A 23-year-old (presumably former) University of Missouri employee drove his Volkswagen Passat through a gate outside Mizzou Arena early Sunday morning. According to the St. Louis Post Dispatch, the driver then somehow managed to steer said car onto the basketball court inside the arena, causing roughly $100,000 in damages.
According to the Dispatch, police officers determined that the damage was caused around 4:00 a.m. Sunday morning; they were called out to investigate three hours later. The current suspect, Nathaniel Conant, reportedly drove his vehicle through a gate on the arena’s south side before driving his car into the arena via its loading dock.
From there, according to police, he damaged “several golf carts” present in the loading dock area, managed to both find the basketball court and drive his car on it, and made his grand exit via the loading dock. When he realized he couldn’t drive out the same gate he’d drove in, Conant leveled the media gate and made for the street.
Police have estimated Conant caused over $100,000 in damages to Mizzou Arena—in photos from the school’s student paper, at least on skid mark is visible on the court; the damage to the golf carts seems to be largely cosmetic.
According to the Dispatch’s Dave Matter, Conant hasn’t worked for the school since February. During his time as a Missouri employee, he worked as an events assistant for the school’s dealings with the SEC Network, which, per Matter, amounted to “pulling cables.” Conant turned himself on Sunday 12 hours after the joyride. He was officially arrested for second-degree burglary and first-degree property damage, later posting a combined $10,500 bail.
If you have any information related to Conant’s joyride—really, we just want to know how the hell he got it on the court—please contact us.