Man Offered Cops a Vodka Spritzer During High-Speed Chase

Even the most seasoned officer couldn’t guess the events of a recent high-speed chase in Florida. With a minivan, no less.

The Highlands County Sheriff’s Office couldn’t help but marvel over their latest encounter in a Facebook post.

“Strange things happen all the time when you’re in law enforcement,” they wrote. “This one, however, might make the books.”

“We would be very interested to hear from anyone else who has been offered a vodka spritzer by their suspect in the middle of a vehicle pursuit. Or that the same suspect calmly tried to walk away from a crash, puffing on a cigarette, despite being surrounded by deputies,” the post read. “Or (yes, it keeps going) that the same suspect asked why he was being arrested and commented to the deputies, ‘You guys had fun, though, right?’”

The wild series of events began in the afternoon of April 19. At that time, Florida’s Spring Lake Market reported that a man had stolen items before walking out of the store.

Before deputies arrived, they learned that Richard Christopher Smith, 39, was driving circles around the store in a black minivan. When cops pulled up, Smith sped off, launching a pursuit.

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High-speed chase started with a vodka spritzer and ended with a taser

Amid the pursuit, Smith held a vodka spritzer out the window as he drove by a deputy. Instead of stopping for the officer, Smith told him, “I was just going to give you a drink, that’s it.”

“We don’t know if he was expecting us to just say ‘Cheers!’ and let him go, or what,” the Facebook post read.

After that perplexing statement, Smith attempted to ram two patrol vehicles, even as his tires were flattened by spike strips.

The high-speed chase eventually ended several miles later in the parking lot of a business. While there, Smith opted to take a post-crash smoke break. Officers responded by tasing him.

As deputies attended to him shortly thereafter, Smith smiled and asked them, “You guys had fun, though, right?”

After the incident, Smith was charged with two counts of aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer, battery on a law enforcement officer, two counts of resisting arrest, DUI, refusal to submit to a DUI test, and petit theft. His bond was set at $120,000.