A man who allegedly stole a semi-truck Monday, Dec. 26, engaged in an hourslong standoff at a Veterans Affairs hospital in Orlando, Florida's Lake Nona neighborhood.
The Orlando County Sheriff’s Office said it received a call around 6:25 p.m. saying that a man stole a semi-truck, without a trailer, and that he had hit several vehicles in Lake County and was heading into Orange County.
The sheriff’s office helicopter followed the truck until it parked at the entrance gate to the hospital, according to a news release by the sheriff. Once parked, the man who was identified as Edward James Dial, 45, of Citrus Spring, refused to get out of the vehicle for several hours.
Deputies eventually used a chemical agent to get Dial out of the truck and arrested him without incident around midnight.
According to the arrest affidavit, the truck was registered as stolen out of Gwinnett County, Georgia. Deputies say Dial changed his story about the truck at least twice, saying the truck belonged to him, then saying he got it from someone else. He also told deputies that he was living in the truck.
Dial faces a charge of grand theft third degree-motor vehicle. He also was served an out-of-county warrant for fleeing or attempting to elude law enforcement and leaving the scene of a crash with property damage, deputies said.
