- September 26, 2024
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When a deputy caught up to Archie Thomas, 49, after a foot chase, he had a pair of brass knuckles in his pocket and the following in his backpack: a pry bar, costume masks, several pairs of gloves, pliers, a flashlight, a large piece of camouflage material and a glass pipe.
Thomas is a convicted felon who was found guilty of burglary in April 2017.
He came to the notice of a deputy at about 12:35 a.m. July 10 after someone called the Flagler County Sheriff's Office to report seeing people in a white Jeep trespassing and trying to steal fishing poles at 2423 Water Oak Road in the Daytona North community, according to an arrest report.
The deputy, on his way to a home on Blueberry Street where people had reported seeing the suspects, noticed a man — later revealed to be Thomas — in dark clothing crouched behind an FPL pole at the property line.
The deputy got out of his patrol car and asked Thomas why he was hiding there, and Thomas said he wasn't hiding and that he lived there.
The deputy had been out to the property multiple times before and had never seen Thomas, who began pushing a bicycle away from the deputy, according to the arrest report.
The deputy told Thomas to stop, and Thomas ran, passing through the rear gate of the property and swinging it back toward the pursuing deputy "to strike me or slow me down," according to the deputy's account in the arrest report. Thomas also pushed a lawnmower toward the deputy, according to the report, before tripping and falling on the back porch steps, where the deputy was able to pin him.
The deputy and two others who arrived at the house secured Thomas and found the brass knuckles in his pocket as well as the masks, gloves and tools in his backpack, according to the report.
When deputies asked him what he'd been doing in the woods, he said he was fixing his bike chain. When they asked him why he was wearing all dark clothing, he "stated that he wasn't aware that he was in all dark clothing," according to the report. He also couldn't provide the address of the property.
Deputies charged him with possession of a concealed weapon by a convicted felon, loitering and prowling, resisting arrest without violence and possession of drug paraphernalia.
