Release by Polk County Sheriff’s Office

Austin Westgate….come on down! You’re the next arrestee to be PCSO’s #CriminalOfTheDay!

25-year-old Austin did a thing this past weekend. A few bad things actually.

It all began when Lake Alfred PD officers notified the PCSO that Austin had just fled from them on a residential burglary. Austin ran off into a wooded area and deputies swooped in to assist (bringing with them K9 units, Drone units, and Aviation).

As everyone was RSVPing to Austin’s capture party, an LAPD officer reported that Austin was seen hopping into a gold-colored pickup truck.

A deputy spotted the Ford Ranger and attempted a traffic stop on it in the Lynchburg area. The truck stopped momentarily to let a woman out of the truck, and it sped off again.

Austin’s fleeing shenanigans continued into the Inwood area—he sideswiped a vehicle (fortunately, nobody was hurt) and took out two mailboxes.

Officers from Auburndale PD had placed stop-sticks out on the road, but Austin swerved to miss them. What he didn’t miss was a steel support cable that suddenly stopped the forward momentum of the truck. The rear of the truck went up, and the patrol car behind the truck wedged in nicely under the truck (the deputy was uninjured).

Austin’s getaway truck was finished, but Austin was not. He got out and ran as a K9 team pursued.

Suddenly, it struck Austin. Not that he was making things worse by fleeing from the popo. What struck him was two prongs from another deputy’s Taser that stopped him like….well, like a pickup truck that ran into steel cables. Austin was immediately handcuffed and his one-man mayhem show was done.

Prior to all of this, Austin had an outstanding Polk County warrant for….drumroll please…Fleeing to Elude Law Enforcement. He was served with that warrant, then he was charged with all of his new charges such as: Fleeing to Elude (The Sequel), Trafficking Methamphetamine (because he had about 24 grams of meth), Possession of Meth and Paraphernalia (see last parenthetical explanation), Resisting without Violence, and Leaving the Scene of a Crash with Property Damage (3 Counts). And then Lake Alf Popo dropped these charges on Austin too: Armed Burglary (because he originally had a gun on him), Possession of a Firearm by a Convicted Felon (because of the aforementioned gun), Possession of Ammunition by a Convicted Felon (because of the pew-pews in the gun), and Possession of a Firearm with Altered Serial Number.