Published on Tuesday, April 26, 2005
in the Miami Herald

Dog aids in arrest of `serial speeder'

Racing his motorcycle at speeds up to 160 miles per hour, David Carpenter managed to elude helicopters, airplanes, and police from at least three jurisdictions over the past month.

The man one cop referred to as a serial speeder, would mock police, often ''shooting the bird'' as he sped past.

Monday -- after a wild pursuit that at one point had Carpenter racing south in the north lanes of Florida's Turnpike at 100 mph with a deflated front tire -- police finally caught him.

They said his dog did him in.

Troopers had tracked the motorcycle to Carpenter's West Kendall apartment, but still were not certain he was their man. That's when his excited English Bulldog mix nudged open a set of bedroom blinds just enough for them to take a peek.

Inside Carpenter's bedroom was the quarter-ton of sleek black-and-silver metal the cops have been chasing since late March -- a super powerful 2004 Honda 1000 motorcycle. It's a bike commonly referred to in the racing community as a ''crotch rocket'' that is more than capable of hitting speeds higher than 160 mph.

''He was over confident,'' said Florida Highway Patrol Spokesman Ernesto Duarte. ``It may have been a cat-and-mouse chase from his perspective. He may have considered it a game. We didn't.''

Police say the evidence was enough to finally arrest Carpenter. Monday he was charged with reckless driving, three counts of aggravated fleeing and two counts of aggravated assault using a motor vehicle on a law enforcement officer.

''He practically went head on into two troopers on motorcycles who were going in the right direction,'' said FHP spokesman Julio Pajon.

Carpenter is being held at the Turner Guilford Knight correctional facility on a $31,000 bond. He has no previous arrest record in Miami-Dade County.

Carpenter had been able to elude officers for so long because FHP, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and Miami-Dade County police, like most other agencies, have a no-chase policy -- especially when it comes to speeding motorcycles.

Police said Carpenter typically rode in a black leather jacket, black jeans and a black helmet. But what made it especially hard to ID him, according to Duarte, was that the biker had bent his license plate, making it impossible to read from the air or the ground.

''We usually request a chopper and try not to follow because we know how dangerous it is,'' said Miami-Dade police spokeswoman Nelda Fonticiella.

That's just what the FHP did Monday. An officer flying a single-engine plane tracked Carpenter all the way to his apartment at 15570 SW 105th Lane.

Authorities say Carpenter's consistent habits were his undoing.

Most mornings he'd be spotted racing onto the Turnpike at the Kendall entrance, then eventually making his way to his job in Plantation -- an hourlong drive for most, about 20 minutes for Carpenter. Unable to stop him along the highway, FHP said they'd lose him as he hit Broward County's side streets.

They later learned he worked writing up service reports at a Harley Davidson dealership in Plantation. Before that he worked for Harley in Pompano Beach.

Plantation General Manager Barry Kuhnly said Carpenter quit on Saturday. ''He was a nice enough kid,'' said Kuhnly. ``Quiet.''

When Carpenter entered the Turnpike ramp at Kendall Drive heading north Monday morning, police say they were ready for the movie-type scene that would soon unfold.

Pajon said an officer immediately tailed Carpenter as he sped to Northwest 41st Street, where he exited. Pajon said Carpenter later said he was spooked as he saw the police-manned plane, and a helicopter that had nothing to do with law enforcement.

''But there was another officer on a bike at the bottom of the ramp,'' said Pajon, who was not sure if that officer was part of the group looking for Carpenter. ``So he [Carpenter] made a U-turn at the ramp and went over a sidewalk at the toll plaza bending his front rim and deflating a tire.''

Unfazed, he rocketed onto the Turnpike going south in the north lanes. He exited at Northwest 12th Street and wound south and west over various streets en route to his residence on 105th Lane.

Throughout the pursuit, police said Carpenter continued to speed through and around traffic, at one point passing several trucks on narrow Krome Avenue as he sped along the shoulder.

He occasionally stopped under thick trees to try to evade the eye in the sky, Duarte said.

It didn't work. The officer in the single-engine airplane directed about six patrol cops to Carpenter's apartment complex.

There, according to Pajon, police found him washing his car. They approached him, questioning some tire tracks that led to his apartment door. Carpenter said the tracks were from an All Terrain Vehicle in his living room.

Denied entry, another officer was making his way around the back of the apartment, Pajon said.

And that's when Carpenter's dog pushed the bedroom blind just enough for police to look inside, Pajon said.

''He admitted he was the one after questioning,'' said Pajon. Police seized the bike.

But before they got it out of the apartment, they encountered another surprise: Sitting open on Carpenter's dining room table, Pajon said, was an application to join the Florida Highway Patrol.

''He was scheduled to take the exam next month,'' said Pajon. ``As you can guess, we told him not to bother.''