TALLAHASSEE, FL (WTXL) - Driving a stolen car, a teenager fled from a deputy's cruiser but later failed to fool a pickup driver that a cell phone was a gun.
Zantarvis O. Lamb, 19, of Tallahassee was seen driving a Ford Fusion by a Leon County Sheriff's Office deputy, according to a probable cause affidavit. Lamb was traveling westbound on Mahan Drive and Magnolia Drive.
The deputy wrote that when he tried to maneuver his patrol car behind Lamb on Wednesday to make a felony stop, that Lamb began "operating the vehicle recklessly."
So the deputy stopped pursuing him.
But he soon saw Lamb again at the corner of Franklin Street and Mahan Drive. When Lamb spotted him, the deputy said, Lamb again "began to drive erratically," and again the deputy stopped pursuing him.
Lamb eventually crashed the car at the intersection of Franklin Court and Beverly Court. A witness told the deputy that he had ran away from the scene.
Authorities found Lamb in the rear of 553 East Tennessee St., where a victim wrote in a sworn statement that Lamb had tried to carjack him.
"As I was getting into my truck that was parked out back, I immediately heard the rear door slam closed, when I saw a black male enter and sit in the rear passenger seat," the man wrote.
"He exclaimed to me 'I have a gun' then grabbed my shoulder," the victim wrote.
The victim said when he noticed that Lamb had a cell phone instead of a gun, he told Lamb to get out of his vehicle, and Lamb left.
Lamb walked toward Tennessee Street where he was taken into custody. He waived his rights and started talking, saying that he didn't know the car was stolen and that he had rented the car for $50 from an unknown man.
He said he did not get in the man's truck and "was just laying under. After some time went by ... 'I just tried his door handle.'"
He was charged with grand theft auto, fleeing and attempting to elude, and carjacking.
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