{"id":302923,"date":"2026-06-10T19:04:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T19:04:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/302923\/"},"modified":"2026-06-10T19:04:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T19:04:11","slug":"floridas-hide-and-seek-fugitive-found-wedged-in-air-conditioner-vent-police","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/302923\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida’s ‘Hide-and-Seek’ Fugitive Found Wedged in Air Conditioner Vent: Police"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEED TO KNOW<\/p>\n

James Myers was arrested while he was allegedly fleeing from officers in connection with charges stemming from a March incident<\/p>\n

Rosario was found hiding in a closet in a bedroom inside a Florida residence<\/p>\n

Rosario has been charged with resisting a police officer<\/p>\n

Authorities in Florida arrested two people while searching for an alleged fugitive who was ultimately found hiding inside an air conditioner vent.<\/p>\n

James Myers, 33, was arrested from a Bunnell, Fla., residence on Monday, June 8, the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office<\/a> said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Officers also arrested 36-year-old Joanne Rosario, who was allegedly hiding inside a closet.<\/p>\n

Myers and his girlfriend, Rosario, were suspected of stealing crab legs from a Winn-Dixie store in Palm Coast, Fla. on Thursday, June 4, according to Myers’ charging affidavit obtained by PEOPLE.<\/p>\n

Following the alleged theft, officers located the couple inside a residence associated with the vehicle caught in security footage at Winn-Dixie, the affidavit stated. The registered owner of the vehicle would later confirm Myers and Rosario as the people seen in still images from the Winn-Dixie.<\/p>\n

While inside the residence, police found Rosario allegedly hiding inside a cabinet in a bedroom.<\/p>\n

As they continued the search, police found Myers allegedly “wedged inside the air conditioner’s air handler, folded up behind the ductwork,” the sheriff’s office said in its statement.<\/p>\n

\"Joann<\/p>\n

Joann Rosario (left); and a man alleged to be James Myers hiding inside an air conditioner vent.
Credit: Flagler County Sheriff’s Office<\/p>\n

“James Myers’ favorite game is hide-and-seek,” the sheriff’s office said, referencing a prior incident in which a K-9 located him beneath a house.<\/p>\n

“It’s a tough game to win when the other team shows up with an armored truck, a dog with a nose for nonsense, and a drone hovering overhead,” the sheriff’s office said while announcing Myers’ arrest.<\/p>\n

Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Sign up for PEOPLE’s free True Crime newsletter<\/a> for breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases.<\/p>\n

At the time of his arrest, Myers was a fugitive allegedly fleeing charges of grand theft, fleeing and eluding, driving while his license was suspended, super-speeding and resisting in connection with a March incident, the sheriff’s office said in its statement. He has now been charged with petit theft in connection with the incident last week.<\/p>\n

Online court records show Rosario was charged with resisting a police officer.<\/p>\n

Neither of their records indicate plea information or court dates. It wasn’t immediately clear if either defendant denied the accusations.<\/p>\n

Read the original article on People<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEED TO KNOW James Myers was arrested while he was allegedly fleeing from officers in connection with charges…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":302924,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29,127102,127103,1738,5290],"class_list":["post-302923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-james-myers","tag-joanne-rosario","tag-police-officer","tag-winn-dixie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302923","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=302923"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302923\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/302924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=302923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=302923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=302923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}