TransportFool

This report is from the Staten Island Advance:

The driver of a big rig told police four bandits stuck a gun in his face in Graniteville last night and made off with two of the five cars he was transporting.

But elements of the account were puzzling: The driver claimed the robbers had tailed him in two cars all the way from Georgia. And his co-worker claimed to have slumbered through last night’s half-hour ordeal.

“It’s quite a story,” said one law enforcement source.

See-Bee Super Express truck driver Mike Seelal said his car-carrier was boxed in by the bandits on Willow Road West at about 9:30 p.m. At gunpoint, they ordered him to remove a Mercedes-Benz R350 luxury sedan and a Mitsubishi Eclipse, which they stole.

Seelal said he’d picked up the vehicles from an Atlanta-area dealer.

“We make our regular deliveries, not really thinking anything, and they just stop us right here,” said Seelal, 53, of Brentwood, L.I. “They say, ‘We need these two vehicles, just take the cars off.’”

It took about a half-hour to unload the cars from the bottom level of the double-decker trailer, he said.

The thieves reportedly drove the spiffy vehicles onto the nearby Dr. Martin Luther King Expressway and disappeared.

Police were investigating last night and weren’t officially saying whether they credited Seelal’s account. They were looking for nearby surveillance cameras that might have captured the action.

Seelal’s co-worker, who said he has been traveling around with Seelal picking up and delivering cars all over the country for the past month, insisted he was asleep and never stirred during the robbery.

“I was tired,” said the man, who wouldn’t give his name.

Phil Helsel is a news reporter for the Advance. He may be reached at helsel@siadvance.com.

The female answering the phone at See Bee Super Express hung up on the Transportfool when I mentioned this report!

As the Bill Engvall would say HERE’S YUR SIGN!!!

The co-driver won’t give his name and the company hangs up on reporters when you would expect them to be offering a reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the purported thieves.

Here is the company on the federal web-site: Their cargo insurance is listed as Lloyds of London

For him to fix these you will probably have to leave him a note telling him what they were or they might come back as a pickup or a sports car. According to the article they were minivans that were being delivered on a car hauler that struck an overpass. I’m thinking these are preventable types of accidents with a minimal amount of technology they could put a warning in the cab or even make it where the brakes won’t release until the upper deck is set to a certain level or less. Fortunately in this accident and an earlier one in Texas nobody was hurt but if this ever happens when someone is close behind the hauler it could be horrible.

This story from capitol news nine is a good example.

ALBANY, N.Y. — An Albany teen is facing charges after police said he stole a car from a car carrier, then crashed it into a parked van.

Anthony Colon, 17, was arrested Tuesday night and charged with third-degree grand larceny and second-degree criminal mischief, along with vehicle and traffic violations.

Police said the incident started in the parking lot of 935 Central Avenue. A tractor-trailer car carrier pulled into the lot to unload vehicles to be delivered to a nearby car dealership.

One of the employees witness Colon get into a 2004 Nissan Sentra, which had just been taken off the carrier, and drive of westbound on Central Avenue. The employee called 911 and reported the incident.

Moments later, two Albany police officers spotted the stolen car speeding down Clinton Avenue. They turned their patrol car around to try and catch up to the car, but it had already crashed into a parked van and a fence at the intersection.

Colon was taken into custody without incident. He was arraigned in Albany City Criminal Court and sent to Albany County Jail.