Police in Portland, Oregon, are looking for the 2016 Ford F-150 involved. It probably has front-end damage from where the driver hit the employee.
21st Century Towing employee Josh Durrett is lucky in a lot of ways. “Walked up, tried to unlock the gate, and, as soon as I walked up, I heard the engine just rev up, then next thing I know I’m flying through the air,” he explained. “Luckily, I was about two feet to the right of the truck when it was actually impacted. Otherwise, I would have been right here.”
On impact, josh broke his collarbone. But, with a good thirty seconds worth of adrenaline pumping through his veins before the pain kicked in, he didn’t realize just how bad things really were.
“I didn’t feel anything so, yeah,” he said. “Hopped right back up and immediately went after the person in the car, and I was trying to hopefully get that window open and pull them out, but yeah that didn’t work.”
Then Josh passed out.
“I had a concussion, I got a pretty good gash from when I hit my head on the tire,” Josh said. “The lug nut hit me in the head. I got some bruising, bruised ribs, chest plate is pretty bruised up too. I’m just happy to be alive, to be honest.”
Clark Tenney is the owner, 21st century towing. He said, “Forget everything else, there’s no amount of money to hurt an employee the way that she did. We all agree, if he wouldn’t have moved, she would have ran over him and it would have been very severe, maybe could have ended his life.”
Police now need the public’s help finding the man and woman who they say snuck in to pull the car out then rammed through the gates and into Josh in the process. Police believe it’s Oregon plate number 628JPG.
The company says that the truck had just been towed a few hours before. It would have cost $339 to have it released.
Josh’s Chihuahua happened to be in the truck during the incident. The dog is okay. She was released from the animal hospital with some internal bruising.
© 2024 KOBI-TV NBC5. All rights reserved unless otherwise stated.