08-08-2025
'An action movie': Video shows man dodge stolen garbage truck in chase near Boston casino
Not even a stolen garbage truck barreling after him outside Encore casino could stop Lubens Figaro from getting to work — a bizarre twist in what was already an unusual day.
'It was like an action movie, with the police chase in the back, the truck driving, I'm recording and the cars behind, the sirens. It was crazy ... no one else in the middle but me and that truck,' Figaro said.
Figaro, 33, from Everett, works as a substitute teacher for Everett Public Schools during the school year and as a security guard at Marcelino's, a Seaport cocktail bar, at nights during the summer.
At about 2:30 p.m. on Thursday, Figaro was involved in a car crash unrelated to the Encore incident and went home briefly to regroup before his shift that evening. By 3:35 p.m., he was back on the road, heading to Marcelino's for a 4 p.m. start, when he pulled up next to a garbage truck at a red light outside Encore Boston Harbor casino in Everett.
That's when Figaro noticed something unusual in his rear-view mirror: a man, later identified as Admilson Vizcaino, running through traffic.
Figaro had no idea what was about to unfold. Within seconds, he'd be at the center of a chaotic scene he said looked more like a movie than real life.
Vizcaino had been 'acting erratic' at a gas station earlier in the day and drove off in an SUV, which police unsuccessfully tried to stop and spotted again around 2 p.m. at a 7-Eleven in Billerica, according to the Middlesex District Attorney's Office. He crashed the SUV in Everett after leading police on a car chase that started at 3:15 p.m. from Malden. He ditched the crashed SUV and ran away.
As Figaro was stopped right alongside the truck at the light, he first saw Vizcaino try to steal a black sedan, which the owner 'wouldn't give up,' then a moped. After that, Figaro said Vizcaino tried to steal a state police car, which was locked.
'That's when they tased him, and then he took the Tasers out and ran. Then he fired up the garbage truck — the one that was right next to me," Figaro said.
'I was nervous. I thought, 'He's gonna take my car next,'' Figaro recalled. At that point, Vizcaino was threatening the garbage truck driver with a pocket knife. Figaro pulled his car away from the truck and stopped a few yards down the road to watch and record the scene unfold.
The garbage truck driver looked 'astonished,' with his hands in the air as Vizcaino wielded the knife, Figaro said. There was another waste management employee in the passenger seat who immediately jumped out of the cab, he said, while the driver was 'frozen' in shock.
As Vizcaino tried to force the driver out of the truck, police fired their guns and struck him. 'It was like, 'pop-pop-pop,'' Figaro said. Despite this, Vizcaino was able to force the driver out of the truck and jumped in the front seat.
Then, he began to drive the garbage truck straight towards Figaro.
''Oh, [expletive!],'' Figaro can be heard exclaiming on the video he took standing outside his sedan, as the garbage truck picked up speed toward him. Figaro hopped in his car and sped away, as he continued to film the chaotic scene behind.
The garbage truck nearly took out a fire hydrant and skated over sidewalks with dozens of police cars on its tail and Figaro straight ahead. After a chase for several hundred feet, the garbage truck can be seen on video smashing into a pole.
Figaro came to a stop again, and watched as Vizcaino tumbled from the truck to the ground and was surrounded by police officers. Not wanting to be involved or late for work, Figaro left without being interviewed.
'After it was over, I'm like, 'What the hell just happened?' I'm driving to work ... I'm like, 'What just happened? I almost lost my [expletive],' Figaro said. His family and fiancée were scared when he retold the story, he said, worried that he 'could have lost his life.'
But Figaro said it was a rare case of being in exactly the right — or, perhaps, wrong — place and time. He described the incident as a 'once-in-a-lifetime moment,' and noted that he takes his job as a security guard seriously.
'I love my job ... it's an amazing job, and I had to make sure I was still there on time,' he said.
Figaro added that if he had ended up being late for his shift, 'no one's going to believe this happened' without the video, which he credited his sister and his boss, Izzy Pena, for encouraging him to post.
But despite the car crash, wild carjacking and nearly getting caught in a police chase, Figaro made it to work at 4 on the dot.
Meanwhile, Vizcaino was arrested and is facing charges, including armed assault with intent to rob, carjacking and leaving the scene of a car crash involving property damage in connection with the incident, according to Middlesex County District Attorney Marian Ryan.
He was in critical condition at a hospital as of Friday afternoon after being shot by police, the district attorney said.
Police later searched the SUV and found a gasoline can that Vizcaino had been seen with earlier that day, Ryan said. Authorities are still investigating what he planned to do with the gasoline, but the district attorney described the presence of the can as being among 'very concerning facts.'
Vizcaino will be arraigned on the charges at a later date, Ryan said. The officer who shot Vizcaino has been put on administrative leave, per Everett Police policy, Everett Police Chief Paul Strong said during a press conference.
'It is more likely than not that these officers and troopers saved many lives today during this event,' Strong said.
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