Naked women 'air drying' at rest stop face assault, indecent exposure charges

Three nude women who told police they were "air drying" at a Florida rest stop escaped Wednesday and led officers on a high-speed chase before being arrested. According to reports, police used a metal bat, tasers and spike strips during the wild chase that began after authorities started questioning the women's actions.

Officers were responding to a "suspicious persons" call at an I-75 rest area in Pasco County, Florida, when they saw the women "standing in the nude putting on suntan lotion," according to the dispatch audio. Oasis Mcleod, 18, Jeniyah Mcleod, 19, and Cecilia Young, 19, were facing charges including fleeing to elude, aggravated assault and indecent exposure stemming from the alleged chaos.

"There's three women standing in the nude putting on suntan lotion," a Florida Highway Patrol (FHP) trooper was first heard saying to dispatchers, according to local media WTSP. When police approached them, they jumped into a vehicle and fled the scene, FHP said in a statement, adding the driver nearly ran over a pedestrian and an officer, who had to "jump back to avoid being struck by the car.

"I attempted to initiate a traffic stop on the vehicle. As soon as I did so, the vehicle increased its rate of speed, and then the driver entered the oncoming lane of traffic," the statement to ABC News read. "This erratic maneuvering caused multiple vehicles to take evasive action and travel onto the westbound grass shoulder of State Road 52, in order to avoid a collision."

An officer spotted the women later on at a nearby convenience store, where they evaded arrest for a second time. During the final pursuit, officers deployed stop sticks, a pursuit intervention technique to deflate their tires. The vehicle came to a halt, but the women "interlocked their arms together" and refused to exit, police said.

Officers were forced to break the car windows and taser the women to take them into custody. The incident led to minor injuries on some of the officers, FOX13 reported.

"Sgt. Dennis Rich, seeing that Trooper Paulin was in imminent danger, rammed the suspect vehicle with his marked patrol vehicle, and the vehicle fled again," the statement said.

Police found marijuana in the vehicle and one of the women was charged for driving under the influence after failing a field sobriety test, according to court documents.

It's not yet clear when the three suspects will appear in court.

This article originally appeared in IBTimes US.