19 Wheeler: Only In The Hometown News
Jun 7th, 2007 | 7 responses
I think this belongs under Humor, but also under No Way.
Is your hometown newspaper filled with an overabundance of stranger than fiction stories, like mine?
I mean, who’s going to believe a movie that opens with this…
Man in wheelchair pushed 4 miles by semi-truck, police say….
PAW PAW, Mich. (AP) — A 21-year-old west Michigan man got the ride of a lifetime after his wheelchair became lodged in the grille of a semi-truck and was pushed down a highway, police said.
The man, whose name police did not release, was unharmed but was transferred to a hospital as a precaution…
He was secured to his chair by a seat belt.
About 4 p.m. Wednesday, a female caller told dispatchers, “You are not going to believe this: There is a semi truck pushing a guy in a wheelchair on Red Arrow Highway,” Michigan State Police said in a release.
Authorities initially wondered whether the report was a prank call until others called with similar reports.
Officers stopped the truck, wheelchair still attached… and learned the man had steered his wheelchair in front of the truck as it left a gas station in Paw Paw in Van Buren County, about 140 miles west of Detroit.
The wheelchair’s handles lodged in the truck’s grille, and the driver continued west on the highway for about four miles at speeds of roughly 50 mph before being stopped, police said.
The driver did not believe officers until he stepped from his cab and saw the man in front of his truck, police said.
The man apparently was unfazed by the incident. “It was quite a ride,” police quoted him as saying.
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7 Responses to “19 Wheeler: Only In The Hometown News”
That would be a 20 wheeler, wonder if the guy did it on purpose for the thrill.
This could ‘ve been a hoax, so I checked a local source. The local TV stations website has the article and a video interview with the victim. This wasn’t Turkeys invading…
We’ve got strange news, but nothing as good as that. Lol.
I once heard that there is a religion that maintains God will end the world when everything that is possible has happened. Whenever I read one of these “no way” stories, I can’t help thinking, my agnosticism notwithstanding, “uh-oh, we’re getting close.”
cfpete: You know, I tried that headline as 20 Wheeler, and after I posted it as 19, I thought maybe I should have said 20, cause surely some smart person will count both wheels on the wheel chair, instead of thinking of the poor guy himself as ‘the wheeler’ as vets in wheel chairs sometimes call themselves, over the phone to let pp know they need accomodation. “Im a wheeler” See? You get the smart guy award today.
Rudi, You know, in my hometown newspaper, I come from what used to be the ‘way backwoods’ … the stories like this (like for instance a plane landed in my hometown village of 600 people, and they put a monument up thinking it might attract tourists… ) I know they sort of stretch credulity, but if you knew the folks back there, or me for that matter…lol
Dustin, it was good wasnt it? When I read it at first, I just felt happy that the guy made it safely.
j@ne futzinfarb, your comment made me laugh right out loud. That’s priceless.
dr.e
I keep saying to myself ‘no, this has got to be a hoax. I mean, it’s not on Google News so…’
Paw Paw? No way.
“‘It was quite a ride,’ police quoted him as saying.” No fricken’ way.
I’m with Jane. If this is true, we’re getting close!
Mike P., I think we’re all with Jane… This piece is on Google, and the SoBend Tribune was the first I believe to break it which is the closest newspaper to the tiny town I grew up in, then TMV here perhaps might have been a close second, and someone wrote to say that yesterday Drudge ran it complete with pix a few days after. The SBT did a little follow up with the guy who was carried on the grill (you know everytime I think about it, I TOO wonder, it is SO completely incredible, but in that part of the world… so for now, till we hear differently…) and he said the worst part was that ‘it made me spill my drink.’
dr.e