March 2, 2018 – Johnathon Menth, 27, of Excelsior Springs, is now known as the “Breezy Rider,” after stealing a yellow all-terrain vehicle Sunday, Feb. 25, and taking authorities on a high-speed chase through Clay County—all while he was naked.
Kansas City Missouri police were called to NE Sam Ray Rd. in Kansas City around 2:18 p.m. in response to a suspicious person and vehicle. After arriving at the scene, authorities conducted a canvas of the area looking for a “yellow ATV, and the operator which was described as a naked white male.”
Multiple officers responded to the scene with lights and sirens, but Menth evaded police, operating the ATV through multiple fields, wooded areas, residential areas, city streets, sidewalks and interstate highways, according to Detective Matthew Smith.
Officials caught up with Menth as he was traveling south in the northbound lanes of I-435 near Shoal Creek Pkwy. During the pursuit, Menth was driving erratically and unpredictably, forcing authorities to conduct traffic control in the area, while a police helicopter was dispatched to the location.
Dubbed the “breezy rider,” Menth fled from police on a yellow ATV, unclothed.
Eventually, Menth was involved in a crash at the 6000 block of NE Birmingham Rd. where officers were able to take him into custody. Menth was transported to North Kansas City Hospital for treatment.
Menth was charged with a felony count of Burglary in the second degree and a felony count of tampering with a motor vehicle in the first degree after entering the shed and stealing the 2002 Polaris ATV. Menth was also charged with a felony count of property damage in the first degree after damaging a fence in the pursuit, and a misdemeanor count of sexual misconduct in the first degree for exposing himself.
Menth was arrested and held on a $50,000 bond and is currently being held in Clay County Detention Center.
At his arraignment on Wednesday, Feb. 28, in Division 7 of Clay County Circuit Court, Menth pled not guilty to the charges. He remains in custody, awaiting his next court date.
Forrest Bryant, owner of the ATV, recounted his experience in an interview with Fox 4 News. He called 911 immediately when he saw his ATV was missing. When he told the dispatcher that his ATV was yellow, she started to laugh.
“I said, ‘what’s going on?’ She said, ‘uh, we know where your ATV is. We are chasing the guy now so I expect you will be getting it back but the police will be in contact with you. Somebody will come out,'” Bryant said in the interview. His ATV was eventually returned, after Menth wrecked it and was arrested, but it was covered in mud, with a bent wheel, two nearly-flat tires, and a dead battery.
The seat, too, needed some serious cleaning after the ride it took.
“Well, I think it needs a good sanitizing,” Bryant said in his interview. “I took it to the car wash last night before it got dark and I ran about 8 dollars worth of quarters to it trying to get the mud off of it.”
A judge imposed a $50,000 bond with special instructions that if Menth posts bond, he not go out in public “unless fully dressed.”