A Florida man has found himself behind bars after playing hide and seek with deputies in the Suwannee River over the weekend.
On Saturday, July 2, 2022, deputies responded to a residence in the 30000 block of 73rd Place in Branford, Florida, because Jesse Dean Lamb, 50 years old, from Gainesville, FL, was at the house and refusing to leave.
While the Deputies were on the way, they were informed by the Suwannee County Communications Center that Jesse had an active arrest warrant from Suwannee County for failing to appear in court for driving while his license was suspended in 2021.
When Deputy Merola arrived at the house, he saw Jesse running from the rear of the house towards the Suwannee River, only wearing a pair of shorts. Deputy Merola gave chase until Jesse jumped in the river and began swimming away towards a floating dock and then hid under it.
Deputy Zimmermann soon joined Deputy Merola, and the pair ordered Jesse to come out, which he did, only to swim away again. Jesse told the Deputies that he was surrendering, but we already know Jesse is not a man of his word since he promised to show up in court in 2021 and didn’t.
As Jesse was swimming away, he lost his shorts and was now skinny dipping in the river until he came to a large u-shaped dock and hid underneath it.
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“Well, for the next couple of hours, we played hide and seek with Jesse; he popped up once but quickly disappeared back under the dock before the Deputies could grab him, ” said SCSO.
“A neighbor stuck his underwater camera below the dock, and Deputies could confirm that Jesse was still under there; we guess he must have liked it under there and refused to come out,” said SCSO.
Eventually, Jesse decided to make a break for it and began swimming across the river to the other side, but Deputy Zimmermann, with the assistance of the dock owner, chased after Jesse in the dock owner’s boat, and they captured Jesse on the other riverbank.
Jesse was transported to the Suwannee County Jail, where he was charged with, Resisting arrest without violence and Failure to Appear (DWLS) – Suwannee County warrant.
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