A man driving a farm tractor ran over eight vehicles in the parking lot of a Vermont police station in an apparent revenge scheme, according to local reports.
Police said Roger Pion, 34, of Newport, V.T., flattened seven marked police cruisers and one unmarked personal vehicle at the Orleans County Sheriff’s Department in Derby, V.T., around 12:40 p.m. Thursday.
“We came out and sure enough there was someone who had run over our cruisers with a tractor,” Chief Dep. Philip Brooks of the Orleans County Sheriff’s Dept. told WCAX.
Not only were their roofs and hoods caved in, but “the radios are ruined, the radar detectors, the cages in the cars … We’re going to have to get the jaws of life up here to pry the trunks open and see about the rifles and shotguns,” Sheriff Kirk Martin told the Associated Press.
With the vehicles crushed, police had no way to pursue Pion after he drove off in the tractor.
Police say Roger Pion took out more than half of the sheriff department's fleet -- some of its newest vehicles were only four months old.
“It felt like I was in a Monster Jam rally or something,” witness Rene Morris told WCAX. “I just couldn’t believe it. He’s backing up, going over it, turns around, makes his way to the other vehicles smashes those up, did his business and headed right down Route 5.”
Police eventually caught up with Pion a mile and a half from the police station and arrested him. The motive is still under investigation, but witnesses believe Pion was angry about his recent arrest for marijuana possession and resisting arrest.
Police arrested Roger Pion of Newport, V.T., after the tractor incident. He also was arrested recently for marijuana possession and resisting arrest.
TXT 24
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