A Lady Lake man who called his wife to rescue him during a traffic stop ended up behind bars after he hopped into the driver’s seat of her car and drove away right in front of the police.
The bizarre sequence of events began at about 7:30 a.m. Wednesday, when a Fruitland Park police officer received an alert regarding a black four-door Chevrolet traveling southbound on U.S. Hwy. 27/441. The system indicated that the registered owner had a suspended driver’s license and an active “seize tag” order.
The officer initiated a traffic stop near East Catawba Street and identified the driver as 57-year-old Ernest Lewis Gehrke.
According to the arrest affidavit, the officer informed Gehrke that his license had been suspended since March over financial issues, and that the license plate on his Chevy was being seized. Gehrke was instructed to call someone to pick him up and arrange a tow for the now-tagless vehicle.
The officer returned to his patrol car to write out a simple civil traffic citation for driving while license suspended without knowledge.
A short time later, Gehrke’s wife arrived at the scene in a white four-door Chevrolet to serve as his ride home. However, while the wife approached the patrol vehicle to explain the situation to the officer, Gehrke made a baffling decision.
The officer watched as Gehrke bypassed the passenger side, climbed directly into the driver’s seat of his wife’s white Chevy, and drove off.
“I explained to the wife that he cannot drive because his license is suspended,” the officer noted in the report.
A Lake County sheriff’s deputy who was assisting with the traffic stop immediately took off after the fleeing husband. Gehrke was pulled over for a second time just down the road near the intersection of State Road 25 and Forest Street.
Because the officer had just explicitly told him his license was suspended, the civil ticket was tossed out. Gehrke was instead arrested on a criminal charge of driving while license suspended with knowledge.
His original license plate was seized to be turned over to the Lake County Tax Collector’s Office, and the white Chevy was handed back over to his wife at the scene. Gehrke was transported to the Lake County Jail, where he was booked. He was released after posting $500 bond.