Car 383, where are you? Patrol car and prisoner missing,FL.

Posted: Sun Aug 06, 2006 12:43 pm

Car 383, where are you? Patrol car and prisoner missing

The car belongs to an unnamed Volusia deputy sheriff, officials say.

Gary Taylor | Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted August 6, 2006

In what could have been a scene from the 1960s television series Car 54, Where Are You?, law-enforcement officers were searching high and low Saturday night for a missing Volusia County sheriff's patrol car.

Cops across Central Florida had one question: "Car 383, where are you?"

Don't blame this one on Gunther Toody and Francis Muldoon, the misfit cops who made Car 54 famous. In this case, an unnamed Volusia deputy sheriff stepped away from his patrol car in a Daytona Beach parking lot and someone got behind the wheel and drove away.

Not only did they get the officer's car, but also the prisoner sitting in the back seat.

Authorities said the deputy, who normally works at the Daytona Beach International Airport, was flagged down about 8:30 p.m. near International Speedway Boulevard and Williamson Boulevard in Daytona Beach, where an argument was taking place in a Burger King parking lot.

One of the men involved in the disturbance, Walter J. Nutt, 29, of Lakeland, was handcuffed and placed in the back of the patrol car after the deputy learned he was wanted on warrants for possession of a firearm by a convicted felon in Pinellas County and violation of probation in Polk County.

When the deputy stepped away for a moment, someone got into the 2003 Chevrolet Impala patrol car and drove away.

Nutt has a criminal record dating back to 1995 that includes an assortment of burglary, grand theft and stolen-property charges. He was released from prison in June 2004.

Gary Taylor can be reached at gtaylor@orlandosentinel.com or 407-324-7293.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/volusia/orl-copcar0606aug06,0,742962.story?track=rss

Posted: Sun Aug 06, 2006 12:58 pm

Stolen sheriff's car recovered, suspect still missing

The Associated Press
August 06. 2006 11:33AM

A marked sheriff's cruiser allegedly stolen by a man who'd been handcuffed in the back seat was recovered early Sunday, but the suspect remains at large, officials said.

Volusia County sheriff's deputies and a helicopter crew were unable to find the car in an exhaustive search Saturday night. It was spotted by Ormond Beach patrol officers behind a furniture store about 12 miles from where it was originally taken.

The incident began after an unnamed deputy was flagged down during a parking lot fight Saturday night, sheriff's spokesman Brandon Haught said.

After breaking up the argument the deputy learned one of the men involved, Walter J. Nutt, 29, of Lakeland, had two open warrants for possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and violation of probation for retail theft.

The deputy handcuffed Nutt and placed him in the back of the patrol car. He then stepped away, with the car door open and keys in the ignition, to check on the serial number of a nearby vehicle.

Deputies initially believed someone else hopped in the car and drove off, but now think Nutt, who is extremely thin, was able to kick out the mesh screen and wiggle into the driver's seat.

He likely unhooked the handcuffs using a key on the ring left in the car's ignition, Haught said.

http://gainesville.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060806/APN/608060601