Charges laid against man accused of stealing city truck
Vehicle strikes barricades, parked cars and signs before being boxed in by police
Charges have been laid against a man who allegedly stole a City of Edmonton truck from the O’Keefe Service Yard compound Tuesday night, police said Wednesday.
The 35-year-old was arrested just after 8 p.m. Tuesday when police pinned the truck at the intersection of 103A Avenue and 97 Street.
Staff at the compound at 10542 Fort Hill Rd. reported hearing a disturbance at around 7:45 p.m. and called police.
The Ford F-350 truck was later seen being driven “erratically and dangerously” through downtown Edmonton, hitting barricades, a parked car and a road sign before tactical and canine units intercepted it at the intersection less than a block from Edmonton Police Service’s downtown headquarters.
Police said the man “appeared to be high on drugs.”
Eyewitness Katherine Archibald said when the police cars pinned the vehicle, officers jumped out and began trying to smash the windows.
“It was all in a matter of five seconds,” she said.
“I had my windows down and you could hear them screaming, ‘Get out! Get out!’”
The city ’s open space operations supervisor Travis Kennedy said security arrangements at the yard had recently been reviewed and that “vehicle keys are in a locked box, and vehicles in the yard are locked.”
He added that several vehicles had their windows smashed and steering columns damaged.
“We are thankful that nobody was seriously hurt, that police quickly captured the person allegedly responsible, and that our security measures provided quick notification about the incident,” Kennedy said in a statement.
Kennedy also said the yard’s main sliding gate was damaged and the doors at the back entrance to the building smashed.
Jay Robert Paul Pombert was charged with break-and-enter, theft of motor vehicle, two counts of attempted theft of motor vehicle, dangerous driving, criminal hit and run, criminal flight, fail to stop at scene of accident, driving while disqualified, mischief and several breaches of conditions.
No one was injured during the incident.