As his dog dad shopped at a Kwik Trip market in Mankato, Minn., yesterday afternoon, a Labrador Retriever apparently decided to take their semi-trailer truck for a little spin.
He jumped into the driver’s seat and may have somehow put the truck, which was parked across the street from the store, into gear. It lurched forward, crossed the street, took down a tree and came to a stop after crashing into a parked car just a few feet away from a gas station’s fuel dispensers.
“In my career here, I’ve not had an accident reported like this one,” Daniel Schisel, of the Mankato Police Department, told FOX9.
David Stegora was pumping gas when the dog went for a drive.
“I heard the tree snap and I thought somebody decided to turn around, but then it just kept going forward,” he told the Mankato Free Press.
Marie Brace was in the Kwik Trip parking lot and took the photo above of the aftermath, with the dog still at the wheel of the truck.
She told FOX9 the dog seem unfazed. “The dog kept coming to the [driver’s side] window, then jumping down, then coming back,” she said.
Fortunately, no one, including the four-legged driver, was hurt. The dog dad was not issued a citation, but the Minnesota State Patrol removed his truck from service.
It may have been a mechanical problem that was responsible for the wild ride rather than the dog putting the truck into gear.
“EVERY trucker is in habit of setting the parking brake on his semi when parked,” wrote Russell Hibbs in a comment on the Mankato Free Press story. “This parking brake restricts air from his truck and trailer brakes, allowing them to spring out against the drums.
“In order for a dog to shove the truck into gear it HAS to be idling at the correct RPMs in order for it to go into gear. Now, even if the dog did accidentally throw it in gear, the truck would stall out because of lack of movement. There is NO way in hell this can or would happen.”
No matter the cause, it’s a sure bet this dog will be kept restrained the next time his dog dad leaves the cab for a short break.