WINTER HAVEN -- Two suspects from Tampa, one only 14 years old, are facing charges after Polk deputies pulled over stolen pickup trucks early Wednesday morning.
24-year-old Tamari Lucas got pulled over in a 2022 Dodge Ram around 1:00 a.m. Wednesday at a convenience store on U.S. 27 at Ronald Reagan Parkway. Much of Reagan Parkway sits just a few hundred feet from the Polk-Osceola county line, and Lucas apparently thought he had made it over the boundary. Deputies say Lucas told them, he wouldn't be in jail long, because he was in Osceola. When deputies told Lucas he was still in Polk County, they say he told them: "Oh my God, not Grady Judd! Are you (expletive) serious, this really sucks, because you guys don't play in Polk County."
The sheriff says Lucas has an "extensive" criminal history and that he was working with 14-year-old Jeremiah Hamm to commit several burglaries in the Tampa area and in Pasco County. Detectives in those two jurisdictions think they can tie them to more than 60 break-ins. A passenger in the pickup ran off and hasn't been found.
Deputies and Lake Alfred Police arrested Hamm on I-4 near mile marker 49 at about the same time as the Lucas arrest. They say he was driving a 2000 Nissan pickup. Deputies also say Hamm told them that because of the arrest, he was likely to miss a court date on another grand theft charge. Hamm's criminal record began with an arrest for armed robbery with a firearm. Charges were not filed, which Judd blamed on "that (former) state attorney," an apparent reference to Andrew Warren, ousted by Governor Ron DeSantis.
Judd says the two will be held accountable. ""These two thieves are running rampant. They obviously don't take our criminal justice system seriously. Why is this 14 year old out at 1:00 in the morning stealing cars and committing burglaries? Where are the adults in his life?"
Photo: Polk County Sheriff's Office