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Teen Deaths Tied To Car Thefts Part Of Disturbing Trend

This image from a surveillance video shows the fiery crash Sunday that killed three teens on U.S. 19 in Palm Harbor
Pinellas County Sheriff's Office
/
The Florida Channel
Leon County Judge John Cooper on June 30, 2022, in a screen grab from The Florida Channel.

On Sunday, three teenage boys accused of stealing cars from a Clearwater dealership died in a high speed crash. This comes in the wake of a growing trend of teen car thefts in Pinellas County.

In 2015, police in Pinellas arrested juveniles 499 times for grand theft auto - more than any other county in Florida.

Zack Sampson and colleagues from the Tampa Bay Times have been following this issue for the past year.

WUSF's Daylina Miller talks to him about the paper's investigation, which included interviews with 16-year-old Deyon Kaigler, one of the teens involved in Sunday's incident.

Copyright 2017 WUSF Public Media - WUSF 89.7

Daylina Miller is a multimedia reporter for WUSF and Health News Florida, covering health in the Tampa Bay area and across the state.
Daylina Miller
Daylina Miller, multimedia reporter for Health News Florida, was hired to help further expand health coverage statewide.