Posted Wednesday, November 20, 2019 10:15 am

Daytona Beach, FL - Daytona Beach Police say 37-year-old Issac Butts drove a front-end loader about 1.5 miles on Monday (November 18) before they found and arrested him.

The investigation shows that Butts began his joyride in the vehicle lot of Tarmac of Florida located on Madison Avenue. Police were called to the location at about 9:20 p.m. on Monday after getting a report about someone climbing the barbed wire fence into the lot. Officers found some kind of fabric on the barbed wire near where the suspect was said to have climbed over.

Through the fence, officers could see the large machine being operated in a normal fashion by a black male, who would later be identified as Butts. They signaled for the suspect to come to speak with them and the loader started to move toward the office on the lot.

As the officers were making their way to the office, they heard aloud banging noise. They came around the corner of the office to see a car in the parking lot with two females inside. There was also a man on the road, moving a broken piece of the gate. As the officers stopped to question the three people, the loader was seen traveling westbound on Madison Avenue.

The officers determined that the three people were not involved in the incident and that they were almost hit by the loader when it came out on the street. They had only stopped because the piece of broken gate was on the road.

Another officer found the loader near Nova Road and George W. Ingram Boulevard, almost a mile-and-a-half from where it was stolen from. Butts was arrested and charged with three felonies. They are Unarmed Burglary from an Unoccupied Structure, Grand Theft of $100,000 or more, and Criminal Mischief/Damage to Property of more than $1,000. The front-end loader is valued at approximately $250,000 and the damaged gate will cost about $4,000 to replace.

Butts remains in custody at the Volusia County Jail on a bond of $17,500.