A veteran Polk County deputy turned in his badge Monday after his wife and mother-in-law were accused of taking his patrol car for a joyride in Lakeland.

Jail records show Deputy Charles Buckner's wife, Gail Buckner, is a convicted felon. A man riding in the back seat of the stolen patrol car also is a convicted felon, reports show.

Charles Buckner, 44, had served 21 years with the Polk County Sheriff's Office, officials said.

Gail Buckner, 38, and her mother, Sharon Cooper, 54, face charges of vehicle theft, theft of a firearm and impersonating a law-enforcement officer, the arrest affidavit shows. Gail Buckner also faces charges of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.

James Quintasket, 19, rode in the back seat of the patrol car. He faces charges of grand theft, impersonating a law-enforcement officer, grand theft of a firearm, possession of a firearm or concealed weapon by a convicted felon and resisting an officer without violence.

Reports show witnesses saw Gail Buckner driving her husband's marked patrol car erratically on Lake Highlands Road on Sunday at 11:30 a.m. A Polk County deputy spotted the patrol car approach him and then make a U-turn on Crews Lake Road.

The deputy followed the patrol car to Buckner's home in south Lakeland.

Jail records show Gail Buckner had been arrested before under her maiden name, Gail McClain.

Sheriff's investigators launched an internal probe of the patrol car theft.