Police Chase Ends Thanks to 'Very Loud Snoring'

Running from the cops after being caught in a stolen vehicle is tiring work.

At least that seems to have been the case in Santa Rosa County Sunday when a 37-year-old Pensacola man found himself behind bars after taking a snooze in the middle of a hot pursuit.

The incident unfolded late in the evening when a Santa Rosa deputy was on patrol on Avalon Boulevard in Milton. The deputy noticed a Chevrolet pickup truck ahead that had a broken light, the agency wrote on its Facebook page.

Wanting to alert the motorist to the safety violation, the deputy flicked on his emergency lights to conduct a stop. At that point, the Chevy’s driver turned around, came to an abrupt stop and bailed from the truck, running on foot through a residential neighborhood, the sheriff’s office stated.

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Not daunted, the deputy called in some backup courtesy of the agency’s K-9 unit. Officers began searching for the man who had bailed from the truck, which as it turns out, had been stolen from Escambia County.

It didn’t take too long for deputies to find their suspect.

“Deputies heard a noise which was described as ‘very loud snoring’ coming from under a trailer,” the sheriff’s office wrote. Upon further investigation, deputies located their man, who was sound asleep under the trailer.

“The suspect was disrupted from his nap and taken into custody,” the sheriff’s office noted.

Kevin Lee Barbour was booked into the Santa Rosa County Jail on charges, including vehicle theft and resisting an officer. He was released Wednesday in lieu of $11,500 bond, according to jail records.

Barbour isn’t the only sleepy suspect from Florida to make headlines as of late. Last year, Sarasota County Sheriff’s deputies caught a burglar sleeping on the job with a bag of stolen jewelry beside him.

Photo credit: Kevin Lee Barbour/Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office

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