BY Maryville Daily Times,

In a move to elude police that would have been better suited for the summer months, a Knoxville man took a chilly dip in Little River after wrecking a truck near Rockford Elementary School Wednesday.

The truck was reportedly stolen.

Because he is currently on federal probation, James Earl Jett, 33, of Knoxville, is being held pending a transfer to the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service.

Deputies responded to Rockford Elementary School Wednesday at about noon to the report of a traffic accident. According to information from the Blount County Sheriff's Office, Jett was traveling east on Williams Mill Road when he lost control of the 2003 Dodge Ram pickup truck he was driving and went off the right side of the roadway, hitting the fence at Rockford Elementary School.

After running the registration on the truck, the responding deputies discovered the truck was reported stolen in Knox County.

A witness told deputies that the driver fled the scene. A sheriff's office K-9 team tracked the suspect to Little River, which runs behind Rockford Elementary School. Jett was found underneath the water, with only his face exposed, concealing his body beneath a submerged tree.

According to information from the BCSO, Jett would not comply with the deputies' commands to get out of the water, and had to be pulled from the river.

Jett was taken to Blount Memorial Hospital by Rural/Metro Ambulance Service where he was treated for hypothermia, and released.

He was charged with leaving the scene of an accident, and Knox County is taking out a warrant for Jett on the vehicle theft, a BCSO release stated.

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