Woman arrested, accused of vehicle burglaries

"She also stated that she did not mind going to jail. She needed to sleep and to quit smoking," the Collier County sheriff's deputy's report reads.

Julie Loretta Thomas, 34, who didn't list an address on reports, is suspected of breaking into three vehicles in East Naples early Friday morning, running from one pickup to another to elude deputies.

Reports give this account:

Deputies were called to the 3000 block of Bayshore Drive around 12:15 a.m. where a man reported seeing a woman rummaging around inside his pickup. Two men approached her and tried to keep her in the truck, but Thomas ran away, heading toward Bayview Drive.

Deputies started searching the neighborhood for Thomas and found her in the 2800 block of Bayview Drive inside a Ford Ranger pickup. Deputies say they spotted her foot hanging out of the truck door.

When deputies approached her, she tried to move away and said she was waiting for a friend. When deputies told her to stay still, Thomas struggled with deputies. She took a swing at one deputy, punched her and grabbed at the deputy's neck. Two more deputies arrived to help control Thomas.

The owner of the Ranger told deputies that the cab light had been dismantled and a rock had been left on the floorboard. He also noticed that the ignition cover was broken and there were scuff marks on the dashboard.

Next to the truck, deputies noticed a third vehicle had been ransacked. The owner said $1 and some change was missing.

Thomas, who is a documented career criminal, was uncooperative with officers.

She told deputies that she knew how to play the court system and would get probation and get released. And she said she welcomed a jail stay for sleep and as a way to quit her tobacco habit in the jail where smoking is prohibited.

Thomas was charged with three counts of burglary, one count of attempted grand theft auto, criminal mischief, petty theft, battery on a law enforcement officer and resisting arrest with violence.