JACKSON, MI — A 32-year-old Jackson man apparently bet a friend he could make off with a street sweeper in the wee hours of July 7. But his getaway was anything but clean, according to the Jackson Citizen Patriot newspaper "I think he won the bet, but he lost out in the end," said Mike Jester, deputy director of the Blackman Township Department of Public Safety. Dustin Martin was arraigned Wednesday on charges of vehicle theft and resisting and obstructing justice. He is being held at the Jackson County Jail, and bond and a preliminary exam will likely be set today. Blackman Township officers responded to a tip from a 911 caller who heard the sound of the sweeper and thought it was strange for streets to be cleaned around 4:30 a.m. An officer stopped Martin driving the street sweeper northbound on Lansing Avenue near Henry Road. After being pulled over, Martin calmly climbed out of the sweeper and darted off behind a farmhouse, then back out onto the road, the officer reported. The man was apprehended in the woods about a mile from where he was stopped. "There is nothing in the report that indicates he had been drinking," said Tom Finco, director of the Blackman Township Department of Public Safety. The street sweeper, owned by Williams Excavating Co. on Lansing Avenue, had been parked along Lansing Avenue with other equipment for a road construction project when it was taken, Jester said.
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