A man in Winter Haven, Florida, found out the hard way that trying to escape from bail bondsman Rico Reed could cost you your pants.
Yep, that’s what happened to the man, identified as 44-year-old Eric Lee Andrews, in front of a crowd of people in the downtown section of the city on the evening of January 24. Turns out, Andrews doesn’t wear boxers or briefs. In fact, according to witnesses, he doesn’t wear anything under there.
Reed, a veteran bondsman, was bloodied in the mêlée that wrecked three cars around 5:20 PM that day.
Reed said that he planned to take Andrews to jail on felony warrants, although he wasn’t sure for what, and for skipping bail.
Acting on a tip, Reed said that he found Andrews inside a building located at 280 West Central Avenue. That’s where the mayhem started.
Andrews, who measures 6 feet tall and weighs 200 pounds, jumped through a window window inside the building, but Reed said that he caught him, handcuffed him behind his back, took him outside to his company’s 2006 Dodge Durango, and secured him in a seatbelt in the backseat of the truck.
He said that he went around the vehicle to make sure that the doors were locked and, in that short amount of time, Andrews slid the cuffs under his feet, unfastened the seatbelt and jumped into the driver’s seat. The keys were in the ignition.
“He punched the gas,” Reed said. Reed ended up on the street with a gash on his head, which was later treated by paramedics.
Andrews then hit two cars, one of which had to be towed, reports stated. And then, just across the street from where he started his fruitless effort to escape, Andrews crashed head-on into a tree, according to police, ruining the truck’s front end.
By this time, Reed was not happy. His head was bloody and his truck had been trashed. So Reed tackled the fleeing Andrews and, in the process, Andrews lost his pants.
When asked if the pants being separated from Andrews was deliberate, Reed grinned. “No,” he said. “I just grabbed onto whatever I could.” He pinned Andrews down until police quickly arrived.
“It was bizarre,” said Kendall Reasoner, 21, who had a front-row seat to the chaos, on a street-side bench.
“At first I was scared,” she said. “But then you see this naked guy getting the crap beat out of him. In a strange way, it was kind of funny.”
Winter Haven police arrested Andrews on charges of grand theft auto, driving with a suspended license, reckless driving and four outstanding felony warrants.
His trip to the Polk County Jail in a city police car was expected to go a little more according to plan.