A Florida truck driver was arrested Wednesday afternoon for allegedly stealing a vehicle belonging to the company from which he’d just been fired.
Jonis Ales Sendra, 36, of New Port Richey, Florida was taken into custody by Hopkins County Sheriff’s Sgt. Shea Shaw and Deputy Kevin Lester at 5:43 p.m. April 24 on the north service road for unauthorized use of a vehicle.
According to sheriff’s reports, the incident reportedly began with Deputies Tanner Steward, Kevin Lester and Sgt. Shea Shaw being dispatched at 5:28 p.m. Wednesday to an Interstate 30 west trucking business in Brashear to a disturbance; an ex-employee was reported to be causing a ruckus and being combative. The complainant told dispatchers Sendra, a disgruntled employee who had just been terminated, was the aggressor in the disturbance, deputies wrote in arrest reports.
While en route to the trucking business, deputies were told the man had just stolen one of the company’s commercial vehicles, a white Volvo with a missing front bumper, according to the arrest report.
Deputies reported seeing a man driving a vehicle matching that description on the north Interstate 30 service road and detained him. When asked why he stole the vehicle, the driver identified as Sendra , told them he didn’t steal it, that he “was not going to be treated like a dog and was not going to be left on the side of the road, ” deputies alleged in arrest reports.
A deputy at the roadside conferred with officers at the trucking business. The deputies were reportedly told by company representatives the man had been fired, but was offered a ride to the bus station. The ex-employee allegedly became irate and was asked by company representatives to remove his items from the vehicle, deputies wrote in arrest reports.
The company representatives reportedly told deputies the man did not have permission to have the vehicle he was driving, and attempts had been made to stop him from leaving in it.
The man was taken into custody for unauthorized use of a vehicle. When a deputy checked the vehicle, he reported a GPS-style device in it was “attempting to notify the driver his travel was not authorized and to stop the vehicle.”
Jonis Sendra remained in Hopkins County jail Thursday morning. His bond was set at $10,000 on the unauthorized use of a vehicle charge, according to jail reports.
