No, not a post apocalyptic movie starring Mel Gibson. Rather, it is the tail (yes, I meant to spell it that way) of a man's worst friend. Max the boxer stole his master's pickup truck and drove off in it.
Police say Charles McCowan parked his pickup truck in front of an Azusa mini-mart Wednesday, leaving his 80-pound Boxer named Max in the passenger seat.
When he came out, the truck and Max were gone.
McCowan called police, assuming it had been stolen. When officers arrived, they found the truck across the street in a fast-food parking lot, but had no idea how it got there.
In security video shown Thursday, the truck can be seen rolling backward out of the store lot, across a busy street unscathed, and out of view.
Police say after McCowan left the truck, Max somehow released the parking and sent the vehicle rolling backward.
Max is not your average canine Sunday driver, either. The truck was not harmed during the adventure. Max is fine, too. Although he will now be considered one of the usual suspects when a truck gets stolen. No word on whether the Azusa police pawprinted the canine crook.
The picture shows that the dog was still on his leash inside the cab, good boy. Now, change the dog’s name to "lucky" and do not just rely on the parking break. Put it in Park or in gear.
Of course, I parked a van and left it in both Park and with the emergency brake on at the top of an icy, steep, 120′ driveway. I went into service the homeowners heating system when the homeowner asked why I had parked across the street and so far away. I am still shaking over that one, no damage though.
I had one of the Ford pickups that would every once in a while decide to have the shifter jump off the parking pawl. When I was reading meters years ago, I once jumped out of the running truck – put in park – only to chase it frantically when it majestically shifted itself into reverse and set sail down the driveway. Very scary. (I had not put on the parking brake being a bit gun shy about that. I had a car not long before that that had experienced a frozen parking brake when I set it. That entailed an all-too-expensive repair job for me at the time.)
This is why you need to leave a dog in the truck.
Here in coastal Florida, the land is flat as a pancake…I feel I’m missing out on all those thrills.