{"id":166018,"date":"2026-02-23T19:48:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T19:48:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/166018\/"},"modified":"2026-02-23T19:48:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T19:48:10","slug":"st-pete-man-stole-jeep-led-troopers-on-hillsborough-county-chase-fhp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/166018\/","title":{"rendered":"St. Pete Man Stole Jeep, Led Troopers On Hillsborough County Chase: FHP"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>BRANDON, FL \u2014 A St. Petersburg man faces multiple charges after stealing a Jeep, leading law enforcement on a chase through Hillsborough County, and hitting a trooper with the vehicle on Friday night, the Florida Highway Patrol said. <\/p>\n<p>When the Hillsborough County Sheriff\u2019s Office Aviation Unit tracked the stolen Jeep to a strawberry field on Blankenship Road in Dover, state troopers responded to the area around 11 p.m., FHP said. <\/p>\n<p>The driver, Shawn Craeger, 51, resisted when a trooper opened his door and tried to pull him from the Jeep, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox13news.com\/news\/st-pete-man-hitting-trooper-stolen-vehicle-chase-hillsborough-county\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Fox 13 said<\/a>. The trooper Tasered Craeger, but it only partially connected. <\/p>\n<p>He drove away from the field, knocking the trooper to the ground with the Jeep, according to a criminal report affidavit. <\/p>\n<p>Craeger intentionally drove through at least one fence while fleeing the scene, FHP said. <\/p>\n<p>The HCSO Aviation Unit followed the Jeep, providing updates to troopers on the ground so that they could intercept Craeger on Northwood Park Street, south of Durant Road, in Brandon. <\/p>\n<p>He then fled west on Durant Road while being chased by troopers. <\/p>\n<p>Craeger overshot the right curve on Durant Road approaching Lumsden Road East and ran over the median, FHP said. He got stuck when he tried to cross the median again.<\/p>\n<p>A trooper positioned his patrol vehicle to block the Jeep from moving forward until two additional troopers got to the scene. <\/p>\n<p>Craeger was arrested and charged with fleeing and attempting to elude a police officer, driving under the influence, grand theft motor vehicle, possession of drug paraphernalia, fleeing to elude highspeed, criminal mischief $1,000 or more, trespass on posted commercial agricultural property, resisting officer with violence, aggravated battery on a law enforcement officer with a deadly weapon, refusal to submit to testing, and driving with a license canceled, suspended, or revoked, Hillsborough County jail records show. <\/p>\n<p>He had a Missouri driver\u2019s license at the time of his arrest, the affidavit said.<\/p>\n<p>See Also:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BRANDON, FL \u2014 A St. Petersburg man faces multiple charges after stealing a Jeep, leading law enforcement on&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":166019,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-166018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166018","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=166018"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166018\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/166019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=166018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=166018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=166018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}