Above: A man who reportedly tried to steal a 15-foot steel tank was caught when the tank crushed the bed of the pickup truck carrying it, causing some erratic driving. Photo via the Sullivan County Sheriff's Office.
A 33-year-old Glen Wild man bit off much more than he could chew when he stole a 15-foot metal tank from the site of the former Concord resort in Monticello, police say.
Not only did Douglas Furman attempt to move the enormous tank with a too-small pickup truck, but he was under the influence of drugs while he did it, according to the Sullivan County Sheriff's Office.
On Friday, Sept. 4, Furman took the steel tank from the Concord property and attempted to take it to a scrap yard in Liberty, police say.
Left: Douglas Furman. Photo via the Sullivan County Sheriff's Office.
But transporting the tank was a problem. Furman managed to hoist the tank onto the bed of a pickup truck, but as he drove the tank crushed the metal of the truck's flatbed and tailgate and began dragging along the ground.
The weight of the tank lifted the front tires of the truck "almost off the ground," according to a press release issued by the Sullivan County Sheriff's Office last week.
"This guy wasn't stopping for anything," Undersheriff Eric Chaboty said.
Furman was spotted driving erratically on Big Woods Road in Harris, tank in tow. When the police arrived, they arrested Furman and charged him with driving while ability impaired by drugs, then issued him a ticket and released him.
On Sunday, Sept. 20, after an investigation found that Furman apparently took the tank from the Concord property, police arrested him again, this time charging him with felony grand larceny and misdemeanor criminal trespass. Furman was sent to the Sullivan County Jail on $1,500 bail.
On Monday, Sept. 21, Thompson Town Justice Martin Miller decided to keep Furman in jail until he could be released under the supervision of the county probation department, according to the Times Herald-Record.
The judge acknowledged that holding Furman in jail for his oddball crime could seem "excessive," the paper reports:
"It may seem excessive, but it doesn’t to me,” Miller said.
