Imagine you’re driving down an empty highway in rural Pennsylvania late at night. In the dark, you notice an unusual object looming by the wayside. You notice several cars tipped over on the road. The ditch holds the skeletal metal structure of a crashed car-carrier trailer, along with its associated semi truck. You don’t see anyone at the site, so you keep driving. A mile distant, a man is sprinting for the nearest exit.
This is a weird criminal narrative. It threatens to become much odder when more information surfaces.
Pennsylvania State Police received complaints about the incident on I-83 in the early hours of Monday morning. A witness saw the semi-truck and trailer go down the embankment, spilling automobiles along the way. A man climbed out the truck’s door and attempted to escape. So police went to investigate and apprehended the motorist as he fled on foot. Ramon Vasquez-Fajardo, 39, refused to comply or provide his name. He must have forgotten that he carried a driver’s license from New Jersey and a Dominican Republic ID in his pocket.
The semi truck driver who crashed the car carrier
He did not have a commercial driver’s license, which is required to operate a semi-truck. That could explain why he fled the scene of the crash. Alternatively, you may have driven into the ditch initially. However, the police opted to conduct further investigations. They ran the vehicle and trailer’s plates and discovered they were both from an auto yard in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
The next morning, the police identified the owner of the vehicle and trailer, who confirmed the absence of any stolen rigs. But then he double-checked and admitted that he did have a vehicle and trailer that he wanted to report stolen.
So, did this robber take a car trailer full of vehicles? Not exactly. The police scrutinized the license plates of the cars and found evidence of additional thefts. A Dodge Durango from the truck was reported stolen in New Jersey.
At seven a.m., authorities informed drivers that they were still cleaning automobiles out of one travel lane but expected the route to be fully open by eight a.m. Vasquez-Fajardo faces three felony accusations, including receiving stolen items, reckless driving, and driving without a CDL. He is also facing charges for leaving the scene of an accident that caused damage to an unattended car or property. His bond was set at $50,000. It will be fascinating to see what further information about this case emerges before his preliminary hearing on June 16th.
