Dashcam video captured a man dangerously weaving in and out of traffic on the Seven Mile Bridge in the Florida Keys before he got out of his truck and jumped into the water below. NBC6’s Niko Clemmons reports
Dashcam video captured a man dangerously weaving in and out of traffic on the Seven Mile Bridge in the Florida Keys before he got out of his truck and jumped into the water below.
Joshua Seth Lapidus, 34, of Homestead, was later captured, handcuffed and caught on another dash camera asking a Florida Highway Patrol trooper for leniency.
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"Listen, I know I did some stupid s--- just now, but it wasn't that stupid," he says.
"It was that stupid," the trooper responds.
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"Ehh...listen, I'm not minimizing it. I'm just saying," Lapidus says.
The incident happened at around 2:30 p.m. on Nov. 26, according to the FHP. Troopers observed a black 2019 Dodge Ram pickup truck driving 70 mph in a 45 mph zone and attempted to stop the driver.
The truck wouldn't stop for law enforcement, and at one point, reached speeds over 100 mph while dangerously weaving in and out of traffic, FHP said in an arrest report.
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The driver eventually got on the Seven Mile Bridge, "almost striking several vehicles" including off-duty deputies in a Monroe County Sheriff's Office unit.
Dashcam video captured the truck stopping on the side of the bridge and the driver getting out and jumping into the water below.
A Monroe County Sheriff's Office boat unit eventually took the driver, later identified as Lapidus, into custody.
Later handcuffed and soaking wet inside an FHP unit, Lapidus is captured on dashcam casually conversing with the trooper.
"So what would have happened if I had just pulled over?" Lapidus asks.
"I would have wrote you a ticket for the speed," the trooper responds.
"How fast was I going?" Lapidus asks.
"Seventy (mph) in a 45 (zone)," the trooper responds.
"You caught me at the end of a bridge," Lapidus said. "I didn't think the radar could see me ... I was just passing somebody like I was in a passing lane."
Lapidus now faces charges of driving with a suspended license as a habitual offender, fleeing and eluding law enforcement at high speed, resisting an officer, and other misdemeanors.
"You know I was stupid, I just don't deserve to go to prison ... hopefully my bond is minimum," Lapidus says to the trooper.
