Glen Baity
Staff Writer
Tuesday, September 27, 2005
A man driving a stolen ambulance led police on a chase across three North Carolina counties Sunday afternoon, passing briefly into Virginia before police were able to stop him in Caswell County.
Police say Leon Perry Hollimon Jr., 37, stole the ambulance from Davidson County Ambulance Service, 937 N. Main St. in Lexington, sometime before 7 a.m. Sunday.
The vehicle was spotted in Danville early Sunday afternoon, but due to
a no-chase policy observed by Danville police, Hollimon was not pursued. Authorities picked up on the vehicle again when Rockingham County sheriff's deputies saw Hollimon driving the ambulance in Ruffin. According to RCSO Public Information Officer Dean Venable, police attempted to stop the vehicle several times using spike strips as the deputies pursued the ambulance down Mayfield and Goose Pond roads. Those attempts were unsuccessful until the pursuit crossed into Caswell County. Two N.C. Highway Patrol cruisers were damaged in the pursuit, but no one was harmed.
After forcing the vehicle to the side of the road, deputies pulled Hollimon out of the cab when he refused to come out voluntarily.
"He told us he was trying to get out of the state because the judge told him to," Venable said, though he was unable to comment on the significance of this statement. Officers noticed that Hollimon had made an attempt to disguise himself, wearing a stethoscope around his neck, a pager on his waist, and carrying two latex gloves in his back pocket. According to Venable, the disguise was less than convincing.
"I don't think anyone would have mistaken him for a doctor," Venable said.
Hollimon's appearance, however, was less strange than the presence of another passenger in rear of the ambulance: a dead deer, fully stretched out, strapped to a gurney inside.
Officers were unsure of how Hollimon came into possession of the deer, but according to Venable "it was apparent that he had picked it up off the side of the road." Venable added that the deer had obviously been dead for several days.
Lt. Scott Nanney of the Lexington Police Department said Hollimon matches the description of a man arrested in Lexington Saturday for public intoxication. That man told LPD officers his name was John Lowder. Nanney was unable to confirm that the two men are one in the same.
Following the arrest in Caswell County, the ambulance was towed to Hopper's Wrecker service in Eden.
"It's about the most bizarre thing I've ever seen," said owner Ray Hopper. "I don't know how he even drove it with the smell in there."
Hopper said the ambulance was returned to Davidson County on Monday morning.
Holliman was sent to Annie Penn Hospital in Reidsville for psychiatric evaluation, and was later committed to John Umstead Hospital in Butner for further tests. According to Sgt. B.T. Clayton of the Highway Patrol, doctors there will determine if Hollimon is fit to stand trial.
After verifying Hollimon's identity through fingerprint records, law enforcement agencies became aware that he has extensive prior arrests. Though many of them occurred in Jacksonville, Fla., including convictions for possession of marijuana, larceny, loitering and prowling, and possession of a firearm by a felon, Clayton said he has arrests as far away as New Jersey. Officers are currently unsure of the man's state of residence, as well as how he came to be in Lexington. However, due to the concentration of arrests around Jacksonville, Clayton said they believe he lives in that area.
Heard on the radio this morning, that this guy had hooked up an IV to the deer. Plus it looked like he used one of those defibrillator devices to shock back to life.
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