A man is accused of using a stolen RV to break into the Cape Girardeau Regional Airport grounds after also stealing a truck in Cape Girardeau.

Cape Girardeau police went to a call of a suspicious person at Wal-Mart Supercenter at 7:55 a.m. Monday, said the police department’s public-information officer, Sgt. Rick Schmidt.

“He was hanging around the parking lot or looking at the cars, doing something to that effect,” Schmidt said.

Before officers arrived, the man stole a gray pickup truck and drove south, striking a delivery truck in the process, Schmidt said.

Police received calls of a gray pickup truck traveling at a high speed as the suspect drove south before exiting Interstate 55 at Nash Road, Schmidt said.

The suspect tried to drive on the I-55 on-ramp before leaving the roadway and abandoning the truck in a muddy field, Schmidt said.

At a nearby motorhome dealership, Youngblood’s Capetown RV, general manager Paul Russell said he was finishing morning prayer in his office when “someone hollered, ‘There’s been a motor home stolen!’”

A customer needing his motor home serviced had parked in the dealership lot and walked inside to speak with staff when the suspect stole the motor home and drove toward the airport, Russell said.

The motor home, Russell said, was worth about $65,000 and was towing another vehicle when the suspect stole it.

Russell described the thief as a white man over 6 feet tall, wearing jeans and a long-sleeved T-shirt.

The thief used the recreational vehicle to ram through an airport gate before abandoning the vehicle, Schmidt said.

“[The suspect] got into an unoccupied, non-running helicopter, got out of the helicopter and asked some bystanders for a ride,” Schmidt said.

Russell, who followed the man to the airport after discovering the theft, said the man told the bystanders, “This is a reality show we’re filming, and you’ll be reimbursed for any cost, any damages.”

When bystanders declined to give the man a ride, he locked himself in a nearby SUV, Schmidt said.

“The owner of the SUV opened the doors with the key, and the subject was taken into custody without further incident,” Schmidt said.

The man, whose identity police have not released, then was taken to a hospital, but not for injuries, Schmidt said.

“He’s up there for other types of evaluations and stuff like that,” Schmidt said.

“This was stuff like you see in the movies,” Russell said of the episode.

tgraef@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3627