NORTH MIAMI BEACH, Fla. – It wasn't his first ride in a police car, but it was his first time behind the wheel of one. Stalyn Hernandez, 28, is charged with grand theft of a motor vehicle, a North Miami Beach police car.
It happened Sunday afternoon. The black and white cruiser was parked on the south side of the station on NE 19th Avenue, outside the secure area where the other police cars are parked.
Records show the car was unlocked and the key was inside. Hernandez just hopped in and drove away.
What are you going to do with a police car? You've got to be crazy," said acquaintance Michael Rivero.
Residents can't figure out what Hernandez was thinking, although according to report, he explained himself when officers stopped him a few blocks away.
"I just wanted to drive around for a little bit," he allegedly told police.
"What? I thought he was kind of crazy, or he was high, because the way he looks all crazy when he comes over here," said a woman who lives in the apartment complex where Hernandez told police he lives.
Rivero said he doesn't live there, he just comes by every now and then. He also claimed Hernandez has a drug problem and may have been high at the time he got behind the wheel.
"When he use the marijuana, he goes really, really crazy. He does crazy things and it goes through his mind to be the president of the United States and bomb all the countries and he starts stealing things," Rivero said.
The police car wasn't damaged. North Miami police have initiated an internal investigation into how Hernandez was able take the cruiser for a Sunday spin.
Hernandez is currently being held in the Miami Dade County jail on $5,000 bond.