18-Year-Old Minnesota man accused of joyriding in stolen plane

Nov. 25 (UPI) -- An 18-year-old man is in jail in Roseau, Minn., after being accused of teaching himself to fly and then stealing an airplane to go for joyrides.

Geoffrey Biteman is facing a 10-year felony charge and is also being investigated by the Federal Aviation Administration.

“It’s kind of an unusual case,” said Michael Grover, assistant county attorney in Roseau. “We don’t see an awful lot of aviation theft.”

The FAA isn’t concerned with the theft charges, but they are worried about irregular piloting.

“We have an unregistered pilot, an uncertified pilot, flying,” said FAA spokeswoman Elizabeth Cory. “We do not have arrest authority but we do cover the safety of flight.” According to Cory, the airplane in question is a Cessna 150 from 1971.

The airplane belongs to Maj. Joshua Rasmussen who is deployed with the Air Force in Afghanistan. His brother, Army Maj. Adam Rasmussen, is in charge of the plane. After advertising it for sale, Biteman contacted Adam about buying the plane. He took it for a test flight and then informed Adam he had found a different airplane to buy.

However, Biteman then began flying the plane regularly “to Baudette, to Drayton, to Thief River Falls, all summer long,” said Mike Rasmussen, father of Joshua and Adam.

Roseau Police Chief Ward Anderson arrested Biteman on Oct. 22 in Thief River Falls. Biteman admitted to using the plane without permission and to not having a pilot’s license, but he did say he was “an aviation mechanics student.”

Anderson said he learned that Biteman flew the plane across the Red River to work for a farmer hauling sugar beets this fall. "The kid landed on the highway at 10 o’clock at night, on an unlit highway and taxied in to (the farmer’s) yard," Anderson said. "It’s like Catch Me If You Can."

Earlier this fall, Biteman pleaded guilty to stealing a horse trailer worth $10,000 back in June. He was towing it behind his pickup truck when he was stopped in Roseau by a State Patrol trooper. Biteman faces up to ten years in prison and up to a $20,000 fine for that felony charge, and will be sentenced Dec. 18.

Clearwater County attorney Richard Mollin said Biteman is no ordinary young criminal. "Our thieves usually are much more pedestrian."

[Grand Forks Herald]