Florida man offers police booze during car chase: ‘Don’t know if he was expecting us to just say ‘cheers”

Don’t drink and drive. 

A Florida man casually offered pursuing deputies a vodka spritzer in the middle of a car chase after he allegedly stole several items from a convenience store, authorities said. 

Deputies with the Highlands County Sheriff’s Office responded to the Spring Lake Market on Saturday after Richard Christopher Smith, 39, allegedly took items from a market, including several alcoholic beverages, and walked out.

When the deputies arrived, Smith fled in a vehicle, prompting a pursuit, the sheriff’s office said. 

“It was during this pursuit when Smith held a can of Ketel One vodka spritz out the window as he drove by a deputy trying to get him to stop, telling the deputy ‘I was just going to give you a drink, that’s it’ as he passed,” the sheriff’s office said.

“We don’t know if he was expecting us to just say ‘Cheers!’ and let him go, or what.”

The chase ended a few minutes later in the parking lot of a business at the Sebring Regional Airport. 

After his toast, Smith, who is a Miami resident, tried to ram two patrol vehicles as all four of his tires were flattened by spike strips, police said. 

He was unfazed as he calmly tried to walk away from the scene – which was surrounded by deputies – while puffing on a cigarette, authorities said.

“You guys had fun, though, right?” he asked them. 

He was eventually Tased in the middle of his smoke break and arrested. 

Smith is charged with two counts of aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer, battery on a law enforcement officer, two counts of resisting arrest, DUI, refusal to submit to a DUI test and petit theft. 

His bond was set at $120,000.