The Strangest Roadside Assistance Stories

Having worked in the roadside assistance business for over a decade, we’ve heard quite a few stories that made us shake our heads in disbelief. We’re not talking about drivers who forget to fill up before a long trip or those who forget to remove the gas pump from the gas door before pulling away from the station (yes, we’ve seen that happen). No, what we’re talking about is something different—roadside assistance stories so strange that the only response is “What the . . .” In this blog post, we’ll discuss two such stories.

Strange Roadside Assistance Story # 1: Simple emergency lockout leads to arrest

How’s this for weird? Last month, a man in Cleveland locked himself out of his car. For reasons that are still unclear, he asked the police to perform an emergency lockout service. After the police officer opened the car door, he noticed the unmistakable smell of marijuana. Alarmed, he began to search the car—and the strangest thing about this story is that the driver had signed a waiver authorizing the cop to unlock the car. What did the police officer find in the vehicle? No fewer than 37 bags of marijuana. The driver was immediately arrested for the very serious felony of drug trafficking. But that’s the least of his problems. Further complicating his life is the fact that his car was parked within 1,000 feet of a local school, which, should he be convicted, could result in a sterner punishment. Perhaps the driver was asking to be caught, but this is still one strange roadside assistance story.

Strange Roadside Assistance Story # 2: Car Stuck at 125 mph until it runs out of gas

In this story, too, the cops were called in to handle a strange roadside assistance story—notwithstanding the fact that it did not occur on the side of the road. Earlier this year, a man was on his way to the supermarket, driving his Renault at a reasonable 60 mph along the French coast. What happened next was highly embarrassing for Renault. For some strange reason, the speed dial got jammed, speeding things up to a highly dangerous 125 mph. The driver tried to slam on the breaks, but these, too, had gone awry. With no way to stop the car, the driver used his cell phone to call the police, soon after which they cleared the road. Although the police even called an engineer from Renault, and although the engineer advised the driver on what to do, nothing helped. With the police in front of him clearing the road, the man drove on for 100 miles (over the border with Belgium), at which point the car ran out of gas and halted. The driver is now suing the car company.