Created: 8/22/2007 5:17:33 PM 
By Grayson Kamm First Coast News
JACKSONVILLE, FL -- A wild police chase crossed counties and took deputies from a St. Johns County gas station to a hospital in Mandarin.
It all started at a Hess station on State Road 207 near Interstate 95 in St. Johns County. John Peterson says he threw his keys onto the front seat of his truck, and went inside to grab a bottle of water. When he came back out, his ride was racing down the road.
"And I looked to see my car, where it should have been. And it wasn't in the spot right in front of the station," Peterson said.
He and the store's staff scrambled to call in the crime to the St. Johns County Sheriff's Office.
St. Johns County Deputy Gene Tolbert said a patrolling deputy spotted the stolen Toyota Sequoia. "Our units found the vehicle in the area of County Road 210 and [Interstate] 95, [and] followed it for a short amount of time. It began driving recklessly. We did not wind up pursuing the vehicle for safety concerns."
But that wasn't enough to stop C.J. Riney. Riney said the speeding truck flew past him on the highway, spraying his car with gravel. So Riney, a regular Joe, took over the chase down I-95.
Riney said he "followed them, they were doing about 115, 120 at that time. And I followed them up to St. Augustine Road." The two vehicles had crossed the Duval County line, and they raced into the parking lot at Baptist Medical Center South.
"When I stopped behind the truck, I hollered at him," Riney said. "Once he turned around and looked at me, he took off into the hospital."
Jacksonville police say inside the hospital, the suspect pulled off his shirt, then rushed out a back door.
Police say the suspect hid inside a sweltering port-a-john on a hospital construction site until a police K-9 unit caught his scent and flushed him out.
Officers got their man, and a stunned John Peterson got his truck back.
"I'm not gonna leave my keys in the car anymore," Peterson promised. "And it's pretty wild. I can't believe, this car, nothing happened to it."
No one at the hospital was hurt. Still, police say, as much as they want help from folks in the community -- they don't want anyone chasing a suspect down the highway. That's their job.
Police say Willie Bradford has confessed to stealing the car and leading the chase. According to a Jacksonville Sheriff's Office report, Bradford told officers that he had been stood up by a date in St. Augustine and his friend who had given him a ride had left him behind.
So, Bradford said, he took the truck because it was too hot to walk back to Jacksonville.
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