- September 6, 2024
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This story was updated at 9:21 p.m. on July 23. An earlier version of this story incorrectly described McFarland's racetrack as abandoned.
“I got the deal of the century,” said Cleetus McFarland in his YouTube video.
That deal was the purchase of 10 used police cars, sold in bulk from the Bartow Ford Dealership in Bartow, Florida, for $13,500. Five of those cars are former Bunnell Police Department cruisers.
McFarland is a Florida YouTube influencer with 3.76 million followers who purchases old emergency response vehicles to either fix and sell or turn into race cars to use at his racetrack, the "Freedom Factory USA," in Bradenton, Florida. McFarland purchased the formerly abandoned track for his own use back in 2020, according to his YouTube channel.
In his June 24 video — titled, “I Bought 10 Cars For the Price of One” — McFarland tests out the 10 cars. But most of the cars — from the BPD and the Edgewater Police Department — still had official city decals on them, as well as police lights and sirens, and several still had internal attachments: PA systems, a police radio system, laptop holders and ticket printers.
Most of the attachments, according to what McFarland showcased in the video, were still in working order.
BPD Lt. Shane Groth said it isn’t illegal to own a former cop cruiser, nor the attachments. The only legal issue stems from people using those items to impersonate being a law enforcement officer.
“There are people out there that collect old police cars,” he said. “If they're out there … just impersonating themselves as a police officer, that's where crime would come into place.”
But how did McFarland come to own five BPD cars, still decorated with official decals? Groth and city officials said those decals were supposed to be removed before being sold.
Bunnell City Manager Alvin Jackson said when he first came to Bunnell in 2018, one of his priorities was to expand and update the city’s police department. That included upgrading the BPD’s fleet, where many of the vehicles were close to 20 years old, Jackson said.
The city has slowly traded in the older cars for newer vehicles over the years through Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Financial Services Director Kristy Moss said. These five BPD cars were the last ones that needed to be traded in, she said. They had a combined trade in value of $6,500, according to city financial records.
In October 2023, Bunnell swapped them for a new vehicle for BPD Chief David Brannon. Because Enterprise did not have car it needed in its inventory, it purchased it from the Bartow dealership in exchange for the five old cruisers, Moss said. The vehicle was then leased to Bunnell through Enterprise.
Bartow dropped off the new vehicle and picked up the five old ones, but Groth said the dealership gave them next to no notice before arriving to pick up the five old cruisers.
As far as the internal mounts and the overhead lights go, Jackson said, the city previously removed those to reuse on other vehicles. But now, the newer vehicles require different parts to fit the mounts correctly, he said.
But the decals, as far as the city was concerned, were supposed to be removed before the vehicles were sold. Groth said when the BPD spoke to a representative from Bartow Ford, they received “verbal assurances” all the decals would be removed before they were sold.
This issue becomes whose responsibility was it to ensure the decals were removed. Florida State Statute 319.14, subsection 5, requires the decals be removed before being sold or traded to an individual, but it doesn’t make that clear if the responsibility is on the city or dealership to do so.
Prior to this purchase, Moss said the city had always ensured the decals and any reusable parts were removed from all city vehicles before Enterprise picked up the cars. Going forward, she said, the city will ensure that happens, regardless of the circumstances.
Certainly, no one at the city is happy to see its former cars, she said, with the city logo still attached, being used by someone not affiliated with Bunnell.
“From now on, nothing's going to leave here with any mark, period, even if even if we have it in writing from a dealership," Moss said.
