ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. – A St. Augustine man likely would have gotten away with ducking a traffic stop if he had not called 911 to boast about it, authorities said.
Nicholas Carlmann Jones, 19, was behind the wheel of a white Hyundai Elantra that was stopped May 4 on West King Street for a tail light infraction, according to the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office.
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But as a deputy approached the Hyundai, the vehicle did a burnout and sped away out of sight.
And that’s where this story might have ended had the driver not dialed 911 an hour later to deliver what was as much a confession as it was a humble brag.
"Like, what do we pay you guys for?" wondered the caller, who identified himself as the driver who ran from a deputy. "Like, I’ve driven past four cops."
After some spirited back and forth, the conversation ended. But not before investigators zeroed in on the caller’s phone number and traced it to Jones, according to his arrest report.
It turns out that Jones’ owns a white Hyundai whose tag number was one digit off the vehicle seen fleeing the traffic stop earlier that day. He also had a warrant out for his arrest.
Deputies tracked down the vehicle the next day, where they took Jones into custody and questioned him about the 911 call. A deputy noted that Jones was still amused.
"That cop had no right to stop me,” he told deputies. "I saw him turn his lights and sirens on and was going to stop, but I didn’t want to."
But the joke might have been on Jones. As a deputy explained to him, investigators didn’t have his correct tag – they only figured it out once he placed the 911 call.
"That's funny. So I told on myself?" he replied, later adding: "No cop can catch me in my Hyundai Elantra -- that thing is fast."
Jones was booked into the St. Johns County jail on charges of fleeing or attempting to elude police, misuse of 911 system and violating probation. Jail logs show he remains in custody without bond.