Sure, stealing a bucket truck sounds like a practical escape plan, but it’s all fun and games until you realize that you don’t know how to control the boom and take out trees, utility poles, and traffic signals. Thousands of people in Long Island are still without power after one such rampage.

Police say that a worker with New York’s Metropolitan Transit Authority couldn’t move the welding equipment that he wanted to steal with his own vehicle, so he stole the truck. Unfortunately, he didn’t know how to do that without destroying a Long Island neighborhood along the way.

Neighbors said that the damage looked more like a massive storm had come through the neighborhood overnight. Not a truck. “We came outside and saw limbs everywhere like a tornado went through,” one resident told CBS 2. “I never saw so many power lines down in my life.”

The man had been with the MTA for 23 years, but also has an extensive criminal history. He faces charges of criminal mischief, intentional damage to property, and reckless damage to property.

Man Runs Amok With Stolen Bucket Truck; Blacks Out 6,000 On Long Island [CBS New York]

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