Florida Man Stole Truck Full Of Caskets, Led Highway Patrol On Chase

The Florida Highway Patrol arrested a man Monday for allegedly stealing a box truck full of caskets inside.

Sgt. Dylan Bryan with the Florida Highway Patrol told Fox News that his department received a call from the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office alerting them to be on the lookout for a Ryder truck that was reported stolen from a Jacksonville casket company. After locating the truck, patrol units tried to stop it, but the driver took off, leading the troopers on a 25-mile chase on Interstate 295, an auxiliary route of Interstate 95 and a beltway around central Jacksonville.

The suspect, who was later identified as David Ayers, 39, never went above the speed limit during the chase, driving around 55-60 mph the entire time. “He was not driving in an erratic manner,” Bryan said.

When the truck finally got off the interstate and stopped at a red light on Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway, the pursuit ended. After arresting Ayers without any incident, the troopers searched the truck and found three caskets inside as well as burglary tools, Bryan said.

“At first I was shocked to see the caskets because obviously when you think caskets, you think of someone’s loved one,” Bryan said. Since the troopers were unsure whether the caskets were carrying bodies, they “wanted to be respectful with those items” and “didn’t know what to expect,” Bryan added.

There was a funeral home a few blocks from the place where the truck was intercepted. Bryan said he walked down to the facility to obtain a funeral key or a tool to unlock and open the funeral caskets. He returned to the scene and the troopers opened the caskets to find them empty.

A payment collection machine belonging to a car wash was also found inside the vehicle. Authorities believed the suspect “ripped out car wash vacuum machines out of the car wash to get the money out.”

“There could be anywhere from 20 bucks to several hundred bucks in quarters in those machines, depending on how often the owner will empty out those coins,” Bryan added.

Ayers was charged with auto theft, fleeing and eluding an officer, and driving while license suspended or revoked. The suspect also had two outstanding warrants, although the police did not provide details of his criminal history.

Sheila Doyle, a resident of the area where the incident took place, told Action News Jax that arrests on the intersection were a common sight.

“It’s not crazy because this neighborhood is known for the crime rate that it has,” she said. “What’s crazy is what’s in the box truck. It’s just nuts. How are you going to go to jail for stealing a casket? What’s wrong with you? Utterly nonsense, especially when it comes to stealing some caskets, I mean, come on. The community needs to come together more and claim our streets back and stop a lot of this. If we would all band together it would stop a lot or this nonsense.”