Owner clings to ladders on truck’s roof rack as stranger speeds off, Oregon police say
A 36-year-old man is accused of driving off with a stolen truck in Oregon while the owner clung to the ladders mounted on the roof rack, police said.
Jacob E. Sopher, of Portland, sped off throughout the city while the owner yelled for help from the white Ford pickup truck on Nov. 3, the Portland Police Bureau said in a news release.
The owner of the truck used his vehicle’s ladders to reach a billboard platform he was working on, police said. Then he noticed someone rifling through his car.
But he couldn’t move fast enough.
Sopher is accused of driving off before the owner could climb down the ladder. Before he knew it, the stranger was “recklessly” driving, police said, and jerked the wheel in an attempt to shake him off the car.
The owner held on as Sopher got onto the interstate and then jumped off into a patch of grass when he exited a highway in Beaverton, police said.
Once Sopher reached a dead end, officers arrested him.
He was booked into the Multnomah County Detention Center on multiple charges, including robbery, kidnapping, reckless driving, unauthorized use of a motor vehicle and reckless endangering.
The truck owner didn’t have any serious injuries, police said.
Beaverton is 7.5 miles west of Portland.
This story was originally published November 4, 2021 at 2:48 PM with the headline "Owner clings to ladders on truck’s roof rack as stranger speeds off, Oregon police say."
