You Just Can't Make This Stuff Up

Man accused of stealing fire truck.

What a long, strange trip it was: Deputies in Stanley, N.M., say a 25-year-old man went on a joyride with two fire trucks.

Deputies say Colin Bruneni, 25, broke into the town’s volunteer fire department and seemingly made himself at home.

They say it looks like he made a drink of coffee, sugar and cocoa – stirring the concoction with a tampon. He also apparently tried to move some equipment from one vehicle to another.

Then, deputies say, he got in a fire engine and drove off – to the town’s other fire station.

Bruneni allegedly pried open the door of the other station and took a brush truck from the station for a spin.

Volunteer firefighter Jamie Morris says he spotted the man and confronted him: “I said, ‘Well, what’s your name?’ He said, ‘I can’t tell you that. It’s classified. I’m with the fire department.’ “

Morris says he didn’t recognize the man as part of the town’s thirteen-member all-volunteer department.

Deputies later found Bruneni hiding in some brush, still wearing reflective fire gear from the station.

Bruneni will undergo a psychiatric evaluation, according to Santa Fe County Sheriff Greg Solano.