Grady Crowley appeals after he was convicted in a bench trial, upon stipulated facts, of possession of cocaine, giving false information to a police officer and misdemeanor obstruction of an officer. As the sole issue on appeal, Crowley asserts that the trial court erred in overruling his motion to suppress evidence. “Because the evidence at the suppression hearing was uncontroverted and no question regarding the credibility of witnesses was presented, we conduct a de novo review of the trial court’s application of law to the undisputed facts.” Citation omitted. Hughes v. State, 269 Ga. 258, 259 497 SE2d 790 1998. The evidence shows that in the early morning hours of June 25, 2002, Officer Tony Lefreniere of the Walton County Sheriff’s Department was patrolling the downtown area of Social Circle. As he was driving through the streets, he noticed a vehicle parked in a driveway with its parking and brake lights flashing. In his experience, he knew that the flashing lights could indicate that a silent car alarm had been triggered, although he also acknowledged that he knew that such alarms could be triggered by a random motion, such as a passing car. The officer remained in the area for a couple of minutes to determine if someone was trying to break into the vehicle, but neither saw nor heard anything.
Officer Lefreniere then drove around the area to investigate. Approximately five to seven minutes after first observing the flashing lights, the officer spotted Crowley coming out of the woods on a bicycle approximately 50 to 75 yards behind where the car was parked. The officer got out of his patrol car to talk with Crowley. In response to the officer’s questions, Crowley gave his name as “Roy Lee McGuire” and stated that he had just gotten home from work at the Legette and Platt plant. The officer knew that the plant was in Monroe, some ten miles away, and he suspected Crowley’s story that he bicycled all the way from the plant. Before the officer could ask any more questions, however, Crowley said “man, I got to go,” and took off on his bike. The officer pursued him, initially in his patrol car and then on foot.
