A City of Santa Barbara pothole-repair truck was reported stolen on Wednesday morning but found in Santa Maria by 11 a.m. the same day. Whether it had been used to fill potholes outside its city jurisdiction was unknown, city police spokesperson Anthony Wagner commented. | Credit: Courtesy

A bright-orange truck from the City of Santa Barbara’s road maintenance fleet was reported stolen on Wednesday morning, the second city work vehicle to have gone AWOL in the past three weeks.

A bulletin went out from city police at 9 a.m. for the hard-to-miss truck, which is used to fill potholes. It had been stolen from the city’s maintenance yard on Yanonali Street, which had been broken into, said Jazmin Lau with Fleet Management. It was found in Santa Maria by 11 a.m., police spokesperson Anthony Wagner wrote in a release, adding: “We are unaware of any potholes that were filled outside the City [of Santa Barbara]’s jurisdiction.”

Another maintenance truck went missing on February 12, this time while its driver was working on a water main leak at State and Ontare at 4:30 in the morning. The truck had been left running, presumably to provide power or light, and an unknown person had driven off in it. The worker only discovered it was missing when coworkers called his cell phone asking where he was going.

That vehicle, which had a crane and other equipment onboard, was found abandoned the next day in Ventura and returned to Fleet Management unharmed and intact.


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