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Pinellas deputy's car rammed in fake cash incident at McDonald's

 
Suzanne Hyland, 30, of Orlando is accused of passing a counterfeit $10 at a McDonalds, then trying to flee from deputies with her boyfriend, Albert D. Lowe. While they fled, they crashed into a patrol car, injuring a Pinellas County Sheriff's Office deputy, the Sheriff's Office said. [Courtesy of the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office]
Suzanne Hyland, 30, of Orlando is accused of passing a counterfeit $10 at a McDonalds, then trying to flee from deputies with her boyfriend, Albert D. Lowe. While they fled, they crashed into a patrol car, injuring a Pinellas County Sheriff's Office deputy, the Sheriff's Office said. [Courtesy of the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office]
Published Aug. 12, 2017

CLEARWATER — A deputy was injured Friday morning when a fleeing vehicle rammed his patrol car, the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office said.

Employees at a McDonald's restaurant at 3470 Ulmerton Road in Clearwater called deputies about 8:15 a.m. after a woman used a counterfeit $10 bill. Employees said the woman and a man drove next door to a Rally's gas station.

That's where deputies spotted Suzanne Hyland, 30, of Orlando and Albert D. Lowe, 37, of Winter Haven putting air into the tires of a 2016 Hyundai Elantra.

As deputies investigated, Hyland and Lowe, who deputies described as dating, got into the Elantra and reversed, almost hitting a deputy before striking the driver's door of a cruiser, the Sheriff's Office said. The collision pinned Deputy Jeffrey Nelson's leg between the door and the door frame.

Lowe then tried to exit the gas station's parking lot, but another deputy used the push bumper on his patrol car to disable the Hyundai.

While taking the pair into custody, deputies said, Lowe resisted being handcuffed. Deputies said they used an electroshock device to subdue him.

Paramedics took Nelson to Northside Hospital for treatment of minor injuries, the Sheriff's Office said. Nobody else was injured.

Hyland admitted to deputies she spent the counterfeit bill, according to the Sheriff's Office. Deputies said Lowe told them he tried to flee because Hyland had arrest warrants.

Lowe faces one count each of fleeing and eluding, aggravated battery on a law enforcement officer, possession of counterfeit bills, possession of an instrument for forging bills and violation of parole involving rental property fraud, the Sheriff's Office said. Hyland faces one count each of possession of drug paraphernalia, resisting an officer without violence, possession of counterfeit bills, possession of an instrument for forging bills and uttering a forged bill. She also had warrants a failure to appear involving charges of driving with a suspended or revoked license and resisting arrest without violence.

Hyland remained in the Pinellas County jail on $21,500 bail. Lowe, too, remained in jail on $140,000 bail.