A Lady Lake man who called his wife to rescue him during a traffic stop ended up behind bars after he hopped into the driver’s seat of her car and drove away right in front of the police.
The bizarre sequence of events began at about 7:30 a.m. Wednesday, when a Fruitland Park police officer received an alert regarding a black four-door Chevrolet traveling southbound on U.S. Hwy. 27/441. The system indicated that the registered owner had a suspended driver’s license and an active “seize tag” order.
The officer initiated a traffic stop near East Catawba Street and identified the driver as 57-year-old Ernest Lewis Gehrke.
According to the arrest affidavit, the officer informed Gehrke that his license had been suspended since March over financial issues, and that the license plate on his Chevy was being seized. Gehrke was instructed to call someone to pick him up and arrange a tow for the now-tagless vehicle…