Sign Subterfuge

From a report posted on Facebook by a local Sheriff’s office in Florida:

On Saturday, October 14th at around 2:45pm, [Polk County Sheriff’s Office] deputies went to a residence on West 10th Street in Lakeland, after receiving a tip that a wanted person was at the residence.

The wanted person was 41-year old Johnny Yates and he was wanted for Aggravated Battery, False Imprisonment, and Tampering in a 2nd Degree Felony.

When the deputies arrived they noticed a note written on a dry-erase board in front of a window that said, “Johnny Yates does NOT live here!!”

Gee…a dry-erase board never lied to us before—should we believe it?

A person was then seen leaving the house, so the deputies asked that person about Johnny, and they were told that he was inside the house with a few others.

The deputies surrounded the house and began calling out via a loud speaker. This went on for about an hour, with nobody inside responding.

Enough was enough, and the “Surrender Smoke” was dispensed inside the house, and four people exited the home, but no Johnny.

Deputies called out some more, but still no response from Johnny, so a second helping of “Surrender Smoke” was put inside the home to waft around a bit. Yet still, no response from Johnny.

Finally, deputies and K-9 Dexter entered the house and located Johnny who was hiding in a modified chest of drawers.

Johnny was arrested and taken to jail.