# Tank Rampage & It's Aftermath: Repair Bills



## Yrys (14 Jul 2007)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6898667.stm



> A man has been arrested in Sydney after phone masts were destroyed during a 90-minute rampage in a *privately owned* armoured personnel carrier.
> 
> John Robert Patterson, 45, allegedly smashed six properties including an electrical substation in a path of destruction through six suburbs. Police followed the restored tank in a sedately paced chase until it stalled. A defence lawyer said Mr Patterson claimed "that certainly he had authority to behave in such a manner".
> 
> ...



I don't think the police could have done anything to stop that "vehicule" ... Is it legal in Canada to own those ? And where could a citizen move with that,
considering the low speed that they run ?


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## 3rd Herd (16 Jul 2007)

Tank rage rampage - the repair bill arrives

Sydney - The repair bill after a tank rampaged through the streets of Australia's biggest city at the weekend exceeds A$6-million (about R36,5-million), a court in Sydney was told on Monday.

John Patterson, 35, was denied bail on a string of charges that followed his 90-minute joyride aboard a British-built FV432 Armoured Personnel Carrier.

The Rolls Royce-powered ram tank, stolen from Patterson's former employer, smashed through seven cellphone towers as it wound its way through six Sydney suburbs.

Police looked on helplessly as the 15-ton vehicle brought down anything in its path. They were only able to stop the mayhem when the A$1-million vehicle stalled................................http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=2024&art_id=nw20070716112313124C932229

Also:

Tank rampage through Sydney streets http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/4129552a12.html


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## Staff Weenie (16 Jul 2007)

Man, there has been soooooo many times where I've wanted to do that......

So, what did the cell-phone towers do to this poor schmuck? Reading his thoughts again? Aliens broadcasting into his mind? Or was it all a plot by Major League Baseball?

Again though, another reason for more anti-psychotics - maybe we should just put it into the water - like flouride.......

From a Liberal perspective, maybe we and the Aussies need a "Tank/AFV Control Registry" - should only cost about $2 billion or so.....


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## 3rd Herd (16 Jul 2007)

Anybody know were Wes down under is........................................ ;D


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## Fishbone Jones (16 Jul 2007)

......and once again, because it has tracks, the press is calling an APC a tank :


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## Staff Weenie (16 Jul 2007)

Hopefully not in a holding cell mumbling wildly about cell phone towers..... ;D


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## Meridian (16 Jul 2007)

According to the second link, the guy used to work for the Cell phone company....

Interesting idea - renting out an APC to school kids for High School Prom..... Good god, can only imagine sex in the backseat....


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## 3rd Herd (16 Jul 2007)

The Owners Perspective

Rampage puts tank's owner right off track

Jordan Baker Chief Police Reporter
July 17, 2007

IT WAS a rough night for Greg Morris. In the space of a few hours, the two former British army vehicles he spent years and hundreds of thousands of dollars restoring were consigned to the maintenance shed - and one will be there for a very long time.

When Mr Morris's black 1967 armoured personnel carrier was stolen and used in a rampage across western Sydney on Saturday, its 1963 companion - painted a festive orange - was damaged as well.

Mr Morris estimated it would cost up to $60,000 to fix both vehicles, especially as they were fitted with leather seats, mini-bars and plasma televisions so they could be hired out for weddings, formals and truck shows.

Neither was insured. "I didn't think anyone would steal them," he told the Herald.

Mr Morris's former employee, John Robert Patterson, 35, of Dharruk, is accused of taking the personnel carrier and using it to ram fences and seven mobile phone towers during a wild police chase through western Sydney. Patterson did not apply for bail in Penrith Court yesterday. He faces 15 charges, including one of "predatory driving", several of causing malicious damage and one of driving a vehicle with intent to cause actual bodily harm. Court documents allege that he damaged the orange tank while he was taking the personnel carrier, but did not explain how.

Mr Morris said Patterson used to work for Telstra and held a grudge against the company.

Telstra property, a Hutchinson Communications shed and an Optus mobile phone antenna, were damaged in the rampage.

The shell of the 44-year-old orange tank cost $5000, but hundreds of thousands of dollars were spent restoring it. The personnel carrier is thought to have been used by the British in the 1991 Gulf War.

Patterson helped with the personnel carrier's refurbishment, and was one of only three people who knew the sequence required to start it, Mr Morris said.

The vehicles were now worth about $1 million each, he said. Damage to the phone towers was estimated in the millions.

Repairs to the orange tank would hopefully be finished in time for an appearance on The Footy Show this week, Mr Morris said. Damage to the armoured personnel carrier is far more severe, and it may not see a bridal party for more than a year.

"Things are upside down inside it," he said. "It's all falling out because it climbed up poles and everything."

The vehicles have huge sentimental significance to Mr Morris, not least because the orange tank last year jumped six cars at the Fairfield Showground and crushed several more at a show in Gosford. They are also used for children's entertainment.

Patterson is due to reappear in court on September 28.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/rampage-puts-tanks-owner-right-off-track/2007/07/16/1184559705319.html


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## Munxcub (16 Jul 2007)

Meridian said:
			
		

> Interesting idea - renting out an APC to school kids for High School Prom..... Good god, can only imagine sex in the backseat....



Taking "safe sex" a little far don't you think?


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## Greymatters (17 Jul 2007)

A similiar incident happened in California in 1995 - I remember watching the clip on the news, the cops were only able to stop him afer the tank hi-centered itself on the cement road divider, and the police got the hatch open. 

Story here - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shawn_Nelson


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## Benny (17 Jul 2007)

recceguy said:
			
		

> ......and once again, because it has tracks, the press is calling an APC a tank :


I heard it referred to as both.
Kinda surprising this hasn't happened more often, given that in any tank museum, a large number of the exhibits are in working order.
Gotta be easier to take one from a museum than from a barracks like happenned previously.


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## Yrys (17 Jul 2007)

recceguy said:
			
		

> ......and once again, because it has tracks, the press is calling an APC a tank :



civy question : what is the difference ? I'm way puzzled by that ...


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## Benny (17 Jul 2007)

Yrys said:
			
		

> civy question : what is the difference ? I'm way puzzled by that ...


APCs are primarily troop carriers and can be either wheeled or tracked.
MBTs almost never carry troops and are almost always tracked.


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## zipperhead_cop (17 Jul 2007)

Meridian said:
			
		

> Interesting idea - renting out an APC to school kids for High School Prom..... Good god, can only imagine sex in the backseat....



You can do that with lots of room to spare in a Sherman.   ;D

Umm, or so I was told.  By a guy I know.  Who has a friend...


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## Benny (17 Jul 2007)

Yeah, I know him too, he told me it was doable in an M113 as well.


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## Trooper Hale (18 Jul 2007)

Benny said:
			
		

> Yeah, I know him too, he told me it was doable in an M113 as well.


"Doable"? You could invite a party of swingers into the back of an M113 and they could bring all their weird stuff as well. They'd fit.

I thought this story was pretty funny. But at the same time, it was frustrating because i kept hearing "tank", "APC" and stuff. I thought it was a stuart or honey at first because of the poor quality photos. It didnt look like a 113 to me so i didnt associate it with an APC, i just thought the media were assuming it was an APC because of the size.
I reckon this ruins any chance we had of buying a carrier when they start selling them off... :'(


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## Meridian (18 Jul 2007)

zipperhead_cop said:
			
		

> You can do that with lots of room to spare in a Sherman.   ;D
> 
> Umm, or so I was told.  By a guy I know.  Who has a friend...



Talk about sex in the workplace!


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## geo (18 Jul 2007)

zipperhead_cop said:
			
		

> You can do that with lots of room to spare in a Sherman.   ;D
> 
> Umm, or so I was told.  By a guy I know.  Who has a friend...



Don't think the lady in the long gown would appreceate having to hike up her dress up to her waist - to get in and out ...... before the end of the evening


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