Fugitive arrested after deputies find her hiding in an armoire

Palm Coast Observer
Crime

For the second time in a week, Flagler County Sheriff's Office deputies have caught a fugitive hiding inside furniture in their home.

Nichole Headley (Photo courtesy of the FCSO)

Deputies were responding to the home of 28-year-old Nichole Headley on Front Street in Palm Coast on Jan. 15 after she fled a traffic stop the previous night, according to an FCSO news release.

A man answered the door and said Headley was upstairs in her bedroom, and gave deputies permission to search.

Deputies opened an armoire in the bedroom, and Headley leapt out and ran. She pulled down a boxspring, which had been propped against a wall, in an attempt to slow the deputy following her, according to a charging affidavit.

But a deputy was able to take her to the ground and handcuff her.

Headley has been arrested eight times since 2015, when she was arrested on charges of driving with a suspended license and possession of a controlled substance.

“We do not like to play games, but if a wanted person wants to play games like ‘hide-and-seek’ they should know that we always play to win,” Sheriff Rick Staly said in the news release. “She ran from our deputies and then thought she could outsmart them by hiding. However, what she did not consider is that in Flagler we will not stop until we find you!”

Headley was taken to the county jail on charges of driving with a suspended license (habitual), fleeing or eluding law enforcement, and resisting arrest without violence, according to the news release.

In a similar incident on Jan. 13, deputies caught another fugitive, 40-year-old Jesse Pack, after they found him hiding in a wooden dresser in his home on County Road 200 in Bunnell.