Youths Charged with Auto Theft

A Tarpon Springs Police officer was on patrol Sept. 23 when she saw two young men on the sidewalk outside Tarpon Springs Elementary School. When the  officer turned her patrol car around, the two fled into the wooded area nearby.

The officer caught Joseph Lang, an 18-year-old from St. Petersburg, on the 500 block of Pent Street, according to an email alert from police. The other person avoided arrested, police said.

Nearby, officers found a 2007 blue Chrysler Sebring in the rear parking lot of 501 E Tarpon Ave. They called the owner, who said it was stolen from their home in Pinellas Park when they were sleeping. Police found a firearm under the driver’s seat of the vehicle and a stun gun on the ground near the Sebring. Neither belonged to the owner. They were presumed stolen.

Believing the person who fled would come back to the Sebring, police disabled and staked out the vehicle. Police officers spotted three people trying to enter the Sebring and drive away shortly before 8 a.m. Sept. 25. The police arrested the three without incident.

During the incident, Gospel Train Pre-Schoo  at the nearby Methodist Church was locked down, and police also worked with Tarpon Elementary to keep school officials abreast of the situation.

Police say that the youths admitted to stealing the Sebring and other cases in Pinellas Park and St. Petersburg. Those cases are under investigation. 

One youth said he dropped a pink book bag filled with stolen items while fleeing. That bag has not been found, and police have issued a reverse 911 to the area asking residents to check their yards and to call the police department at 727-938-2840 if the bag was located.

Lang, 18, and a 16-year-old, were charged with grand theft auto and loitering and prowling. Michael Ward, 18,  and a 15-year-old were charged with grand theft auto. 

 Patch is withholding the names of those younger than 18.