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BEAUMONT, Texas-- A joyride in a $650,000 fire truck Tuesday has moved the Beaumont Fire Department to re-evaluate procedures to prevent future thefts.
Phillip Sims, 17 and charged with first-degree felony theft, was being held in the Jefferson County Correctional Facility Thursday with bond set at $75,000, said Crystal Holmes, Beaumont Police Department spokeswoman.
Sims is accused of taking the truck Tuesday morning while firefighters were inside an apartment complex responding to an electrical short.
While traveling from the scene, the 44-foot-long truck tipped on its side when the driver tried to negotiate a turn too quickly on the city's West End, according to a police report. The driver fled the scene.
Police found Sims in a garage where a police officer said the youth lunged at him. The officer then struck Sims several times, the report said.
The truck, which runs off mechanical buttons and did not have keys in an ignition, will require extensive repairs, said Buddy Anderson, a representative of the dealership that sold the city the Quint 9 who surveyed the apparatus Thursday.
The cab was destroyed - with the front bumper twisted forward, the left windshield shattered and the other severely cracked.
The entire right side of the body will need replacing - the storage areas were so badly damaged the doors won't close. The ladder, with visible bends in the metal, sat atop the truck caked with bits of dried mud - evidence of when the truck slid on its side during the crash.
Anderson prodded the massive piece of machinery and looked into tiny crooks with a small flashlight to try and spot the less obvious signs of damage.
"This being such a massive apparatus, you never know what's hidden," Anderson said, adding there might be problems with the engine, the water tank and the generator. "This truck has been through a lot."
Depending on the cost, the city, which is self-insured, will have to decide whether to ship the truck to Wisconsin for repairs or buy a new truck, said Terry Denson, a fire department maintenance shop foreman.
"You are getting close to the approximate cost of the truck (with the repairs)," Denson said. "It must have slid a long way."
Interim Fire Chief Pete Shelton hopes it will be the last time this type of theft happens and plans to take preventive measures.
"I'm sure we'll be reviewing and looking to see if there's anything we can do to prevent it, but maybe it's one of those isolated situations that happen in a lifetime," Shelton said. "We will be evaluating and investigating ways to prevent this type of problem."
Copyright by The Beaumont Enterprise 2007.
Republished with permission of The Beaumont Enterprise.
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