Police say a homeless teen stole a front-end loader with a snowplow attachment from the Market Basket parking lot in West Plymouth and drove it in the dark down Bourne Scenic Highway to the Cape Cod Canal.

Officers in Bourne did not release the 18-year-old suspect's name but said he would be charged with driving without a license and receiving a stolen vehicle.

Early Tuesday Bourne police officers working the overnight shift found the tractor making its way down the Bourne Scenic Highway with a young man behind the wheel. They stopped the vehicle near the canal after learning it was traveling on Head of the Bay Road.

According to the Cape Cod Times, the teen, who said he was homeless, initially told police that he was moving the equipment for the Medway construction company that owned the tractor, but then changed his tune and said he was driving the machine to visit relatives in Dennisport.