A Flagler County man with a well-documented allergy to courtrooms and an apparent belief that HVAC units offer viable asylum has been arrested again, this time folded inside an air handler behind the ductwork of a residence deputies came to search.
James Myers, 33, of DeLand, was the subject of a fugitive warrant when the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office Fugitive Unit arrived for what they cheerfully described as a “house call.” It was not his first rodeo with this particular sheriff’s office, and it showed.
Myers had earned that warrant the old-fashioned way: by not showing up to court to answer for a previous set of charges that included grand theft, fleeing and eluding, driving while license suspended, excessive speeding, and resisting.
Those charges were themselves souvenirs from a March encounter with the FCSO that ended badly for Myers and memorably well for K-9 Uno, the department’s four-legged overachiever who extracted Myers from a crawl space beneath a house with the kind of enthusiasm that tends to leave a mark. Myers came out of that one with a dog bite and a one-way trip to AdventHealth Palm Coast. Uno, presumably, came out of it with a treat.
Armed with an armored truck, a drone, and the aforementioned K-9 unit, the Fugitive Team descended on the property. From a tactical standpoint, Myers was not working with great odds. From a hiding standpoint, he made an interesting choice: wedging himself into the air conditioning air handler, tucked behind the ductwork in a position that one imagines was neither comfortable nor sustainable. Detectives, unimpressed, located him anyway. He was removed from the unit with rather less ceremony than he had hoped for.
Also arrested was Joann Rosario, 36, who had apparently opted for a more conventional concealment strategy by hiding Myers in a closet before deputies arrived. The classic wardrobe maneuver, beloved by seven-year-olds in games of hide-and-seek, did not translate well to a law enforcement context. Rosario was charged with obstruction of justice and later released on her own recognizance, while Myers was booked into the Sheriff Perry Hall Inmate Detention Facility on no bond.
A Recap of Round One: 92 MPH, a Stolen Truck, and a Dog Named Uno
The original incident unfolded around 2 a.m. on March 2, when Flagler County deputies tracked a stolen vehicle to Mahogany Boulevard in Bunnell. A deputy spotted the truck blowing through stop signs on a dirt road at 92 mph, more than triple the posted 30 mph speed limit.
When the deputy activated lights and sirens, Myers did what he apparently always does: accelerated. The chase took a turn when Myers drove the truck through a residential yard and, while attempting to get back onto the pavement, crashed into a ditch. Myers and a female passenger then fled the wreck on foot into the darkness.
Deputy Towns and K-9 Uno tracked Myers to a crawl space beneath a house, where Uno convinced him to come out in the way that only a trained police dog can. Myers exited with Uno still attached to his arm, was treated at a local hospital, and was booked on charges including grand theft of a motor vehicle, fleeing and eluding, habitual driving with a suspended license, dangerous excessive speeding, and reckless driving.
Sheriff Rick Staly put it plainly: “Myers thought he could hide, but you can’t fool Uno who is trained to take a bite out of crime even if you crawl under a house.”
A Criminal History That Speaks for Itself
Myers did not arrive at this moment without a track record. His Florida criminal history includes repeated arrests and court cases involving theft-related offenses, drug charges, driving while license suspended, fleeing and eluding law enforcement, resisting an officer without violence, and multiple probation violations.
On March 1, just one day before the high-speed chase, the Bunnell Police Department had filed aggravated assault charges against Myers, stemming from an incident in which he allegedly pointed a firearm at a woman because she declined to participate in a robbery. That is a fairly full calendar for 48 hours.
For drivers who take road safety seriously, the speeding element alone warrants attention. Running 92 mph through a residential area in a 30 mph zone is not just a traffic violation; it is the kind of speed differential that eliminates reaction time almost entirely. Residential streets are not engineered or monitored for that level of velocity, and the outcome of that particular chase, a crash into a ditch, was a far better result than many alternatives.
The HVAC Gambit: A Strategy Review
Credit where it is due: hiding inside an air conditioning unit is not the first option most people would consider, and it does demonstrate a certain creative desperation. The problem, as Myers discovered, is that law enforcement personnel conducting a structured search of a property are not going to overlook the air handler.
Drones, dogs, and deputies familiar with every square foot of a residential structure tend to find what they are looking for. The ductwork hid him from casual observers; it did not hide him from a Fugitive Unit that arrived specifically to collect him.
The air conditioner gambit joins a long and undistinguished list of residential hiding spots that seemed better in theory than in practice. Attics, crawl spaces, closets, and now air handlers have all appeared in Flagler County arrest reports, and none of them have produced a different outcome. The FCSO, for their part, noted that they remain undefeated in hide-and-seek, which is a record they appear committed to protecting.
What Comes Next
Myers is currently held at the Sheriff Perry Hall Inmate Detention Facility with no bond, now facing the warrant charges on top of everything he had already accumulated from March. Rosario, who chose to assist a fugitive rather than answer the door in a more conventional manner, picked up an obstruction of justice charge for her trouble before being released.
Whether Myers will appear in court this time around, rather than necessitating another house call from the Fugitive Unit, remains to be seen. Based on available evidence, cautious optimism seems appropriate.