At 4 AM last Thursday
(January 22) Trooper Jaakko Jussila received a call
stating there was a pickup on the side of the road
outside of Little Lake. He responded and located
the truck, pulling in behind it with his emergency
lights on.
The truck was stuck in deep snow, headlights
on and engine still running. The trooper walked
up to the driver’s door and found Martti Smith,
62, of Gwinn, passed out behind the wheel with empty
beer cans (29 were counted along with a nearly full
case of unopened cans on the passenger seat) piled
up on the floor. The trooper tapped on the window,
waking the driver.
|
|
Seeing
the rotating lights in the rearview mirror,
along with a State Trooper peering into his
driver’s side window, Martti went berserk.
He yelled, “I’M AINT
SUNK, I’M DROBER” then rammed the
shifter into gear and hit the gas. The truck’s
speedometer quickly reached fifty, then sixty
mph, but the vehicle was still stuck, wheels
spinning.
Trooper Jussila, being somewhat
of a comedian, began running in place along
side the speeding, yet stationary truck. Martti
was shocked, thinking the trooper was keeping
up with him. |
|
Martti Smith, 62, of
Gwinn |
Martti
swung the wheel to his left, which didn’t
move the truck at all, hoping to side-swipe
the trooper, who only stepped a few feet to
the left, then stepped back along side the driver’s
window still running in place. This went on
for about a minute until the trooper yelled
for Martti to ‘PULL OVER!’
Martti
obeyed, turned his wheel to the right and stopped
the engine.
Of course Martti was arrested. He's
still telling stories of the Trooper who could
run 60 mph.
Story by Jim Bellmore |
|
|