9/11/19 – Prattville, AL – Man Breaks Into Volunteer Unattended Firehouse – Steals Pick Up Mini Pumper And Is Identified Driving It – The $60,000 Brush Truck Was Found Abandoned

Man arrested after stealing ambulance from Vanderbilt

September 11, 2019

www.montgomeryadvertiser.com

It didn’t take long for an alleged fire truck thief in Autauga County to get his comeuppance.

Matthew Tyler Weathers, 23, of the 100 block of Ball Enright Road is charged with burglary and theft, said Sheriff Joe Sedinger

The 2004 Dodge Ram 2500 pickup was stolen  from the Pentecost Volunteer Fire Department station at about 1:30 p.m. Monday, Sedinger said. The truck, was last seen on Highway 145 in the Gap of the Mountain area, he said. 

 Video from the fire station’s surveillance cameras showed a shirtless man scaling the fence and getting inside the building. Media outlets showed the video Tuesday and that’s what’s being credited with the break in the case.

“We got a call from a citizen saying who it was, and where he was; the Chilton County Jail” the sheriff said. Weathers was in the lockup in Chilton County on unrelated charges. 

Records show Weathers was released from the Autauga Metro Jail on Thurdsay, after being held on unrelated charges from the Prattville Police Department.

The truck was recovered in the woods about a mile off of Chilton County Road 535, which is in the Pentecost area. The truck was spotted by crews of an Alabama Law Enforcement Agency helicopter which was searching for the truck. All the equipment on the truck was also recovered.

The truck sat in the sheriff’s office impound yard in Prattville Tuesday afternoon waiting for investigators to process it. Once that is done the truck will be turned over to the fire department.

“We recovered the truck, the equipment, everything but the key,” Sedinger said with a laugh. “It was just good, old fashioned police work and help from concerned residents.”

The red truck, which is decked out with red lights on the roof and Pentecost Volunteer Fire Department decals on the doors, carries a water tank in the bed and was used as a brush-fire fighting truck. The truck and equipment are valued at $60,000.

The suspect somehow got the code for the keypad to enter the station, Sedinger said. The fire chief and several members of the department have reviewed the surveillance footage of the man entering the station and told investigators they do not recognize him.

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