Alleged tractor

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Schut

An Alamogordo man was arrested Tuesday after reportedly trying to drive a dump truck, and then a tractor-trailer truck off the premises of a Roswell business, because, he said, he needed to drive to the courthouse.

Gary Schut, 47, has been charged with two counts of burglary of a vehicle along with one count each of criminal trespass and resisting, evading or obstructing an officer, according to an affidavit filed Tuesday in Chaves County Magistrate Court.

Bond was set for Schut at $5,000 by Magistrate Judge James Mason during a hearing Wednesday. No name of an attorney representing Schut was listed in court records Wednesday.

Schut is alleged to have ventured into a gated area of a 3701 S. Main St. business at about noon, where employees could access vehicles and equipment. Court records indicate he then tried to drive away in a dump truck before then attempting the same with the tractor-trailer. When police arrived, he was reported to have physically resisted attempts by officers to take him into custody.

The owners of the vehicles and the business claim to have not known Schut. Later it was learned that before the incident he was on the property and even was talking with one of the employees who was sitting inside a vehicle eating lunch.

At one point, Schut was reportedly inside the dump truck, when per court records, he told an individual, who later turned out to be the business owner, that he was having trouble starting it. The business owner then subsequently entered the trick and started it.

Schut then apparently asked the business owner who he worked for, causing the business owner to turn off the truck and take the keys away.

Per court documents, Schut then got out of the dump truck and got into a nearby tractor-trailer that was left unlocked with the keys inside. He reportedly started the truck but was unable to drive away because the airlock was on, thereby preventing the brakes from releasing.

When police arrived, Schut allegedly told them he was using the truck as part of a driving test and needed to be allowed to proceed. He also said that he needed the truck to drive to the courthouse.

Schut insisted the truck was his and that he had done nothing wrong. When officers went into the vehicle and attempted to physically remove him, police say he continued to hold onto a part of the semi's interior, hindering efforts to extract and subdue him.

Once he was out of the vehicle and on the ground, court records indicate Schut continued to try to prevent officers from putting his hands behind his back. Twice police deployed their Tasers on Schut before he could be successfully placed in handcuffs.

Electronic court filings state Schut has a criminal history that stretches as far back as 1998. Most recently, he pled no contest to a charge of shoplifting as part of a change of plea agreement on Monday in New Mexico's 5th Judicial District Court. The terms of the sentence he received were not spelled out in court documents, but it did say he had to appear before Adult Probation and Parole within 24 hours of his release.

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