ST. LUCIE COUNTY, Fla. — A Fort Lauderdale woman was arrested Tuesday night after allegedly stealing a marked Broward County Sheriff's Office patrol car and abandoning it on Interstate 95 in St. Lucie County.
The incident began at 9:30 p.m. when authorities issued a BOLO alert for the stolen Dodge Charger, which was traveling northbound on I-95.
At approximately 9:40 p.m., deputies with the St. Lucie County Sheriff's Office Patrol Operations Bureau, along with officers from the Port St. Lucie Police Department and troopers from the Florida Highway Patrol, responded to I-95 after receiving information about the stolen patrol vehicle near Gatlin Boulevard.
Within minutes, FHP located the abandoned patrol vehicle on the I-95 northbound exit ramp to SW Gatlin Boulevard at mile marker 118.
During the response, St. Lucie County Sheriff's Office deputies found Shannon Marie Dillon, 42, in the area wearing an outer ballistic vest displaying Broward Sheriff's Office insignia. The deputies made contact with the woman, who was subsequently identified as Dillon.
Dillon now faces charges in St. Lucie County including grand theft of law enforcement equipment, unlawful use of a police badge or law enforcement vehicle, unlawful possession of four or fewer identification items, possession or use of drug paraphernalia, possession of a weapon or ammunition by a convicted felon, driving while license suspended and resisting an officer without violence.
She also faces charges out of Broward County for grand theft of law enforcement equipment from an authorized emergency vehicle and grand theft.
The northbound I-95 exit ramp to SW Gatlin Boulevard was temporarily closed while crime scene investigators processed the scene. The ramp reopened at 12:45 a.m. Wednesday morning.
