Suspect Almost Evades Police, Gets Busted After Stopping to Pet Kittens
Police in Florida say a suspect might have gotten away last week, if it weren't for those meddling cats.
It all began when Daniel Pinedo Velapatino allegedly stole $6,000 from a friend after they stayed up all night taking drugs together in a Boca Raton hotel room. But the young criminal really caught the attention of local law enforcement when he crashed his Lexus into a cop car.
A chase ensued and he eventually fled on foot.
According to WPBF, Velapatino almost got away when he lost his pursuers by ducking through a Boca resident's sliding door.
"I said, 'Excuse me, can I help you?'" Noonan said. "He said, 'Oh, I'm so sorry. Next door, I'm mowing the lawn. Do you mind if I have a glass of water?'"
Thinking the man was a landscaper, Noonan obliged and went to get the man a bottle of water.
But then Velapatino got sidetracked. According to WPBF, the woman came back to find him "lying on the living room floor, playing with her cats."
"It was odd, very odd," Noonan told the news station. "He was stroking my cat. It almost looked like he either was on drugs or he was mentally handicapped."
She and her husband grew suspicious and called police, prompting Velapatino to flee out the back door, where police resumed the chase.
In a final attempt to escape, he apparently jumped in a canal, where he was captured by a police boat.
Police told WPBF his crime spree was motivated by the fact that he owed his mother $2,000.
He's been charged with burglary to an occupied dwelling, possession of Xanax, Morphine, and Oxycodone, and multiple counts of grand theft.
