FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – The grandmother of a 17-year-old accused of stealing a car and then crashing into a Fort Lauderdale apartment building Monday spoke to Local 10 News a day following the incident.
Authorities said the suspect, identified Tuesday as Jeremy Belser, was inside a BMW that had been stolen in Hollywood when an officer spotted the vehicle around 7 p.m. Monday.
According to his arrest report, the officer followed the stolen car before it suddenly accelerated into the parking lot of an apartment complex along Northeast Fifth Avenue and 13th Street.
Police said Belser then jumped out of the car, fled into a nearby backyard and then began jumping fences.
The teen apparently forgot or just didn’t care to put the car in park before he made a run for it.
Ring camera footage captured the BMW as it then careened into an apartment building.
Local 10 News caught up with Belser’s grandmother, who says she’s raised him since the sixth grade. She said he goes to a high school in Hollywood and wasn’t aware of him getting into serious trouble like this before.
“All you can do is pray for your children. I pray for mine,” she said. “I try to keep up with Jeremy, but I can’t always. He’s 17. At my age I have other grandbabies to raise also, I have great-grans in my household, so I’m doing the best that I can do.”
Police have not said from where exactly the BMW was stolen, or from whom.
Belser faces charges of grand theft of a vehicle, resisting an officer, operating a motor vehicle without a valid license and leaving the scene of a crash. He does not have a valid license, according to official records.
Belser is scheduled to appear in Broward County court Wednesday morning.