Suspected spy drone leads to confrontation and criminal charges in Flagler County
A suspected spy drone, a hatchet and a tale about a confrontation in some woods off State Road 100 near Palm Coast led to the arrest of a man accused of wasting the time of numerous Flagler County Sheriff's Office deputies on a stabbing that never happened.
Chase Mott, 24, of Ormond Beach, was charged with filing a false police report which also put him in violation of his probation from a Volusia County case. He was booked into the Volusia County Branch Jail on Wednesday where he remained Friday on the alleged probation violation.
About 25 law enforcement officers were dispatched to the scene after a report of a stabbing suspect on the loose. The Flagler County Sheriff's Office Major Case Unit was also contacted. The response consumed about three hours.
The Major Case Unit alone had spent 29 hours investigating the incident as of April 29, a report stated.
A suspected spy drone
The bizarre incident began with a call just after 4 p.m. April 19 about a man running out of the woods near Colbert Lane and State Road 100 with a bloody leg.
Flagler County Fire Rescue and Flagler County's "Fireflight" helicopter responded.
From a hospital bed where he was being treated for his injury, Mott told a sheriff’s office commander that he was at a camp site near his work across State Road 100 at Tomoka Marine when the drone he was flying crashed. Mott said when he went to retrieve his drone, an attacker stabbed him with an ax. Mott said he was able to grab the ax and flee.
Man annoyed by drone knocks it out of the air
Detectives also spoke to Maria Morris and Zachary Saunders at the camp near Tomoka Marine. Morris said she saw a drone hovering outside their trailer window multiple times that day. Her husband said that when he spotted the drone spying on him and his wife, he grabbed a stick and knocked it out of the air, the report stated.
Saunders said that’s when Mott arrived and began yelling “to kill him because the drone was his life.”
Saunders said Mott tried to grab a hatchet from the ground, but he tackled him.
Mott then fled “in a bizarre skipping type of fashion,” the report stated, and the hatchet and drone were no longer there.
Saunders then said he heard a loud scream in the woods. He said Mott's leg was bleeding and he was yelling “He just stabbed me.”
But a witness confirmed Saunders’ story and said he could not have stabbed Mott.
During the interview at the hospital, Mott kept changing his story, saying he was not stabbed but that he got cut falling on the ax. Mott then says the alleged suspect was holding an ax, "a big long sword" and "a weapon" and "I guess a bowie knife."
Later Mott changed his story and said the alleged attacker did hit him with the ax.
But Mott’s story didn't hold up. After being told of the time and resources spent looking for the attacker, Mott admitted he inflicted the injury upon himself.
In June 2022 in Volusia County, Mott was sentenced to two years community control followed by five years' probation for burglary of an occupied dwelling and criminal mischief.
As it turns out, Mott was not even supposed to be across the street from Tomoka Marine due to the condition of his community control, according to a report.
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Florida man fakes stabbing after confrontation over spying drone
