Left to right: Supervisor Brian Wynns and CPSO Bill Luehl

On September 9th, the Brooksville Probation office received a call from Scott Sandmeyer of the New Port Richey office. It appeared that one of the offenders that they supervise had plans other than reporting to the probation office. An anonymous call had been received indicating that the offender, who lives and had been sentenced in Pasco County, had made arrangements to board a Greyhound bus and head north to Alabama, obviously without the permission of his officer. Scott sent CPSO Jeff Davis and CPSO Larry Chesteen to the bus stop only to discover that they missed the bus by 5 minutes. With this information and the knowledge from the bus agent that the next stop was Hernando County, Scott called Brooksville’s office Supervisor Brian Wynns and asked that they go to the bus stop and see if this offender was on the bus and conduct a warrantless arrest. Supervisor Brian Wynns and Senior Officer Bill Luehl headed out the door and to the bus stop in Brooksville. On the way, they called the Brooksville PD and the Hernando County SO. The two officers arrived at the bus stop and the bus agent stated that they were in luck forthe bus was running late, due to the recent hurricane. So the officers sat and waited for an offender they did not know, for law enforcement to arrive, and for the bus to round the corner.

This was not exactly new territory for the two officers. Officer Luehl is a former police officer and the two had conducted a similar arrest in July when a Lake County CC offender absconded and made plans to meet his boss at a designated site for a money exchange in Hernando county. With this information given to them by the Lake county Probation office, the officers, accompanied by law enforcement, staked out the site and the absconder arrived, was arrested on a warrantless arrest, and was transported to the jail.

As Officer Luehl and Supervisor Wynns waited, they could only hope that all the players would show at the right time. After 15 or 20 minutes and several scenarios running through their heads, a detective in an unmarked car arrived. Their backup and transport was there. A second unmarked car arrived and then a Brooksville PD patrol officer arrived. It was getting better all the time. All they needed now was for the Greyhound bus to arrive.

As they came to their feet to greet the officers, the bus pulled in. Accompanied by the law enforcement officers, the two probation officers made contact with the bus driver and explained the need to search the bus for the missing offender. Permission was granted, and the bus was boarded. The two scanned the bus and began to call the offender by name. Scott Sandmeyer gave a brief description of the offender to them but because the offender was just placed on supervision and never reported in, a photo was not available. Finally, the offender, who was sitting near the front of the bus, acknowledged that he was the one they were looking for and came peacefully off the bus. Supervisor Wynns identified himself as a probation officer. He then asked the offender if he was headed out-of-state, knowing he was on probation and without the consent of his officer. The offender admitted his plan and was placed under arrest and transported to the Hernando County Jail for booking. It’s good when a plan comes together.