Deputies stop alleged carjacking in progress

SEVILLE, Fla. (WOFL FOX 35) - The Volusia County Sheriff calls Anthony Gunther a "one man crime wave."  

Deputies’ video showed them hauling Gunther out of a pickup that he’d jumped into only moments earlier. Gunther was seen on video trying to explain why he did it.

“It's over with, you got me,” he pleaded with deputies, “I just got a crazy drug habit and got to feed my family.”

The chase through western Volusia County started about an hour earlier, when they say Gunther was caught rummaging around inside Susan and Tim Alward's car, stealing Susan’s silver bracelet.

“His bottom half was sticking out, the whole upper half of his body was inside the car,” Alward recalled.

She said she grabbed her gun when she saw him there.

“I really wanted him to leave so I shot at his vehicle. That made him run to the vehicle and take off then.”

Deputies say only minutes after Gunther broke into the Alwards' car, he was spotted at a nearby Circle K gas station where he tried to break into another car, speeding away when deputies showed up. 

He fled down State Road 17 in a stolen red SUV to a car dealership, where deputies say Gunther ditched the SUV, then hopped behind the wheel of a white Jaguar and continued speeding away. That's where the VCSO helicopter, Air One, caught sight of him.