A Western Australian couple are accused of going on a drug-fuelled rampage with a stolen $150,000 tractor through country Victoria, before crashing into a fence at an army base.
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Quinn Schmook, 36, and Tanya Taylor, 38, were arrested at Puckapunyal after allegedly taking the tractor and being chased by police.
Police allege the couple from the small wheatbelt town of Narrogin were travelling through northeast Victoria in their Subaru wagon when about 8am on Saturday at Arcadia South they parked near a creek.
They are accused of walking into a machinery shed and got into a 2019, 7.5 tonne John Deere tractor with a hay feeder trailer attached, starting the tractor with the keys that were inside, and driving away.
The tractor was driven along the Goulburn Valley Highway towards Seymour while the front end loader bucket went up and down, according to documents released by Benalla Magistrates Court on Tuesday.
By 10.20am, witnesses say they saw a man with no shirt on in the driver's seat and another person standing to his left while the tractor swerved across both lanes, almost hitting a bus, with someone calling triple zero.
Ten minutes later, police found the tractor still driving with the bucket completely raised and tried to stop it, turning on lights and sirens, through the main street of Seymour.
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But police say the tractor did not stop and instead nearly rolled when it went through a roundabout under the Hume Freeway, so police turned off their lights and sirens and kept following it.
The tractor had reached Puckapunyal Military Base by 10.48am and one of the police cars overtook it, with an officer allegedly spotting Taylor sitting on Schmook's lap steering the farming equipment.
A minute later, the tractor crashed into the base's security fence, causing $50,000 damage.
The pair are accused of appearing drug affected when finally arrested, and a preliminary oral fluid test indicated a positive for the drug.
They had to be hospitalised because of their state.
They have been charged with multiple offences including theft, dangerous driving, possessing methamphetamines and trespassing on commonwealth land.
Neither were required to enter a plea and will return to court at a later date.
Australian Associated Press
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