Drunk Rednecks are a danger. Read the whole article. This one knew how to swim.
Posted on 04/24/2015 4:52:34 PM PDT by BBell
William Strength had quite a night. Authorities say the 23-year-old Harvey resident stole an excavator and led Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office deputies on a drunken chase through parts of the West Bank, plowing over trees and utility poles before sinking the 89-ton machine in the Harvey Canal.
No one was injured during the joy ride. But it left behind a path of destruction.
"I just would like someone to pay for the damage," said Albert Daigle, 69, whose business, Daigle Towing Services LLC., took the brunt of the rampage.
The excavator plowed through the locked, chain-link fence on the side of Daigle's property in the 700 block of Peters Road, taking out a telephone pole before plunging into the canal next to a barge. It broke through the wooden bulkheads along the bank of Daigle's tow boat dock and sank in the waterway.
Only the back of the cab was visible above the murky canal water Friday morning. But Morgan Gaudet, 19, Daigle's grandson, said he could tell the excavator's boom was still extended, and he pointed out an oil sheen bubbling up from the submerged machine.
The chase started Thursday (April 23) around 10:30 p.m. when Strength stole the excavator from a construction site under the elevated Westbank Expressway near Pailet Avenue, said Col. John Fortunato, a Sheriff's office spokesman. Deputies spotted the machine moving recklessly in the 2400 block of the lower expressway.
They tried to pull over the excavator, but couldn't do much to stop it because of its size. "He was determined to avoid apprehension at all costs," Fortunato said.
Strength used the excavator as a battering ram, charging at pursuing patrol cars and forcing deputies to stop or swerve to avoid a collision, authorities said.
The Sheriff's Office didn't give the exact route of the rampage. But the resulting destruction
(Excerpt) Read more at nola.com ...
Drunk Rednecks are a danger. Read the whole article. This one knew how to swim.
You know there’s dash cam footage somewhere.
We stayed at the Travelodge in Harvey about eight months before the hurricane of 2005. Probably the dumpiest town place I’ve stayed in memory, including in Cambodia. Absolutely charmless.
His grandkids will know this story by heart.
He probably would have stopped if they had put a few bullets in him.
Is a trail of Harvey destruction anything like a trail of BRD?
Harvey is mainly a commercial and industrial city located between more suburban Gretna and Marrero. What housing that is there tends to the.lower end of the economic scale.
Years go, some guy stole a tank in San Diego. they stopped his rampage by killing him.
I remember that well.
This is pretty common.
Had some retard take a joyride on a CAT 2 ton heavy duty dump truck from a site I was working on one night, found it about a mile away in a canal.
LOL
Come on, I have stayed there too, that particular Travelodge’s lack of charm is what makes it “special”.
Remember the guy somewhere who put armor on a bulldozer and proceeded to try to level a town? They were finally able to shoot him too.
Hey, he was drunk and just needed a way to get home! At least he knew how to start it!
It was in Granby, Colorado and the guy shot himself when the bulldozer became disabled. Marvin John Heemeyer.
The funny part was when he scuttled the excavator and jump in the canal, swimming from side to side so the deputies could not get him. The deputies finally had to use boats to get him out. He’s lucky he did not get shot.
He stopped himself by getting hung up on a concrete barrier. Then they shot him.
A guy swiped a self-propelled 105 howitzer from Ft. Carson in 1987, but he just headed towards Denver until it broke down.
the owner wants “someone” to pay for this. No insurance?
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