DOCUMENT: Bizarre, Crime

Woman Blames Potion For Fire Truck Theft Bid

Perp told cops she had taken the "Elixir of Life"

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Magic Potion?

SEPTEMBER 10--A Florida Woman who had to be pulled from the cab of a fire engine that she tried to steal denied being under the influence of the usual street potions, but said that she had taken the “Elixir of Life” before trying to boost the emergency vehicle, according to court records.

Responding to a call about a woman acting erratically on the beach in St. Augustine Beach, cops and fire rescue workers late last month discovered Kailani Jo Kroll, 39, in distress.

Kroll, who lives two blocks from the beach, said she needed CPR and other treatment. But while being escorted to an ambulance, Kroll began running back and forth. 

“Due to no crime being committed at this point...I had no reason to chase her,” Officer Brandon Hand reported.

But as police and firemen began entering their vehicles to depart the scene, someone yelled, “She’s stealing the truck!” Kroll, investigators allege, had opened the door of an unsecured fire engine and got in the driver’s seat. St. Johns County Fire Rescue personnel responded by pulling her from the cab.

Witness Jessica Benton told police that, “I thought she was fixin’ to drive off.”

After reportedly struggling with cops who tried to handcuff her, Kroll offered an apology, according to a police report detailing the August 20 incident. “I’m sorry for trying to take the truck, I lost my marbles,” she said. When Officer Hand asked if she “was under the influence of anything,” Kroll replied “she was not but had taken the ‘Elixir of Life.’”

The potion is not further described in court filings, but the mythical mixture is supposed to grant the drinker immortality. In the world of Harry Potter, the elixir is produced by the Philosopher’s Stone. It is unclear whether such alchemy was at work in St. Augustine Beach, a city 50 miles south of Jacksonville that faces the Atlantic Ocean.

Seen above, Kroll was arrested for grand theft auto, a felony, and resisting law enforcement officers, a misdemeanor. She was freed from the county jail after posting $2000 bond. (2 pages)