FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – A bailout ended with a 17-year-old in handcuffs in Fort Lauderdale on Monday.
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.
A perimeter was established and the suspect was taken into custody after being spotted by the Broward Sheriff’s Office’s Aviation Unit.
Resident Mark Hill heard the commotion and ran outside of his apartment.
“I looked out and there were cops everywhere, and then I walked out a little farther and there she is, that beautiful car right there,” Hill said of the stolen BMW.
The car was later towed away from the scene with minimal damage.
Hill, along with other neighbors, was glad nobody was hurt during the chaotic incident.
“Even the dog over there could have gotten killed, anybody could have, if we were standing there or whatever. Luckily nobody was,” he said.
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.