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Crime

A Canadian Pulled a 'Florida Man' Hat Trick Over Christmas

“Don’t do crystal meth,” said Richard Hogh after being released from jail.
Orlando police

Enter the words "Florida man" into Google, and you'll be treated to a plethora of wacky crime headlines, often involving lewd acts, disproportionate displays of anger, and fast food. This is, after all, the state where a man high on bath salts ate another man's face off.

Enter Calgarian Richard Hogh, 27, who, while at the Orlando airport over the holidays, decided to embrace the shit out of the Florida man trope.

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Hogh was arrested last week after he took a stolen luggage tug on a pantless joyride along the airport's tarmac. When he was released from Orange County jail this week, he explained his actions to reporters with the following warning: "Don't ruin your life kids. Don't do crystal meth."

The saga began on Dec. 23—an extremely busy day for any airport—when Hogh boarded a United Airlines flight destined for Chicago, a stop on his way back to Calgary.  According to the Orlando Sentinel, after getting on the plane, Hogh sat down in a first class seat that didn't belong to him. When he was called out, he claimed he was a pilot and that he "wanted to sit in the pilot jump seat," according to arrest records. Airline staff kicked him off the flight because he was "behaving erratically," an airport spokeswoman told the Sentinel.

When an airline staffer tried to book him a different trip, Hogh took off, leaving his luggage at the gate. He then went onto a service elevator with an employee who noticed he didn't have the right security badge. That employee told him to leave, at which point he "got out, took off his pants, and walked away," the Sentinel reports.

Now on the ground floor, a half-naked Hogh hopped onto the passenger seat of a luggage tug. The operator reportedly got freaked out by Hogh—who said he had to catch a flight—and got off the luggage tug, at which point Hogh started driving it, right down a taxiway.

He never made it onto any runways, though the flights near him were briefly put on "ground hold."

Finally, a firefighter a ran up to the luggage tug, jumped aboard and physically detained Hogh. He was charged with grand theft and trespassing.

Follow Manisha Krishnan on Twitter.