Man rides on back of semi-truck from Kansas to Oklahoma
LOGAN COUNTY, Okla. (KFOR) - Oklahoma Highway Patrol troopers said a man hitched a ride and hung on for dear life to the back of a semi-truck early Monday morning.
His journey started in Wichita, Kansas before finally being caught in Logan County, Oklahoma.
It was a distance of well over 100 miles at highway speeds before other drivers were able to get the semi-truck to pull over.
"It's good that we were able to get him stopped and keep that man that was on the back of that safe because that could have been a fatal mistake,” said Trooper Eric Foster, with the Oklahoma Highway Patrol.
Foster said 30-year-old Dustin Slocum is lucky to be alive after his early morning joyride. As it was happening, Foster said several drivers were calling 911.
"When you get a phone call like that, you're like, oh, is that what they're really seeing or is there something else going on?" Foster said.
But there wasn’t anything else going on.
"He's just hanging on the back,” Foster said.
So, they started notifying troopers in the counties along I-35.
Foster said that early in the morning, troopers are more spread out, so it took them a while to catch up.
Eventually, they were able to notify Logan County deputies, who were also getting 911 calls, when the truck crossed into the county.
"The semi itself actually pulled over because other drivers on the roadway started to flag him down and pull over,” Foster said. “He had no idea that someone had been hitching a ride for, you know, 100 miles on the back of his truck."
Slocum was caught there and booked into the Logan County Jail on public intoxication and joyriding complaints. It’s still unknown as to why he did it.
"There's a couple different stories out there about why,” Foster said. “I know we're still trying to investigate what the true matter is."
Foster said it’s difficult for truck drivers to notice something like that on the back of their long trailers. So, he said if people see anything bad or suspicious to notify authorities immediately.