Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Man can't figure out where his pickup truck went
The man reported his truck missing after going into a convenience store to buy a soda. Police looked through the surveillance tape, and found the truck. But you have to see the video.
——By SALVADOR HERNANDEZ
LAGUNA BEACH – He left the keys in the ignition and the doors unlocked, he told the police.
"It's almost like a ghost," said Michael Otero, the owner of the red pickup truck that went missing after he went inside a convenience store.
Laguna Beach Police responded to a 7-Eleven store Sunday evening after receiving a 9-1-1 call from Otero. He had dashed inside the convenience store to buy a soda. When he came out, the truck was gone.
Just like that.
Hoping to catch a glimpse of the culprit, investigators pulled the surveillance video from the convenience store, said Sgt. Jason Kravetz. It didn't show a suspect - but it did explain what happened to the truck.
Otero was driving to the Irvine Lake from his home in San Diego. He was going on a fishing trip, but wanted to stop to buy a Pepsi, he said in a phone interview Friday.
He had just bought the truck which has a manual transmission truck about two weeks ago. As he pulled into the store, he said he put the parking brake on and put the truck in first gear.
"I still don't believe it," he said.
Almost immediately as Otero walked into the store, the truck began to go in reverse - on its own.
Video shows the truck backing up and curving toward a parking lot to the right of the 7-Eleven. The truck appears to be headed toward the street, but instead curves back into the adjacent lot, missed a silver vehicle parked there, and rolled into a vacant parking spot.
The truck hit a wall as it slowed to a stop and was wedged in by a concrete barrier. To an unsuspecting witness, it would have seemed as if someone had just parked it there.
Otero came of the store but found no truck. He is seen in the video turning his head, going back into the store, and asking a woman off-screen if she saw anyone go into his truck. No one saw anything.
I mean, it didn't just up and leave. Right?
"I'm just cracking up," he said. "I just thank God it didn't hurt anyone," Otero said.
The truck received only minor damage, Otero said. When he found it, the parking brake was still on and the manual shift was still in first gear.
He's having the truck checked by a mechanic, Otero said.
"It just drove itself so perfectly," he said. "I still don't believe it. This is like a car hole-in-one."
