High court rules on riding mower

A felony conviction over a lawn tractor stolen from Home Depot in 2006 went all the way to the Georgia Supreme Court, which ruled on Nov. 23 that riding mowers should not be considered motor vehicles.

The 4-3 decision overturned the conviction of Franklin Lloyd Harris, who was charged with motor vehicle theft after he and two accomplices stole a Toro lawn tractor from a Home Depot in Dalton, Ga.; loaded it into the back of a van; and drove it to Athens, Tenn., where they sold it to an unnamed party.

Harris, who has three prior felony convictions, was convicted of both theft and theft of a motor vehicle. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison. While an appeals court upheld the verdicts, the Georgia Supreme Court did not think that the lawn tractor should be considered a motor vehicle, which generally carries stiffer penalties when stolen.

“To be sure, a riding lawnmower is capable of transporting people or property and of driving on the street for short stretches, but that is not what the machine is designed for or how it is normally used, there being little grass to mow on streets,” the majority opinion stated. “A thief can steal and escape quickly in an automobile, a motorcycle, a truck or even a four-wheeler, but not on a riding lawnmower, asphalt spreader or skid steer.”

The high court sent the case back to the trial court for sentencing on the single theft charge which, it noted, might still result in a 10-year sentence because of the value of the lawn tractor and the defendant’s prior convictions.