Mother's hunch helps solve theft of fire truck
When she heard the vehicle had been stolen, alarm bells went off about her 17-year-old son.
TAMPA -- Angerloe Bellamy saw a TV news report about a fire truck stolen over the weekend and immediately thought of her son's fascination with lights and sirens.
"I just knew it was Michael," she said.
Bellamy, 40, called law enforcement about her hunch. Monday evening, the Hillsborough Sheriff's Office arrested Michael Bellamy, 17, on charges of grand theft and making a false 911 report.
They said he telephoned the Bloomingdale Avenue Fire Station and identified himself as a representative of the fire truck maintenance company.
He knew enough of the jargon to sound legitimate, said Ray Yeakley, county Fire Rescue spokesman. He told them he needed to pick up a reserve truck.
Then, deputies said, he phoned in a fake emergency to 911 to get all the station's employees out of the building.
No one knew the vehicle had been stolen until it was found stuck in sand at a construction site Monday on Causeway Boulevard at 86th Street.
In court Tuesday, Senior Judge Perry Little ordered the Progress Village teenager to be held in juvenile detention until July 8.
After the hearing, Bellamy's mother said that Hillsborough County Fire Rescue employees who befriended her son at two other stations may have "taught him just a little too much."
He helped wash the trucks over the years, but he also picked up how to operate the keyless ignition, she said.
Her son, who she said suffers from bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, "probably thought he was a firefighter."
Angerloe Bellamy said Michael's affection for all things related to public safety may have been inspired by her history of grand theft and drug charges. She was released from prison in 2003 after a 12-year stint.
She said she has turned her life around and hoped her son had, too, after he was charged with grand theft in 2005 for helping steal $10,000 in concession stands proceeds from the Tampa Bay Youth Football League.
She would like the court to place her son in a facility that provides mental health treatment.
"I think today might be his turnaround," she said. "We're not saying when you do these things it's okay. No. I want you to do better. I don't want you to go down the path that I went down."
Yeakley said officials will re-evaluate their procedures to make sure equipment is safe and handled only by the appropriate people.
Firefighters will still let visitors tour their stations and trucks, he said. But they will be more cautious about mentoring situations.
"A long-term relationship with somebody would have a tendency to send up a red flag for us now," he said.
