WINTER HAVEN, Fla. — A local man’s attempt to ghost the law ended in handcuffs Tuesday morning after a simple case of mistaken identity—on his part.
It all started around May 12, when the Polk County Sheriff’s Office got a call about a “suspicious person” hanging around behind the 7-Eleven on Dundee Road. Deputies were already swarming the neighborhood, though they weren’t originally looking for a loiterer; they were actually hunting for suspects who had just bolted from a nearby hit-and-run crash.
A deputy eventually spotted a man near a church who fit the description of the suspicious person from the convenience store. When the officer approached and asked for his name, the man claimed he was “David.”
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The name didn’t stick. Deputies quickly identified the individual as 46-year-old Robert St. John of Winter Haven. When asked why he’d tried to use an alias, St. John reportedly offered a blunt explanation: “I have warrants.”
He wasn’t kidding. A records check showed St. John had an active warrant out of Hardee County for pretrial detention involving charges of trespassing on an agricultural chemical manufacturing facility, grand theft, and felony criminal mischief. He was also wanted on a Polk County warrant for failure to appear in court.
St. John was arrested on the outstanding warrants and transported to the Sheriff’s Processing Center. On top of his existing legal troubles, he now faces an additional charge of giving a false identification to a law enforcement officer.
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