A teen was found hiding on the catwalk of a semi truck on Wednesday after hitching a ride for over 50 miles.
It happened on December 6th at the Interstate 65 weigh station near Seymour, Indiana.
According to FOX 59, the truck was passing through a weigh station when State Police Motor Carrier Inspector Mike Buckly noticed something strange – a teen was crouched on the catwalk platform between the cab and trailer and was poking his head out as the truck stopped to be weighed.
“Oh, it was very obvious there was a person sitting back there,” Buckly said.
When the teen realized he had been spotted, he disappeared from view, so Buckly called down to the Indiana State Police trooper stationed at the end of the ramp back to I-65.
“He chased the truck down the ramp, got the truck stopped at the end of the ramp, and the kid was gone… So we started searching the truck, and he had actually climbed under the truck,” Buckly continued.
The teen, who was wearing only a sweatshirt in the 40 degree weather at the time he was discovered, was covered in diesel fuel and grime, and admitted he had climbed onto the big rig at a truck stop in Louisville, Kentucky after running away from home.
The unidentified trucker, who says he had no idea the kid was back there, was shocked and scared thinking about what could have happened to the teen.
“The driver had no clue he was even back there,” Buckly continued.
“He was very shocked. He was very scared, thinking the kid could have fell off… 65 miles an hour, that’s pretty scary.”
“He [the teen] was very lucky he didn’t fall off between Kentucky and here… I’ve heard stories of people hitching rides on trains, but never semis,” continued Buckly.
The teenager was taken to the Jackson County Juvenile Detention Center as Indiana State Police try to contact the teen’s family in Ohio. The trucker will not be cited, but it is unclear what, if anything, the teen will be charged with.