NEAR FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (WSVN) – Authorities arrested a woman after, they said, she stole a marked Broward Sheriff’s Office cruiser from BSO headquarters near Fort Lauderdale, then drove it out of South Florida and headed north.
According to the Broward Sheriff’s Office, the car theft took place around 9 p.m., Tuesday. The vehicle was located hours later in Port St. Lucie, nearly 100 miles away.
Body camera footage captured the moment deputies put the brakes on the cruiser crime.
“Get down on the ground!” yelled a deputy with his gun pointed at the suspect.
“Down! Down!” said another deputy with his gun pointed at the suspect.
The suspect, identified as 42-year-old Shannon Dillon, is facing nine charges in St. Lucie County, including grand theft, impersonating law enforcement, drug paraphernalia possession and possession of a weapon or ammunition by a convicted felon. She was also arrested back in January for trespassing and obstructing an officer in Coral Springs.
Photos released by the St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office show Dillon in the back of a deputy cruiser. But it wasn’t the one, BSO said, she stole out of Broward County hours before her arrest.
BSO deputies said they learned about the theft of the cruiser from the Public Safety Building on West Broward Boulevard at around 9 p.m.. An on-duty deputy reported his marked vehicle missing, prompting an all-out multi-agency search for the cruiser and the driver behind the wheel.
Detectives figured out the car was in Port St. Lucie through investigative efforts, as well as assistance from the Florida Highway Patrol, Port St. Lucie Police and the St. Lucie Sheriff’s Office. They located the car abandoned along the northbound lanes of Interstate 95 and Gatlin Road at around 10 p.m.
Body camera footage shows Dillon on the ground wearing a BSO bulletproof vest. After deputies surrounded her with their weapons drawn, she was taken into custody.
“The subject was a female, white female, wearing a hat and a pretty Yagya jacket. She had a bunch of stuff on her,” said a first responder in radio transmissions.
Dillon’s bond is set at $52,500 at the St. Lucie County Jail, but she will also face charges in Broward. It remains unclear how she managed to drive off with the vehicle and make it as far as she did.
The Broward Sheriff’s Office Internal Affairs Unit is investigating to see if any agency policies were violated.
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