Okland County sheriff said Ram had the Bucking Hemi all along and is considering charges for making a false police report
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- Ram is in hot water after claiming its Bucking Hemi mechanical bull ride was stolen.
- The promotional ride was reported missing after a Roadkill Nights event in Pontiac.
- Now cops are investigating Ram for fabricating the whole story as a publicity stunt.
Ram has always been the bad boy of the truck world, and this week that reputation was cemented when law enforcement announced it was considering bringing charges over what appears to be a publicity stunt gone wrong.
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Earlier in the week, Ram’s CEO Tim Kuniskis asked the public for help recovering the brand’s Bucking Hemi mechanical bull ride, which it claimed had been stolen from a Roadkill Nights event in Pontiac, southeast Michigan, on Saturday.
A Mechanical Bull, a Missing Mascot
The ride-on bull fitted with a giant silver Ram’s head and V8 engine graphics was created to build up a buzz around the return of the Hemi V8 to Ram’s lineup. On Tuesday Stellantis said it was working with law enforcement for its return and produced a digital flyer featuring the word ‘stolen’ in big letters.
“This is bull****,” said the Ram CEO in a statement from the automaker after the theft was reported. “Our Bucking Hemi was taken on Saturday evening. The search is officially on and we won’t stop searching until we get him back.”
From Reported Theft to Possible Hoax?
But now authorities say the only BS is Ram’s story. Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard claims his department is no longer looking for the bull, but into whether to slap charges on Ram for wasting crime-fighting resources.
“The company never actually lost the bull,” Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard said in a statement. “I find this to be very frustrating and a tremendous waste of valuable investigative time. Now, we’re pivoting to see if a crime was committed by the filing of a false police report.”
We’ve reached out to Stellantis to ask if the whole thing was a publicity stunt gone bad, or if it was a genuine mixup and Ram’s team genuinely believed the bull had been stolen. We’ll update the story with Ram’s response when we get it.
If it was a big hoax, the Oakland Sheriff isn’t the only Michigan resident who’ll be left annoyed by the ruse. The once-troubled city of Pontiac is on the up, only recently celebrating a huge 40 percent drop in violent crime, and a fake theft story does its reputation no favors.
Ram’s Bucking Hemi made its debut at Michigan International Speedway in June to celebrate the automaker’s return to NASCAR.