A man from Florida who was pulled over by the police, while driving a car that was missing two tires, told cops his tires were missing because of “paranormal activity.”
Marion County Sheriff’s deputies stopped 29-year-old Orjuela Montealegre on October 23 on Interstate 75 near Marion Oaks, Florida. The deputies had noticed that a vehicle in front of them was driving with its hazard lights on, the driver’s side of the car was lower than expected, and its tires seemed deflated.
According to the Sheriff’s department, upon closer inspection, one of the deputies realized that the vehicle tires were not deflated but were actually missing, and the driver was driving on the rims.
When he was pulled over, the deputies asked him why he was driving a vehicle with no tires, and the man told them that an unknown person had put a curse on him that had caused him to hit a curb a little too hard.
The driver then told the deputies that the unknown person had given two ultimatums – he could get in the car and drive himself home without the vehicle’s tires, or he could set the car ablaze and sleep there.
Body camera footage from the deputies shows one officer instructing the man to get out of the vehicle, who looked unsteady on his feet once he stepped out. The deputy asked the driver to perform standard sobriety tests, but he did not take this very well.
He started to hurl insults at the deputy and curse him, insisting to the officers that paranormal activities had damaged his car.
The insults and curses eventually turned into threats against the deputies. Montealegre told one of the deputies that if he messed with him, he would break his skull with a baseball bat and skin him alive.
He continued to threaten the deputies until they eventually arrested him. While the officers conducted a search on him, Montealegre spat in one of the deputy’s faces and continued to threaten them and curse.
In a daring attempt by the driver to grab a weapon, he waited until the deputy he spat on started to wipe his face, and then he reached for the officer’s waist belt, attempting to grab his Taser.
The deputies secured the out-of-control man in the back of their vehicle. Before they could lock him in the car, he kicked both of them.
After the deputies transported him to a Marion County jail, he refused to take a breath test that would measure how much alcohol he had consumed.
Montealegre, held on a $27,000 bond, is facing several charges, including attempting to take a weapon from an officer, driving under the influence, two counts of battery on a police officer, violently resisting arrest, and threatening a public officer.
If convicted of all those charges, Orjuela Montealegre could be sentenced to more than 25 years in prison.
The wild incident was caught on the deputy’s body cam.