Some people refuse to learn their lesson unless it’s the hard way. That’s especially true when it comes to criminals. Such was the case when a suspected car thief was confronted by a fed-up forklift driver—and, luckily for us, it was caught on camera. It gets even better when we hear the 911 operator’s unexpected response to the shocking ordeal.
Employees at Arlington Auto Wrecking in Akron, Ohio, were sick and tired of people breaking into their shop and stealing from them. So, when a man, later identified as 26-year-old Alexander Funk, broke into one of their vehicles, they decided to get creative, going to extreme measures to make sure he wouldn’t get away, 19 News Cleveland reported.
After realizing Funk was still inside the car, the junkyard employees decided to act fast, lifting the car up into the air with their forklift and leaving the suspect hanging in the air while they waited for police to arrive. Their efforts worked and were captured on unbelievable body camera video by the Akron police, but first came the amusing 911 call.
“So, he’s still in the car about 20 feet in the air in the loader,” the Arlington Auto Wrecking employee told the 911 operator, who responded with a laugh, saying, “Wonderful, that is the greatest thing I’ve ever heard,” before reassuring the caller that they would “get somebody out” to the scene. Of course, that “somebody” was the Akron police, who were thankfully equipped with body cameras.
When police arrived at the scene, the fed-up employees explained that this wasn’t their first run-in with Alexander Funk. They claimed this was the third time he had broken into one of their cars, so they decided they were going to do everything in their power to ensure he didn’t get away. To call their efforts effective is a bit of an understatement. Watch:
“We’re having a lot of trouble here with people stealing stuff and everything and we got a guy that’s passed out or crashed in one of our vehicles in our yard and I got the vehicle picked up with the loader and he’s probably 20 feet in the air now and I refuse to drop this thing to let him out and run,” an employee explained. “I mean we’ve just had so much problems here with theft and catalytic converters and just fires and everything.”
Arlington Auto Wrecking explained that they had already let Funk go the first time and that he allegedly got away the second time. “I was putting the car in the shop, and he was in the backseat, and we called the police on him,” an employee recalled while speaking with police. “We were waiting for you guys to get here and he shoved one of my guys out of the way and took off running and you guys were looking for him over there across the street for about an hour. That’s the third time now, it’s the same guy.”
After police arrived, the vehicle was gently lowered to the ground so officers could apprehend the suspect, and Alexander Funk was arrested for criminal trespassing and possessing criminal tools. According to police, he was wearing a backpack that contained a sawzall cutting tool, sawzall blades, and several other hand tools, which seemingly made his intentions pretty clear as did his own admission.
Although Funk initially didn’t want to give officers his name he was running from someone, his story eventually changed when pressed about the equipment in his backpack. “Alright man well here’s the deal — this lot is, there’s been a serious amount of break-ins and converters cut off and you got a Sawzall and you’re in a private area of the business not open to the public,” an officer told Funk. “So, what do you got the Sawzall for?” the officer then asked, to which Funk replied, “Uh, copper to be honest brother, not gonna lie.”
Once back at the station, officers were still talking about the alleged thief and the shocking ordeal. “He broke into a car at the uh junkyard, and before he could get out, he’s done it before, they got like the forklift, and they had him like, I’m not kidding, like 20 feet off the ground, so when we got there, he went right into custody,” an officer told some other officers during a conversation at the station, which was also caught on video.
In addition to the accusations from employees that this was the third time Funk had attempted theft at Arlington Auto Wrecking, he had also reportedly had many recent run-ins with the law. In addition to being convicted of criminal trespassing, drug abuse, and entering a condemned building, he also had a warrant for disorderly conduct. So, it sounds like this forklift operator did the city of Akron a favor by helping remove a degenerate from the streets.
