“When a deputy pulled alongside and told her to stop, the woman replied ‘Make me,’ ” the news release said.

OKALOOSA ISLAND — A woman bicycling topless down the center of U.S. Highway 98 on Okaloosa Island turned out to be a shoplifting suspect fleeing the scene of a crime, according to the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office.

About 7 p.m. Thursday, a worker at Surfside Outfitters reported a woman having left the store without paying for a pair of flip flops and something else she’d shoved into a bag, a Sheriff's Office news release said.

Not long after, reports of a bare-chested bicyclist began to stream in.

Deputies apparently did not find it difficult to locate the suspect, but rounding her up proved more of a challenge.

“When a deputy pulled alongside and told her to stop, the woman replied ‘Make me,’ ” the news release said.

The woman's arrest report stated that the deputy commanded the woman to pull to the side of the road and stop.

The woman refused several times and finally “the deputy got ahead of her and stopped the woman as she tried to pedal past,” the news release said.

Officers found the items reported stolen from Surfside Outfitters, including a $25 T-shirt.

The woman, a Baton Rouge resident who the arrest report noted had worked as a bartender and in marketing, was charged with retail theft and resisting arrest without violence.