Man Sleeping In Garage Causes Eight-Hour Standoff In OKC

It started as a burglary call to a business in Oklahoma City and led to an eight-hour standoff.

But News 9 has learned why the suspect did not surrender, and even called 911 himself.

Early on the morning of February 9, Oklahoma City Police saw Freddie Johnson inside Robinson's Garage at N.E. 27th Street and Martin Luther King Boulevard. They asked him to come out of the business, but he disappeared.

2/9/2012 Related Story: Police Identify Man Arrested After Overnight Standoff In Northeast OKC

Officers surrounded the building then reported hearing "what sounded to be a shotgun racking." Police locked the building down and the standoff began.

Johnson had actually locked himself in the trunk of a Cadillac. And it turns out he wasn't a burglar. The owner of the business says Johnson works at the garage and sometimes sleeps there.

Police say in an attempt to get out of the situation, Johnson called 911 as a distraction and told the dispatcher he'd seen a man running out of the garage.

Police say Johnson called 911 twice; the second time he gave police a description of a man who ran out of the garage, and that description sounded a lot like Johnson. When the dispatcher asked for his location, Johnson hung up.

"Obviously we had the place surrounded, so we knew that hadn't happened," said Oklahoma City Police Master Sgt. Gary Knight. "That was apparently a ploy on this person's part to draw police away so he could then escape."

When police went inside the garage, they found Johnson hidden in the trunk, along with the cell phone he used to call 911.

Police booked Johnson into jail on complaints of second-degree burglary and making a false 911 call. Prosecutors declined to file charges, saying there's not enough evidence to prove he was committing a crime.

Johnson is still in the Oklahoma County Jail because he also had a warrant out for his arrest for an unrelated incident.