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Country Singer Busted For Joy Riding
Griggs, 27, and Kevin Weaver, 23, apologized and told police they stole an ambulance parked in front of a motel as a practical joke, according to the arrest report. They drove a block before turning back. The incident happened at 2:45 a.m.
The paramedics assigned to the vehicle told the Tallahassee Democrat they heard the ambulance start up and saw the two men drive away. The paramedics had parked at a response station at the motel and left the keys in the vehicle – a violation of the ambulance company’s policy.
When police arrived, “The defendants were talking with the ambulance driver/witnesses, telling the witnesses they had taken the vehicle for a ‘joy ride,'” according to the arrest report.
Griggs and Weaver were taken to the Leon County Jail, and released later in the morning after posting bonds of $1,000 apiece.
The singer immediately resumed his tour schedule and played a show in Davie, Fla., that night.
The paramedics where reprimanded by their employer for leaving the keys in the ambulance, which was not damaged during the incident.
Grand theft auto is a third-degree felony punishable by as much as five years in prison, said Kevin Bradshaw, spokesman for the Tallahassee Police Department. But under Florida law, the maximum sentence would require an extensive criminal record, Bradshaw said.
Griggs scored a Top 10 hit in 1999 with “You Won’t Ever Be Lonely.”
A spokesman for Griggs’ record label, RCA Records in Nashville, had no comment.