Peachtree City, GA – As first reported by Ben Nelms with The Citizen, a felony shoplifting incident in the early afternoon hours of Sept. 7 on Peachtree City’s west side and 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, AL, 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, AL, 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 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.
