{"id":59684,"date":"2025-12-05T17:20:16","date_gmt":"2025-12-05T22:20:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=59684"},"modified":"2025-12-05T17:20:21","modified_gmt":"2025-12-05T22:20:21","slug":"polk-county-deputies-searching-for-driver-in-deadly-2021-hit-and-run","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2025\/12\/05\/polk-county-deputies-searching-for-driver-in-deadly-2021-hit-and-run\/","title":{"rendered":"Polk County deputies searching for driver in deadly 2021 hit-and-run"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Lakeland hit-and-run crash that left 36-year-old Antonio Smiley dead on Dec. 5, 2021, remains unsolved four years later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 A hit-and-run crash on Dec. 5, 2021, left 36-year-old Antonio Smiley dead. Now, four years later, the Polk County Sheriff’s Office is asking for help tracking down the driver responsible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to deputies at the time, Smiley was riding his bicycle around 6:15 p.m. when he was hit from behind by a “work van” on 1st Street NW near Stroud Road in the Kathleen area of Lakeland.<\/p>\n\n\n

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The driver left the scene. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sheriff’s office said Smiley was speaking with first responders when they arrived, and his injuries did not appear to be life-threatening. However, Smiley died after he got to the hospital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A witness told deputies the van that hit Smiley was an older model white Ford E350 work van. It was captured on a residential security camera<\/a> as it drove off. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The van had damage to the right front passenger side and a broken headlight on the same side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The driver of the van knew that a person was struck, and then made no effort to check on Mr. Smiley. He or she showed no concern for Mr. Smiley’s condition. In fact, the only concern the driver had was to get away as quickly as possible. I can promise you, our detectives are going to do everything they can to find that van and the person responsible,” Sheriff Grady Judd said at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anyone with information on this unsolved case is asked to contact the Polk County Sheriff’s Office at 863-298-6200. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Even the smallest bit of information could help solve the case,” the sheriff’s office wrote in a post.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those who wish to remain anonymous, and be eligible for a reward, can report their tip to Heartland Crime Stoppers at 1-888-400-TIPS (8477) or online.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Lakeland hit-and-run crash that left 36-year-old Antonio Smiley dead on Dec. 5, 2021, remains unsolved four years later.  A hit-and-run crash on Dec. 5, 2021, left 36-year-old Antonio Smiley dead.… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":59685,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"1746","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNVwvMTJcL1NjcmVlbnNob3QtMjAyNS0xMi0wNVQxNzE1NDIuMDQ0LndlYnA_Zml0PTY5MyUyQzI5OSZzc2w9MSIsInR4dCI6IlBvbGsgQ291bnR5IGRlcHV0aWVzIHNlYXJjaGluZyBmb3IgZHJpdmVyIGluIGRlYWRseSAyMDIxIGhpdC1hbmQtcnVuIiwidGVtcGxhdGUiOiJoaWdod2F5IiwiZm9udCI6IiIsImJsb2dfaWQiOjE2MzA0MDY2MX0.PyPdHpIxVzyOd2OSaKK0tdn7Iu9bS45mtEqexnf9eQoMQ"},"version":2,"attached_media":[{"id":59685,"url":"http:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Screenshot-2025-12-05T171542.044.webp","type":"image\/png"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[1746],"tags":[12783],"class_list":["post-59684","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-heartland-crime-stoppers-florida","tag-polk-county-deputies-searching-for-driver-in-deadly-2021-hit-and-run"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59684"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59684\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59686,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59684\/revisions\/59686"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}