VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. — A 34-year-old man was arrested Tuesday evening after he went on a crime spree across Volusia County, the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office said.
Deputies said they were called shortly after 4 p.m. to Bunnell and Coleman roads in the Seville neighborhood after Anthony Gunther tried to burglarize a vehicle.
The victim fired a gunshot to spook Gunther, who drove away in an SUV that had been stolen from Holly Hill earlier Tuesday, investigators said.
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Minutes later, deputies said they were called to a vehicle burglary at a nearby Kangaroo Express gas station, and Gunther drove away in the same SUV.
Several minutes thereafter, deputies said they were called to North Center Street in Pierson, where Gunther abandoned the SUV and stole a Jaguar car. They said someone in a Sheriff's Office helicopter spotted him.
Investigators said they twice deployed stop sticks to try to stop the stolen car, but Gunther continued to drive until he abandoned the car near County Road 3 and State Road 40 in the Barberville neighborhood.
"There, Gunther tried to carjack a victim in a black Ford F-150, but deputies were closing in on him," said Andrew Gant, a Sheriff's Office spokesman. "A deputy deployed a Taser on Gunther to stop the carjacking, and Gunther was taken into custody."
David Final, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran, told Channel 9 he was examining a house boat that he was considering buying Tuesday when he saw the Jaguar car pull up beside his pickup truck.
"He stopped and I saw him starting to bail out. I knew right away he was going for my truck," he said. "You picked the wrong person to mess with."
Final said he ran toward his pickup and fought off Gunther in the cab.
"I'm sorry. I just got a crazy drug habit," Gunther could be heard saying in video recorded by a deputy's body-worn camera.
No one was injured.
Gunther was booked into the Volusia County Branch Jail on charges of carjacking, two counts of grand theft auto, burglary of a vehicle, theft, battery, resisting without violence, driving while a license is suspended or revoked and criminal mischief.
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