RIVERVIEW, Fla. — A Riverview man faces several charges including grand theft auto, burglary and kidnapping after stealing a truck and taking its owner on a "wild ride."
Deputies said Eniel Marzo-Alayo, 34, stole the truck around 8:30 p.m. on Thursday from a mobile home park in Gibsonton. Deputies said the owner found the truck an hour later at the Gibtown Inn.
The owner and a friend tried to block the truck so they could get the suspect out, but deputies said the suspect tried to speed off. The victim and his friend jumped into the truck's bed. A deputy in the area soon spotted the stolen truck.
"Our deputy immediately realizes this is a dangerous situation for the people who are in the flatbed of this truck. The driver is driving erratically almost trying to throw them out of the flatbed of the truck," said Amanda Granit with the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office.
Deputies briefly lost sight of the truck, but said the suspect soon crashed the truck into a ditch.
The victim and his friend suffered minimal injuries and Marzo-Alayo ran off on foot.
Deputies said the suspect broke into a home through an unlocked window in an attempt to hide.
ABC Action News spoke to the homeowner who asked us not to use his name. His wife was home with their children.
"When he came in...she said, 'you can have anything you want, here's my phone. I won't call the police or anything just take whatever you want. Just leave us alone,' but he was just giving up so he laid down and stayed there."
His wife escaped to a neighbor's house safely with their children.
Marzo-Alayo grabbed keys from inside the home and tried to steal a vehicle in the driveway, but authorities said he grabbed the wrong ones.
"He was trying to find a spare key to our Buick. I had the Jeep at work, but we don't have a spare key to the Buick so he was just finding random keys and kept going in and out," said the homeowner.
Deputies arrested the suspect not far from the home.
Marzo-Alayo is facing several charges including grand theft of a motor vehicle, kidnapping, reckless driving, leaving the scene of a crash and burglary of an occupied dwelling.
"I definitely advise everyone to lock their door, windows and take this as a learning experience, you know," said the homeowner.
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