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Thursday, March 28, 2024

A Gainesville man crashed his car into an elementary school’s fence and ran away Tuesday morning, leaving behind 28.1 grams of marijuana, Gainesville Police said.

At about midnight Tuesday, police noticed Steve Dene Stacy Jr. speeding down Northeast Eighth Avenue as he swerved onto bike lanes and ignored a stop sign and commands from police to pull over, according to a police report.

After refusing to pull over, Stacy turned onto Southeast 13th Street and then Southeast Seventh Avenue before crashing into an 8-foot-tall chain-link fence at Joseph Williams Elementary School, located at 1245 SE Seventh Ave., according to the report.

The crash caused about $500 worth of damage to the fencing. By the time GPD found Stacy’s car, he wasn’t there. Inside, police found the marijuana and a digital scale, along with Stacy’s credit card and phone, according to the report.

GPD used police dogs and Stacy’s credit-card history to track his location, according to the report. The search led them to his home, where police were greeted by Stacy’s grandmother before finding him barefoot and covered in plant seeds in his bedroom.

Under his bed, police found Stacy’s dirty socks — and about 1.2 grams of ecstacy, according to the report. He told police he never drove the car, but that he was a passenger during the chase.

Police arrested Stacy on charges of hit and run, fleeing and eluding police, driving with a suspended license, possessing marijuana with the intent to sell and possessing more than 20 grams of marijuana. Authorities took him to the Alachua County Jail where he remains, as of press time, in lieu of a $23,000 bond.

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