Tony Jay Saunders (Carroll Township Police Dept.)
A 25-year-old man in Pennsylvania was completely naked when he was arrested for allegedly leading police on a car chase in a stolen school bus with a dead deer inside.
Tony Jay Saunders was taken into custody on Tuesday and charged with one count each of fleeing or attempting to elude officers, receiving stolen property, resisting arrest, and reckless driving, authorities announced.
According to a press release from the Carroll Township Police Department, officers at about 7:10 a.m. on April 4 responded to a call regarding a stolen school bus being spotted in the Dillsburg Area, approximately 40 miles west of Lancaster. The vehicle had been reported stolen by the Pennsylvania State Police Gettysburg Division earlier that morning along with a BOLO (“be on the lookout”) that was broadcast to all law enforcement agencies in the area, noting that the bus had “Lincoln Coach Lines” written on the side.
Officers on patrol say they observed a school bus driving through the parking lot of Giant Foods and Rite Aid. Police observing the vehicle said that the bus lights were “turning on and off intermittently” until it exited the parking lot and turned onto Route 15 North.
As the vehicle turned onto Route 15 North, officers saw that the writing on the side of the vehicle and the bus number matched the recent BOLO.
Police say they attempted to conduct a traffic stop on the vehicle near the Mechanicsburg/Bowmansdale exit on Route 15 and the bus pulled over near the junction of the state turnpike.
“The bus nearly immediately pulled away and continued to drive North on Route 15, winding in and out of traffic lanes. After passing the exit for Lower Allen Dr. the bus exited the highway and drove over a berm, nearly overturning the bus,” the release states. “The bus continued to drive onto Gettysburg Rd. in Lower Allen Township where it turned into a nearby neighborhood. The driver of the bus fled on foot through a wooded area after leaving the bus behind.”
Witnesses in the area provided investigators with a description of the suspect who was driving the bus, describing him as a Black male wearing a black sweatshirt. Officers searching the area near the railroad tracks then caught a glimpse of a man they say matched the description of the suspect who ran away from police, leading them through a series of parking lots and high-traffic areas.
The suspect then apparently did his best to change his look, particularly the clothing police had previously seen him wearing.
“The male stripped his clothing as he fled from Police and after being apprehended in the nude, admitted to taking the bus earlier in the day after crashing a BMW vehicle. The defendant was positively identified as Tony Saunders,” the release states. “Saunders said that he had taken the vehicle and had placed a deceased deer in the back of the bus and was going to drive the deer to his residence and use the deceased deer as fertilizer for his garden.”
Police then transported Sanders to York Central Booking where he was arraigned on the aforementioned charges.
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