IslandMix

Thinking police are on his tail, a Largo resident dives into a storm drain - and gets trapped.

LARGO - It was a scene straight out of The Fugitive, minus Harrison Ford and the Hollywood ending.

Daniel Willard Rhodes, 31, of Largo spotted the helicopter against the dark sky late Wednesday night or early Thursday morning. The police were moving in, he thought, so he dived into a storm drain near 113th Street and Walsingham Road, the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office said, recounting Rhodes' version.

On his hands and knees, he crawled through a dark maze of water-filled storm sewers, reaching a storm grate about three-quarters of a mile away, deputies said. Then he was stuck, unable to find his way back, unable to jimmy the grate at Seminole Boulevard and 122nd Avenue.

Night became morning.

And no one was hunting for Rhodes - at least, not the Sheriff's Office. The two warrants for his arrest - one for driving on a suspended license and a second for a probation violation - were not the type to generate a large-scale manhunt.

About 9:10 a.m., Rhodes spotted someone walking by and shouted for help. The passer-by called 911 and Rhodes' brother, David.

The man-in-the-sewer 911 call brought a large-scale response from Seminole Fire Rescue, Sunstar Ambulance, Pinellas County utilities and the Sheriff's Office.

Once the grate was removed, Rhodes had a lot of explaining to do. He told deputies he chased his dog into the sewer. He gave his name as David Rhodes, not knowing that his brother had already arrived at the scene.

Deputies said they confronted him with this coincidence, and Rhodes, holding his shirt drenched in foul water, 'fessed up. He said he thought the police were on to him, deputies said.

Rhodes was arrested on a charge of obstruction for giving his brother's name and put in the back of Deputy Don Klase's cruiser.

"There was a good aroma coming from the back of the car," Klase said. "I advised him that we're going to give him a shower once we got to the jail."

Rhodes, who remained in jail Friday in lieu of $5,500 bail, could not be reached for comment on how his cell compared with the sewer.