Every so often a police report reads less like a crime blotter and more like the setup to a joke, and this one out of Lee County, Florida, checks that box. A man accused of snatching a chain right off someone’s neck decided his best shot at freedom was a tricycle. It did not work out for him.
Deputies were called to the Orange River Boulevard area after a robbery had just gone down. According to the Lee County Sheriff’s Office, the suspect, identified as Paul Sloan, ran up to the victim, ripped a chain from their neck, and shoved them to the ground before taking off.
Here’s where the story earns its headline. Sloan’s chosen escape vehicle was not a car, a motorcycle, or even a bicycle with a bit of speed to it. It was a tricycle. He pedaled off the scene and ditched it in a nearby wooded area, apparently hoping the trees would do what the trike couldn’t.
They didn’t. Deputies canvassed the area and found Sloan standing right next to the tricycle he’d used to make his less-than-swift getaway.
The Investigation Moved Fast
Because of how the robbery occurred, Lee County’s Violent Crimes Unit took over from there. Detectives determined that Sloan matched the description of the suspect, and investigators said they developed enough evidence to establish probable cause.
Sloan was arrested and charged with Robbery by Sudden Snatching, a felony in Florida that covers exactly this kind of grab-and-run theft.
Why a Tricycle, of All Things
We don’t know the full story behind the tricycle choice. Maybe it was the only thing available nearby. Maybe Sloan figured a low profile beats a loud engine. Whatever the logic, a tricycle tops out at a pace most people can jog alongside, which made the “canvass the area” part of this investigation a pretty short exercise for deputies.
It’s the kind of detail that turns a routine robbery report into something the whole department, and now the internet, is talking about.
Our Take
We spend a lot of time here covering high-speed pursuits, stolen supercars, and key fob hackers pulling off jobs that require real planning. This one is the opposite end of the spectrum, and honestly, that’s what makes it worth a laugh rather than a headache.
Nobody was seriously hurt, the suspect was caught within what sounds like minutes, and the whole thing reads like a reminder that a good getaway plan usually involves more horsepower than a tricycle can offer.
Credit to the deputies for a quick response, and to whoever writes the Lee County Sheriff’s Office Facebook captions for having a sense of humor about it too.