A 37-year-old Charlotte man is facing more than a dozen charges after leading Union County Sheriff's deputies on a chase that ended with him hiding under a porch in Stallings. Timothy Lewis refused to stop when deputies tried to pull him over for a fake license plate, deputies say, eventually abandoning his car, jumping a fence, and running on foot before a K-9 tracked him down.
According to a statement posted on Facebook by the Union County Sheriff's Office, deputies on evening patrol spotted the forged plate on Lewis's vehicle and attempted to stop him. Per Queen City News, Lewis instead drove into a business parking lot before fleeing, and deputies deployed stop sticks that deflated the vehicle's tires. The brief pursuit ended when Lewis ditched the car, jumped a fence, and took off on foot.
K-9 Finds Him Hiding Under a Porch
A Stallings Police K-9 unit ultimately located Lewis hiding under a porch on Aurora Boulevard, the outlet reports. Stallings, a suburban town spanning Union and Mecklenburg counties, had an estimated population of roughly 16,886 residents as of 2024, according to MMCG Analytics. The town's location just across the county line made it the endpoint of a chase that began on evening patrol elsewhere in Union County.
Chief Operations Deputy Tony Underwood said Union County deputies will pursue, find and arrest fleeing suspects, according to the station's report. “Think again,” Underwood said, characterizing the department's stance toward drivers who refuse to stop, per the same account. The line gave the incident its headline treatment in the original report and underscored what deputies describe as a zero-tolerance posture toward evading arrest.
A Long List of Charges
Lewis was charged with felony speeding to elude arrest, along with a string of misdemeanors: driving while license revoked, impaired driving, driving or allowing a registered plate not to be displayed, altered plates, failure to register a vehicle, possession of marijuana between a half-ounce and an ounce and a half, no liability insurance, aggressive driving, and assault on a government officer or employee, the article notes. He posted a secured bond of $10,000, per the outlet.
Under North Carolina General Statutes § 20-141.5, fleeing or attempting to elude an officer is normally a Class 1 misdemeanor, but it becomes a Class H felony when two or more aggravating factors are present — such as driving with a revoked license, gross impairment, or reckless driving — according to the North Carolina General Assembly. Separately, displaying or possessing a registration plate known to be fictitious, canceled, revoked, or altered is a Class 3 misdemeanor under N.C.G.S. § 20-111(2), the General Assembly's statutes show. Assaulting a government officer actively carrying out official duties, meanwhile, ranks as a Class A1 misdemeanor — the highest misdemeanor classification under state law — according to the UNC School of Government.
Part of a Busy Week for Union County Deputies
North Carolina law also requires that any vehicle driven by a suspect arrested for felony speeding to elude arrest be immediately seized and surrendered to the county sheriff pending trial, under N.C.G.S. § 20-141.5(g), as outlined by the UNC School of Government's criminal law blog. It remains unclear whether that forfeiture process has been formally initiated against Lewis's vehicle.
The Union County Sheriff's Office reported a separate chase over the same weekend, in which a driver refused to produce a license at a Weddington checkpoint, fled deputies, crashed on Beulah Church Road, and tried to run before K-9 officers caught him, according to the sheriff's office's Facebook statement. Deputies also used stop sticks in February 2025 to disable a truck driven by an impaired fugitive who led law enforcement on a multi-county chase along US 74 near Monroe before crashing and fleeing on foot, the sheriff's office has said. The agency was previously named a national “Hit of the Month” winner by Stop Stick, Ltd. in September 2023 after a deputy used tire deflation devices to disable all four tires of a fleeing suspect's vehicle.
Hoodline has covered similar incidents involving Union County deputies in recent months, including a arrest in a soybean field after a driver fled a traffic stop in August. The Union County Sheriff's Office operates out of its main facility at 3370 Presson Road in Monroe, where it also runs the county detention center, according to the agency's website. As with any pending case, the charges against Lewis remain allegations until resolved in court.
