“He landed and took off twice, made two 360-degree turns in the air and nearly hit another airplane.” That’s a line from last week’s Las Vegas Sun report on a joyride in a stolen Cessna by a man named Paul Weddle. His blood alcohol content was .132, and his mug shot is accordingly epic. How does this incident in Boulder City stack up to other notable joyrides?
• In 1993, a 16-year-old named Keron Thomas impersonated a subway train operator in NYC and took passengers on an 85-stop whirlwind. No one was hurt, and as far as we know, everybody got to work on time.
• Last December, a winter storm turned the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art into a playground for some ATV drivers. The vehicles weren’t stolen, but the stunt is straight out of Rocky.
• This past New Year’s Eve, some punks stole some cars and illegally street raced in Belfast, Northern Ireland. One politician called it an “orgy of destruction,” which would’ve been a way better title for The Fast and the Furious.
• Back in LA in the 1980s, my 2-year-old neighbor jumped in his battery-powered red Corvette and drove to the nearest gas station. Naked.