A felony shoplifting incident in the early afternoon hours of Sept. 7 on Peachtree City’s west side led to two separate pursuits and the arrest of the driver, on numerous charges, and the passenger after the vehicle was stopped on Wisdom Road.
Travis Smelley, 52, of Oxford, Ala., was charged with DUI drugs, possession of fentanyl, drug-related objects, felony shoplifting, hit and run, felony fleeing and eluding and a litany of other traffic charges. Among those were multiple counts of speeding, reckless driving, failure to maintain lane, running a stop sign and driving on the wrong side of the road, according to Peachtree City Police Department spokesman Chris Hyatt.
Natalie N. Dumitras, 42, of Anniston, Ala., was charged with possession of fentanyl and drug-related objects, said Hyatt.
Police reports explained that the incident began at approximately 2 p.m. after Smelley committed felony shoplifting at the Home Depot store on Ga. Highway 54 West.
Hyatt said a responding police unit made contact and stopped the vehicle, with Smelley then speeding away and driving recklessly on nearby MacDuff Parkway. He subsequently got into a minor collision with another vehicle while fleeing officers and heading north toward Senoia Road.
Hyatt said Smelley while trying to elude officers was driving so dangerously that the pursuit was cancelled.
A short while later, at approximately 2:24 p.m. the vehicle re-entered the city and was spotted by an officer who engaged the vehicle as it turned onto Crabapple Lane on the city’s north side. The officer attempted to immobilize the vehicle by knocking it off the roadway, but Smelley regained control and drove onto Ga. Highway 74 driving southbound, said Hyatt.
Smelley, who continued driving southbound, at one point jumped the median and entered the northbound lanes of Hwy. 74, then turned onto Wisdom Road, a short 2-lane stretch that leads past a nursing home and Peachtree City Elementary School.
Hyatt said two unmarked Coweta County Sheriff’s Office vehicles in the area pursued Smelley’s vehicle down Wisdom Road. The Coweta units used pursuit termination techniques to bring the vehicle to a stop. Those units, along with Peachtree City units also in pursuit, surrounded the vehicle and took Smelley and Dumitras into custody at 2:27 p.m.
Hyatt said no serious injuries were reported by any parties involved.
Geeze !
Probably a drug crazed expedition that ended up with these two in custody, what were they thinking, and I’ll bet they have children somewhere that have also learned their trade from the parents.
Fentanyl,,, we know where it comes from…killing people by the thousands…if the USA was attached out right then we would be at war today…I guess it’s ok for lives and treasure to trickle away one day at a time !!
I can tell you one of them has a young child that has no clue none of this has happened. I hate this happened because this child loves their parent!
It is China’s intent to destroy the ‘free world’ with the amount of drugs coming in across the borders. Politicians in charge could care less. I have no doubt they are part of the problem. Killing one by one, is less obvious than dropping a bomb.