High-Speed Car Chase Ends In Wesley Chapel

Two car burglars are being held without bond in a Hillsborough County jail after a high-speed chase across Tampa that ended with a crash in Wesley Chapel. What began as a day of petty crime in Valrico (southeast of Brandon), ended with incarceration for Lucious Lee Felder, 23, of Ft. Lauderdale, and Terry Lamar Joseph, 25, of Pompano Beach.

According to the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office (HCSO), Felder and Joseph broke into three separate cars in the Campo Family YMCA parking lot in Valrico, after which they proceeded to use credit cards from the burglaries at a nearby Mobil gas station and Taco Bell restaurant.

The two burglars then traveled to Lithia Springs Park, burglarized another car and headed to the nearby Fish Hawk Sports Complex, the HCSO report says, where they broke into two more vehicles. A witness heard glass shatter and saw a vehicle leave the parking lot moments later. The witness, who was not named, climbed into his car and followed the burglars while on the phone with sheriff’s deputies. Air support spotted and followed the vehicles along U.S. 301 and then onto northbound I-75.

HCSO says that the vehicle then exited at Martin Luther King Blvd. into the Seffner area and drove safely until the suspects spotted marked HCSO vehicles.

The suspects picked up speed and fled the scene, throwing stolen property from the car. An unknown female suspect also bailed out of the vehicle, but she had not been located as of our press time.

The report says that the suspects proceeded back onto northbound I-75 and drove into Pasco County, where Pasco County Sheriff’s Office (PCSO) deputies assisted in the chase. The vehicle exited onto eastbound S.R. 54 in Wesley Chapel and then back westbound, where an HCSO deputy deployed “Stopsticks” (a lightweight, mobile spike strip that is thrown in front of a vehicle) and blew out the vehicle’s front driver-side tire. The car crashed into a traffic sign while attempting to get back on the I-75 ramp. Both suspects fled the vehicle, one before it had stopped, but they were apprehended in the nearby area.

The two suspects were taken to Florida Hospital Tampa for medical treatment and later booked into the Hillsborough County Jail on multiple burglary charges. Felder has an additional out-of-county charge for possession of marijuana, and Joseph has an additional charge for violating probation. The case is still being investigated, HCSO says, and more charges could be added as further details emerge.