{"id":52657,"date":"2022-03-17T22:06:09","date_gmt":"2022-03-18T02:06:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/?p=52657"},"modified":"2022-03-17T22:06:15","modified_gmt":"2022-03-18T02:06:15","slug":"reckless-atv-riders-swarm-lee-county-roads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/2022\/03\/reckless-atv-riders-swarm-lee-county-roads\/","title":{"rendered":"Reckless ATV riders swarm Lee County roads"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It was a wild and reckless weekend in Lee County. Hordes of ATV riders filled the streets by the dozens. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Dozens upon dozens of riders were spotted in Fort Myers, Lehigh Acres, and even towards Buckingham. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Lee County Sheriff\u2019s Office arrested four people, but many more got away from deputies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWell, I was walking by. I usually walk down Leeland Heights,\u201d said Chris Evans of Lehigh Acres. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Sunday stroll has become a normal occurrence for Evans. What he saw this weekend wasn\u2019t the normal sights and sounds. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSaw about three or four dirtbikes and a quad just riding up the road,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s just the start. Only 15 minutes away on Palm Beach Boulevard, multiply that by ten. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 \u201cA whole bunch more of four-wheelers and dirtbikes came and they weren\u2019t stopping,\u201d said Jamie. \u201cThere was a good 60 of them out there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The reckless riders were on street bikes, four-wheelers, dirt bikes, you name it, they were out there breaking the law. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere was probably 10-15 of them popping wheelies as they rode down the road,\u201d Jamie said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The cluster of careless cruisers were all over the county, as far south as Daniels Parkway and Treeline Boulevard near Gulf Coast Town Center and as far north as Palm Beach Boulevard. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

LCSO deputies responded to 13 calls in a matter of hours. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey blew right through the red light,\u201d Jamie said. \u201cAs we pulled up the median, they had pulled in front of our vehicle.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The riders blocked traffic in front of Jamie and other places, according to deputies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

LCSO responded on the ground and in the air. An arrest report said riders surrounded an LCSO sergeant\u2019s vehicle who had their lights on and sirens blaring. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One person circled another deputy three times. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And another person is accused of driving so fast he couldn\u2019t stop, tipped his ATV over, and crashed into the back of a deputy\u2019s cruiser. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt just seems like it\u2019s a matter of time someone gets hurt, they get creamed,\u201d said Evans. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPalm Beach Boulevard is not the place for it. Daniels isn\u2019t the place for it,\u201d added Jamie. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

These organized events are known as \u201ctakeovers.\u201d They\u2019re much more common in big cities, but now they\u2019re sizing up Southwest Florida. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re getting there. I think we\u2019re getting there,\u201d Evans said. \u201cPeople are going to say \u2018This is why we can\u2019t have nice things.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All four of the riders arrested are being charged with fleeing\/eluding police.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was a wild and reckless weekend in Lee County. Hordes of ATV riders filled the streets by the dozens.  Dozens upon dozens of riders were spotted in Fort Myers,… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":52658,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57,32],"tags":[1164],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52657"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52657"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52657\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52661,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52657\/revisions\/52661"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}