When confronted about the stolen potato chips, the man “produced a machete, threatened the victim, and fled in a vehicle with the female suspect, investigators reported.

PANAMA CITY BEACH — Law enforcement chased a Florida man across the Hathaway Bridge and up State 390 on Monday afternoon after he allegedly threatened a person with a machete over $17 of potato chips.

The incident began about 11 a.m. Monday when the Bay County Sheriff’s Office (BCSO) was called to Panama City Beach restaurant Scampy’s in reference to Dustin Odum, a 26-year-old Pasco County man recently released from prison who allegedly stole $17 worth of items. The victim, who drove a delivery truck, said he saw Odum enter the vehicle and hand a “carton of potato chips” to a woman standing near the truck.

“When confronted, the man produced a machete, threatened the victim, and fled in a vehicle with the female suspect. The victim was able to describe the vehicle to deputies,” a news release from BCSO stated. “Deputies and investigators ... responded and began looking for the vehicle. It was spotted by an investigator on the side of the road at the intersection of Surf Drive and Choctaw (Street) on Panama City Beach. No one was in the vehicle, so several investigators began to watch the vehicle.”

At some point, Odum returned to the vehicle and fled from officers, BCSO said.

Bay County Sheriff Tommy Ford said Monday evening he was not sure why Odum had a machete or how long he was in Bay County. Numerous police cars and helicopters joined in the chase, during which Odum rammed an investigator’s vehicle “head on” and fled, leaving behind the female suspect, Jasmine Elizabeth Mundy, BCSO reported.

Authorities lost sight of Odum’s vehicle when they pursued him over the Hathaway, but they soon spotted it and followed him again on State 390, the release stated. Investigators said he then drove through a neighborhood, rammed more law enforcement cars and slammed through a chain-link fence during the chase.

Not longer after, he returned to “Highway 390, where he crashed the vehicle into a ditch at Highway 390 and Jackson Way and fled on foot. He was apprehended a short distance later,” the release stated. “Four different law enforcement vehicles were rammed during this incident and two deputies were taken to a local hospital with nonlife-threatening injuries. One is home and another remains hospitalized in good condition.”

BCSO declined to release the identity of the two deputies.

Odum faces several charges, including aggravated fleeing and eluding with injuries, three counts of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and armed robbery. He had “several hundred dollars” on him when he was arrested, Ford said.

“He will be going back to prison,” Ford said.

The woman believed to have been standing near the delivery truck, 24-year-old Mundy, also from Pasco County, was wanted on an active warrant for several charges, including violation of probation for possession of alprazolam, and now also is charged with armed robbery.

Odum previously served time for grand theft auto, burglary of an occupied conveyance and being a felon in possession of a firearm.