BAYOU GEORGE -- Deputies arrested an Altha man after a lengthy pursuit through rural Bay County Friday afternoon, according to the Bay County Sheriff’s Office.
Joseph D. Spence, 36, was booked into the Bay County Jail Friday after leading deputies on a chase that involved collisions with patrol cars and ended in a crash on Deep Springs Road.
Officers with the Lynn Haven Police Department had issued a BOLO (be on the lookout) for a small red pickup truck pulling a trailer that was reported stolen. A deputy spotted a vehicle matching the description in Southport on State 77 and got behind it before the truck sped off.
Deputies chased the truck to County 388, and other deputies deployed spike strips near Blue Springs Road in an attempt to disable the vehicle, but the truck went around the device through the ditch and the chase continued northbound on Blue Springs Road to State 20.
Three deputies pursued the truck over dirt roads near State 20. The truck and a patrol car sideswiped each other at one point.
The trailer detached from the truck and overturned on Deep Springs Road. Shortly after that a deputy successfully performed a maneuver designed to end chases by causing the suspect vehicle to wreck and Spence was arrested.
No deputies were injured during the chase, and Spence was cleared by medics after the crash. He was arrested and charged with fleeing and attempting to elude police and felony habitual driving with license suspended.
Spence has been incarcerated several times over the past decade for similar charges.