Firefighter’s Jeep stolen from station while crew responded to call

Samantha House
Syracuse Media Group, N.Y.

CICERO, N.Y. — Minutes after the firetruck pulled away Friday evening, a man stepped into the Cicero fire station and started to look around.

The Cicero Fire Department left the Route 31 station to investigate a fire alarm. Firefighters said the man entered the empty firehouse and looked for something to steal.

The suspect took a set of car keys from a locker, firefighters said, and then stole a firefighter’s Jeep from the station’s parking lot. The theft was captured on the fire department’s surveillance camera.

Cicero firefighters posted a news release and surveillance photos of the suspect Saturday morning on Facebook and asked the public for help finding the suspect and the missing Jeep. The Cicero Police Department is investigating, firefighters said.

A crew left the Cicero Fire Department’s 6109 Route 31 station in a firetruck at 6:37 p.m. As the truck pulled away, the bay door did not close -- leaving an entrance to the firehouse open, firefighters said.

The man walked into the firehouse after the firetruck left the station and checked the lounge to see if he was alone, firefighters said. He then looked in the firefighters’ lockers, pocketed a set of keys and walked out of the open bay door, firefighters said.

The suspect headed to the station’s side parking lot and used the keys he’d stolen to enter a firefighter’s Jeep Grand Cherokee, firefighters said. He pulled away in the stolen vehicle, firefighters side -- heading east on Route 31 toward Thompson Road.

When firefighters returned to the station about 30 minutes later and discovered the Jeep was missing, Cicero Fire Chief George Barrett reported the theft.

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The stolen vehicle is a brown 2017 Jeep Grand Cherokee. It has volunteer firefighter license plates numbered VF14895.

Firefighters said the suspect appears to be a white man in his 30s. He carried a white plastic bag and wore a backwards baseball cap, black pants, blue shoes and a black hooded sweatshirt under a blue jacket.

Firefighters asked anyone with information about the suspect or theft to call 911.

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