Pinellas Work Detail Escapee Apprehended Sleeping In Stolen SUV: FHP

TARPON SPRINGS, FL — A man who escaped a Tarpon Springs Department of Corrections work detail was apprehended by the Florida Highway Patrol snoozing in a stolen vehicle at a rest stop.

On Monday at 10:39 a.m., troopers responded to an Interstate 75 rest stop in Hillsborough County after a 35-year-old man from Rensselaer, New York, received an alert from a GPS device attached to his 2021 Mazda CX5 SUV providing the location of the vehicle.

The Mazda CX5 was stolen overnight in Orlando and reported missing by the Orlando Police Department at 4:30 a.m.

Troopers found the SUV with a man sleeping inside. The man initially refused requests to step out of the SUV, but eventually complied.

According to the highway patrol, the man repeatedly provided false identification to troopers, but they were able to identify him as Quinton Deishawn Lampkin, 23, who had escaped from a department of corrections work detail in Tarpon Springs on Sept. 5.

Lampkin was arrested and charged with grand theft auto, providing false information, resisting arrest without violence and escaping a work detail.

The owner of the stolen vehicle came to the rest area and recovered his undamaged vehicle.