Ranchers stop fugitive fleeing in bulldozer

By Floyd Whiting Buffalo Bulletin Via Wyoming News Exchange
Posted 4/11/19

Andy Stevens didn't think twice when he stepped out of his vehicle, grabbed his hunting rifle and pointed it at a fugitive driving a bulldozer through his neighbor's property.

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Ranchers stop fugitive fleeing in bulldozer

Posted

BUFFALO — Andy Stevens didn't think twice when he stepped out of his vehicle, grabbed his hunting rifle and pointed it at a fugitive driving a bulldozer through his neighbor's property.

“He came to a fence and a gully he couldn't get through," Stevens said. “He was coming up the fence and my father-in-law and I stopped, and I jumped out and asked him to politely stop the dozer and he did. It wasn’t that wild or wooly.”

On Monday, Stevens and his father-in-law, Bill Long, helped apprehend Jeremy Daniel Singer, 36, who had fled from a traffic stop about 11 hours earlier. Singer led local authorities on a chase before ditching his vehicle on Cook Road.

Stevens said Singer stole a steel track bulldozer from a property owner and the trail wasn't hard to follow.

“When we were tracking him, he was in a steel track bulldozer on damp soil,” Stevens said.

Stevens and Long had been tracking Singer in the dozer through their own property and their neighbor's property when they found Singer traveling approximately 5 miles an hour in the dozer.

Stevens then asked Singer to exit the bulldozer while holding him at gunpoint with his hunting rifle.

“We were told that he was armed,” Stevens said. “As soon as he saw me, he put his hands up and stopped the dozer. I opened up the door, and I asked him to get out. He did and got on the ground and that was the end of it.”

Stevens and Long contacted the sheriff's office once Stevens realized that Singer might be on his land.

“Once I figured out that he came over Schoonover Road and onto our property in a bulldozer, cause another guy had seen him, then we started calling the sheriff's office and letting them know where we were at,” Stevens said. “My father-in-law was already in contact with them once I got out and got him stopped.”

Stevens said Singer didn't put up any kind of resistance or fight.

"I think he was just tired and thought he'd give up," Stevens said. "He'd just gone close to 15 or 20 miles in a bulldozer without the air seat on. So his kidney was probably jarred loose, and he was probably just tired.”

Stevens said he didn't think twice about jumping out and facing Singer, but he said that his part in the manhunt wasn’t glorious.

"I just felt that I had a job to do. I really didn't think about it. I'm pretty notorious for not thinking, just acting," Stevens laughed. “It was a guy running from the cops in a bulldozer at 5 miles an hour."

Singer was taken into custody and is being held while charges are being filed.

As for Stevens and Long, they returned to work the same afternoon in true Wyoming rancher fashion.

“Soon as we were done with that stuff yesterday we just went to fixing fence," Stevens said. "There isn't much to tell. We followed the tracks and stopped him, that was it.”