The St. Petersburg Times
NEW PORT RICHEY, Fla. — A 36-year-old man was arrested early Saturday after he broke into a hospital helicopter, intending to fly to Clearwater, police said. About 4 a.m., police responded to a report of a suspicious person outside Community Hospital, at 5637 Marine Parkway.
Hospital security officers told police they had asked a man, later identified as Phillip Kan Sikes of 1843 Lexington Place in Tarpon Springs, to leave the hospital.
Instead, he took refuge in the cockpit of a Bayflite helicopter outside.
Officers said they saw Sikes deploy a flotation safety device by pulling an activation cord in the helicopter before saying he planned to fly to Clearwater.
Sikes was arrested without incident on a charge of burglarizing an unoccupied conveyance.
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