Man takes stolen fire truck for joyride

DIXON, N.M. (KRQE) - A small town here in New Mexico has its only fire truck back after investigators say a guy took it for a wild ride.

Officials are looking for the suspect’s partner Tuesday that they say helped with the raid.

The incident started last Thursday night in Dixon, north of Espanola.

Police say Clovis Romero was chucking rocks at the window of the main fire station and then left. Police say about 15 minutes later he goes back, breaks in and takes off in the fire truck.

After that, state police say they found Romero and the truck down the road with more than$13,000 of equipment, about $1,000 of which has since been recovered.

”It's going to impact what we have to operate on for the rest of the year,” Chief Windy Berghofer said. ”He drained the truck…we just barely had enough to make it back.”

Romero's been in trouble before.

He used to be a volunteer firefighter but got fired a few years ago.

The chief says Romero used the department's gas card for his own car.