Soldier steals armored vehicle, takes it on two-hour ride in Virginia: police

Lol. I expect this from Florida but not you Virginia

This is a legendary Joyride. I hope it's worth his stay in Leavenworth.

Poor guy must have cracked under the pressure or had some sort of a meltdown.
Or maybe it was his turn to do the beer run?

In any case he is in a world of s***!

(Reuters) - A soldier stole an armored personnel carrier from a National Guard base in Virginia on Tuesday and took the vehicle on a two-hour drive that ended in a police chase through downtown Richmond, the state capital, state police said.


The suspect then drove the military vehicle, which was not equipped with any weaponry, east on Route 460 and then north into Richmond on Interstate 95 at about 40 miles (65 km) per hour, Geller said.

Once in Richmond, several police squads followed the armored personnel carrier, which travels on tracks similar to a tank, through downtown as it headed toward the Capitol building, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported.


Capitol police officers with combat-style rifles guarded the entrance to Capitol Square as a police helicopter shined a spotlight on the vehicle and police worked to stop traffic, the newspaper reported.

“This is INSANE! Someone has hijacked a ‘Tank-like’ vehicle from Fort Pickett and just drove it by our apartment!,” Parker Slaybaugh, the communications director for the Virginia Speaker of the House, said.

Police tased the suspect, who was identified as a military soldier, Virginia State Police spokeswoman Keeli Hill said during a news conference.

I'm glad nobody was hurt and that we can have a chuckle about this.
Drive safe everyone!

It was an LT.

Hardly a soldier. More like a child you have to babysit.

Point made.

The best part about it? It was on Killdozer Day.

I know those days - when you are desperate for a drink late at night, you'll use any means possible to get to that 7-11 store before closing time.

It was an LT... oh my god that is priceless...

Yet they think us knuckle draggers are the problem in the military, I bet officers across the military were writing up a new death by power point while this was going on, and now they will pretend it never happened.

When I was in ROK a crew chief got drunk one night and took off with a Blackhawk. Another time someone in motor pool stole a 5 ton and went joyriding one night or maybe that was drunk driving too.

I bet it was relationship driven.

Pun unintended, but fitting nonetheless.

a reply to: Grimpachi

When I was in ROK a crew chief got drunk one night and took off with a Blackhawk.

As a Blackhawk crew chief, I can only imagine how that went over.

Drunk no less? If that were me I'd fly myself straight to the crash site. lol

a reply to: dashen

HAHA I am loving ATS today! Great find you

As amusing as this is, this particular line from the article

Capitol police officers with combat-style rifles

stands out a bit to me. Why does this in any way matter? Just curious...

It would be cool to do that, but it isn't a wise thing to do. I suspect he will be locked up for a while unless he is related to an important politician.

Some years back there was an M-60 tank taken for a joy ride in San Diego, although the guy got shot!

Lucky he wasn’t shot.

Here’s a quote about some odd tweets that he made on Tuesday.


He wrote a series of odd tweets Tuesday, including: “where is this damn water buffalo” ”all i wanna do is get an anime wife“ and ”wow I think I just discovered a large illegal spy operation in the us government.“

my tank!! so close, and yet so far away....
lol... the first thing I thought of this morning when I heard this was....
It wasn't me!!!
hope the guy had fun, because well,.. got a feeling he's gonna be paying a pretty steep price for his joy ride...

a reply to: dawnstar

I don't know, given those tweets or whatever they were, I'm guessing a stay at an institution is in his immediate future. What comes after that, as you say, will be fairly steep and long.

originally posted by: seagull
a reply to: dawnstar

I don't know, given those tweets or whatever they were, I'm guessing a stay at an institution is in his immediate future. What comes after that, as you say, will be fairly steep and long.

Well his first step will be to be brought before a sanity board. If they decide hes sane he will go to jail along time. Odds aren't good for him in the military you have to be a raving lunatic they deem 1 our of 100 insane. And only half of those are fou d unfit to stand trial.

The Lieutenant will be found to be unfit for military service and medically discharged. He, then, will be placed into the custody of the Virginia police and adjudicated. He, mostly likely, will not see any military time because the military doesn't want to spend any resources on these type of matters...just get rid of him.

When I was serving in Germany it was quite a common occurrence I remember an APC being buried into the front of the officers mess lol the driver did a runner or rather a stagger and got away with it.

a reply to: stormcell

or any means to get in after they close...

New model no less .
Very Nice now every one will want one .

Ok so the dude took it for a ride n one hert not even any damage .
If the dude is clean he will get community service lol .

Once wile going into a dollar store a cop had left his car running wile going in ( alot do ) took ever thing i had not to drive it around back lol .
Man just immange the look on a cops face who left his car running then imange the look on his suppieros faces