Naked man steals school bus to move dead deer before leading police on chase

A naked Florida man was arrested for stealing a school bus to transport a dead deer, then leading police on a cross-county chase.

Thomas Saunders, 25, is facing a slew of charges in Pennsylvania for streaming the animal to use as fertiliser in his garden.

He has been charged with fleeing an officer, receiving stolen property, reckless driving and resisting arrest, the Carroll Township Police Department said in a news release. 

Officers received reports at around 7:10pm on Tuesday about a school bus stolen in Abbottstown now about 17 miles north in the Dilsburg area.

Police across York and Adams county were asked to ‘be on the lookout’ for the yellow vehicle.

But patrolling Carroll Township officers saw the bus in a Giant Foods and Rite Aid parking lot with its lights switching on and off, igniting a chase.

The police report said: ‘Officers caught up to the bus driving North in the area of the Mechanicsburg/Bowmansdale exit on Route 15.

‘Officers attempted to conduct a traffic stop on the school bus, and the bus eventually pulled over near the junction of the PA Turnpike.’

The bus erratically wound in and out of traffic North on Route 15 with the authorities not far behind.

During the case, Saunders sped out of the highway, drover over a berm and nearly flipped the bus high into the air, the police added.

But he swerved into a neighbourhood in Lower Allen Township before ditching the bus and fleeing on foot into a wooded area.

The suspect, identified by police as Saunders, ran from police when they stumbled on him by nearby railroad tracks.

He led them ‘through parking lots and busy traffic areas’ and stripped during the chase.

Saunders, believed to be from Port St Lucie, in the Floridian county of the same name, was eventually captured naked and admitted to driving the stolen bus after he crashed a BMW.

Saunders ‘said that he had taken the vehicle and had placed a deceased deer in the back of the bus and was going to drive the deer to his residence and use the deceased deer as fertilizer for his garden’, the force added.

He was taken to York Central Booking to be arraigned on criminal charges.

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