Case Of The Stolen Bucket Truck In Beaumont Ends In Arrest

BEAUMONT, CA — Based on a DNA match, a suspect was arrested Friday for allegedly stealing a bucket truck Oct. 8 from a Beaumont street — an act that seriously injured a contractor, who was thrown from the bucket while the thief ditched the vehicle and made a getaway, according to authorities.

Investigators, at the time, took a DNA swab from inside the truck, and a match fit 57-year-old Michael Larue, a homeless person from Banning, who was stopped a day earlier in the same vicinity, the Beaumont Police Department said Monday.

"Unfortunately, the officers investigating this case did not have a lot of information to go on," the agency said. "There were no witnesses who came forward, security cameras in the area did not pick up the incident, and the victims did not see the suspect, so they were also unable to provide any clues."

"The DNA came back to a transient from the City of Banning," police added. "Ironically enough, the same subject had been stopped by officers close to the scene of the accident earlier in the evening and prior to the collision."

In addition to injuring a worker, the October incident, which occurred on a Thursday about 3 a.m. near Beaumont Avenue and Oak Valley Parkway, caused extensive damage to electrical and utility wires along Oak Valley Parkway from Beaumont to Cherry Avenue, where the vehicle was found abandoned, the department said.

The vehicle's thief slipped into the truck — while the contractor was in the extended bucket — and drove off, officials said at the time.

The suspect continued along Oak Valley Parkway as the bucket and contractor careened into power lines and other utility cables. The worker was eventually thrown from the apparatus and seriously injured, according to police. The truck crashed into a tree at Cherry Avenue, and the suspect fled the area.

On Friday, Beaumont officers located and arrested Larue. He was booked at Smith Correctional Facility in Banning for suspicion of vehicle theft, felony vandalism and mayhem.

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--Patch editor Toni McCallister contributed to this report