on Spring Garden Avenue, T-boned a Spectrum truck and sideswiped a blue Hyundai, records show.
Police said the victim in the Hyundai suffered a seizure as a result of the crash while the Spectrum truck driver was not injured.
Roe kept driving after causing the crash until officers located him and the vehicle at a CVS on Woodland Boulevard, according to authorities.
The suspect denied driving the vehicle and instead pointed the blame at an unknown man named “John,” but a woman and an 11-year-old girl who were in the black Hyundai let officers know that Roe was indeed behind the wheel, the report said.
Officers said the woman told them that she went with Roe and the 11-year-old girl to Winn-Dixie in order to shoplift, so she put some apple sauce and chips in her purse but then got scared and threw the items away in a trash can in the store’s bathroom.
She told Roe what happened and he insisted that they leave the store, records show.
According to authorities, that’s when Roe began driving erratically and caused the crash.
The child said Roe’s driving made her scared for her life and she was shaking in the back seat with her hands over her eyes while they were on the road, the affidavit said.
After the interviews, police said they searched the black Hyundai and found a syringe, two glass pipes with crack-cocaine residue inside, 0.01 grams of cocaine in a folded up piece of paper and a makeup bag containing more syringes.
Roe was arrested on charges of driving on a suspended license and committing an act that could harm a child.
Winn-Dixie trespassed Roe and the woman but opted not to file charges.