Graduates’ Stolen Cash Found During Crash Investigation

LAND O’ LAKES, FL — An 18-year-old Land O’ Lakes man faces multiple criminal charges after Pasco County Sheriff’s deputies say a hit-and-run crash investigation led to discovery of stolen cash meant for two recent graduates.

According to the sheriff’s office, the series of events that led to Nazhe Joseph Bradley’s Saturday arrest began to unfold just after 5 p.m. Friday, May 26. Two deputies were responding to an unrelated battery call when they spotted a blue Toyota Camry “driving recklessly past stopped traffic,” an arrest report said. The driver reportedly failed to maintain lanes, crossed several solid lines and drove into a closed median area all while being followed closely by a white colored sedan, the report added.

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The deputies who witnessed the poor driving behaviors happened to be in a “large white colored SUV with the word ‘Sheriff’ clearly marked on the exterior” at the time, the arrest report noted. When the deputies tried to pull the vehicles over, the driver of the white sedan, a Lexus, stopped. The Camry’s driver, however, kept on going eastbound on State Road 54 near Curley Road before making “an illegal U-turn,” the report said. That driver then took off westbound on State Road 54.

When deputies spoke with the driver of the Lexus, they learned the Camry had slammed into the back of the motorist’s vehicle and then took off. The Lexus’ driver, an email from the sheriff’s office said, was chasing the Camry at the time.

“The occupants of the Lexus were uninjured and had taken a grainy photograph of the Camry’s tag (in) which only a few characters could actually be read,” the sheriff’s office email said. The Florida Highway Patrol responded to the hit-and-run call, but could not develop a suspect at the time, the email noted.

At that point, the two deputies continued on their way to the original battery call. They would soon encounter the Camry’s driver again, however. The very next day, the two deputies were researching prolific offenders when they came across a photograph of Bradley. One of the deputies recognized him as the possible driver of the Camry involved in Friday’s hit-and-run.

As it turned out, another deputy planned to make a prolific offender check at Bradley’s mother’s house in Land O’ Lakes on Saturday. When that check was made, the deputy found the blue Camry wanted in the hit-and-run parked in front of the home. A simple check of that grainy photo showed “its tag number contained the same characters,” the email said.

Written consent was given to deputies to search the Camry. Inside the car, deputies “discovered seven graduation cards addressed to a Dylan and Tyler O’Donnell,” the email from the sheriff’s office said.

As it turned out, those cards had been stolen from a graduation party held in Wesley Chapel on Friday. When deputies reached out to the potential victims, they learned Bradley had been at the party during which the cards and an estimated $815 had been stolen.

Deputies recovered about $676 in cash that was found hidden in the backyard of Bradley’s mother’s home, the email noted.

Nazhe Bradley now faces grand theft, fleeing to elude a law enforcement officer and leaving the scene of an accident charges. Bradley was booked into the Land O’ Lakes Jail on May 27. He remained their Tuesday in lieu of $7,500 bond.

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Booking photo courtesy of the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office