Police in Flint, Michigan say Darnell Ogeda, 34, climbed into an unlocked fire engine outside Station 3 on Thursday night and drove it three miles before officers boxed him in near a Meijer parking lot.
The Flint Fire Department confirmed the engine, a 2019 Pierce pumper truck valued at roughly $650,000, was parked outside Station 3 on Saginaw Street with its keys in the ignition while crews responded to an unrelated medical call. Officers with the Flint Police Department say Ogeda climbed into the cab around 11:40 p.m. Thursday and pulled away with the lights running. Chief Ryan Bowley confirmed the department is reviewing why the truck was left unattended and unlocked.
Dispatch logs show the truck traveled roughly three miles before officers used two patrol cars to box it in near a Meijer store on Miller Road. No collisions were reported, though police say the truck clipped a curb and a trash can along the route. The department estimates repair costs at under $2,000, but the incident pulled the engine out of service for six hours, during which a mutual-aid truck from Genesee Township covered its district.
"He just wanted to see what it felt like to drive a fire truck."— From the Flint Police Department incident report
Three miles, one curb
Ogeda, a Flint resident with no listed permanent address, was arraigned Friday in Genesee County District Court. He faces charges of unlawfully driving away an automobile and operating a vehicle without a license, according to court records filed the same day. Judge Herman Marable Jr. set bond at $10,000 cash or surety.
Court filings note Ogeda told responding officers he "just wanted to see what it felt like" to drive a fire truck, a detail included in the police report attached to the criminal complaint. The truck's onboard GPS, which the department uses to track response times, recorded the joyride's exact route and logged a top speed of 38 miles per hour in a 25 zone.
Michigan's unlawful driving away of an automobile statute, MCL 750.413, covers taking any vehicle without permission regardless of intent to permanently keep it, and applies to municipal vehicles like fire engines.
The department reviews its own locks
Chief Bowley said the department has opened an internal review of why the engine was left unlocked with keys inside while crews were on a call, calling it "a lapse we're correcting immediately" in comments to local station WJRT. He said new procedures requiring keys to be pocketed during calls take effect this week.
Ogeda's next court date is set for September 22 in Genesee County District Court, where he is expected to enter a plea. His public defender did not respond to a request for comment. The fire department says it does not plan to pursue restitution beyond the roughly $2,000 in curb and trash-can damage already estimated.
The truck is back in service. The keys are not left in the ignition anymore.
Woman Sets RECORD Riding Lawn Mower Cross-Country
Only In America
A 61-year-old grandmother from Nebraska finished a 2,800-mile ride across ten states this week, driving nothing but a modified riding lawn mower topped out at 12 miles per hour.
Marla Steeby left Omaha in July and rolled into Ocean City, Maryland on September 2, according to local coverage of her arrival, towing a small trailer with a tent, a cooler and a spare fuel can. She slept in campgrounds and church parking lots along the route, charging her phone off a solar panel bolted to the mower's hood.
Steeby says the mower, a stock Cub Cadet she bought used for $1,400 and fitted with a taller seat and extra fuel tank, never broke down once in nine weeks on the road. She says the only real trouble was a Pennsylvania state trooper who pulled her over on a rural highway, unsure whether the mower was street-legal, and let her go with a warning after checking her paperwork twice.