A Florida man tried to evade police in unusual fashion, scribbling a message on a whiteboard that officers found hard to believe.
Officers with the Polk County Sheriff’s Office were looking for 41-year-old Johnny Yates at a home in Lakeland when they were greeted by a whiteboard message hanging outside the home that informed them that "Johnny Yates does NOT live here!"
"Gee…a dry-erase board never lied to us before—should we believe it?" the sheriff's office quipped in a Facebook post detailing the incident.
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However, deputies were apparently not fooled by the message, and their suspicions were soon confirmed by a person seen leaving the house who informed them that Yates was inside the house "with a few others."
Officers then surrounded the house and used a loudspeaker to demand Yates exit, though nobody in the house responding.
"Enough was enough," the Sheriff's Office said in the Facebook post, adding that deputies then deployed "Surrender Smoke" inside the home and caused four people to exit.
Yet Yates – who was wanted for aggravated battery, false imprisonment and second-degree tampering -- remained stubborn and was still nowhere to be seen, the sheriff's office said.
Deputies used a "second helping" of the smoke before fine releasing a K-9 to locate the suspect, according to the office.
According to the post, Yates was eventually found hiding in a modified chest of drawers and was arrested and transported to jail.
Meanwhile, the four other uncooperative occupants of the home received a "parting gift" of charges resisting and "an all-expense paid trip to Grady Judd’s Bed & Breakfast," the post said.
