Cops: 3 arrested after asking about fuel for stolen truck

Three teens were arrested in connection with an armed carjacking in Boca Raton after, police say, they drove the stolen truck to a tow yard and asked a mechanic what type of fuel it needed.

The carjacking occurred at 2:15 a.m. May 5. But 11 hours later, police responded to a call at Panther Towing, 7640 Hooper Road in West Palm Beach, where they arrested the three and recovered the 2015 black Ford F-150 pickup truck.

As police approached the truck, someone threw out a backpack that contained a firearm, according to the arrest report.

The mechanic told police that he knew one of the three, Travis Wildeman, through another person and that Wildeman had contacted him earlier that day with questions about the truck. The mechanic told police that he understood through Wildeman that the truck had been stolen.

The owner of the truck told police that he had just left a bar and parked outside a friend’s apartment. He was walking to the friend’s apartment when three people approached him, two with guns pointed at his head. The robbers ordered him to open the truck door, according to the report.

The truck’s owner identified Wildeman as one of the people who had pointed a gun at him.

Wildeman was charged with robbery with a firearm and possession of a weapon, for which he was charged as an adult. He was ordered held at the Palm Beach County Jail on a $50,000 bond. The status of the two other teens arrested is unclear and their names were not released.