I've said it a million times, but I'll say it again...Iowa is the Florida of the Midwest.

Okay, maybe that is a BIT of a stretch, but sometimes you hear about the most random and weird things coming out of Iowa. Like that one story of an Iowa man getting into a police chase in a rented Maserati.

This incident is a bit closer to home, and even more strange.

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One Waterloo man used a peculiar getaway vehicle...a riding mower to commit a crime, as reported originally in the Courier. Local police say that he zoomed away on the mower after breaking into a garage.

Security video showed Waterloo resident James Howard Harrington precariously holding onto everything that he stole from that garage while trying to drive A JOHN DEERE MOWER.

A...

JOHN...

DEERE...

MOWER.

Who was he trying to rob? The cows out at the pasture? Those stubborn weeds on his lawn?

This incident took place in mid-March, which I guess is prime lawn mowing  season...

The video clearly showed the stolen items from this crime spree, according to officials. Harrington wasn't done with his random rendezvous. Reports say that he allegedly stole a bottle of Absolut Vodka from the YesWay store on Franklin street on the same evening of his previous crime.

Do you want to guess what he drove away on?  

THE RIDING MOWER!

Police are saying that he committed TWO crimes and used this John Deere mower as his getaway vehicle for BOTH OF THEM.

The Courier even delved into Harrington's court records which showed that his drivers license was "barred until November 2024," and he also in the middle of another court battle over allegedly taking $112 from Vets Truck Wash. The court records do indicate that he drove away from THAT incident in an actual car, and not a lawn mower...I was almost thinking that we had a serial mower on our hands.

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