The Best Kind of Coincidence
The weekend would be spectacular.
Five young adults planned to travel from South Dakota, Montana and Oregon, meeting for a ski weekend in Idaho.
But sometimes the term spectacular takes on a different connotation.
Last Monday night, Stormy stopped in Billings on his way from South Dakota.
When he woke up the next morning, he couldn’t find his truck.
The hotel security video documented a person wearing a long, puffy, hooded coat unlocking Stormy’s truck about 3 am and driving away.
Disbelief, fury and sympathy for Stormy spread throughout our community as soon as Stormy called his friend, Owen, to explain why he needed a ride to their ski weekend.
By the time Owen and Stormy were traveling north of Billings on Wednesday, they had accepted the loss of Stormy’s truck, skis and permitted pistol.
The pickup cab was quiet.
Until a red truck with South Dakota plates passed them.
Owen tried to keep up with Stormy’s stolen pickup while Stormy called 911.
Deputies were about 20 minutes away, but the dispatcher knew a Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks warden was in the area.
Owen had just seen the warden traveling the opposite direction. Moments later, the warden was in hot pursuit.
Stormy stayed on the line with the dispatcher until the caravan, traveling 85 miles per hour and faster, crossed the county line.
“We don’t have jurisdiction out of our county,” the dispatcher noted. “You’ll have to hang up and call back.”
The next dispatcher sent county deputies and Montana Highway Patrol officers to join the chase.
The stolen pickup dipped into the ditch – Owen and Stormy held their breaths, waiting for the pickup to roll -- then it popped out on to the road again.
The driver made a few loops through Lavina, home for 143 fine citizens, before turning down a gravel road.
The gravel road was out of the highway patrol’s jurisdiction so the game warden took over once again.
Owen and Smokey parked on the top of a hill to watch the action.
The gravel road led to a sheep rancher’s barn yard, where a surprised worker on a 4-wheeler managed to dodge the pell-mell ruckus.
The driver jumped out of the truck and ran.
County deputies arrived in time to ask Stormy to identify the contents in the truck.
The two duffel bags full of drugs were not Stormy’s.
The deputies were about to allow Stormy to take his truck when the highway patrol said the pickup had to be impounded as evidence.
About two hours later, while everyone was still waiting on a tow truck, police found the alleged thief hidden in a haystack.
Later, the Billings city police called Stormy to say they had located his pickup.
Stormy said he appreciated the call.
By Monday, the county prosecutor was willing to release Stormy’s pickup, but the court-appointed defense attorney claimed the alleged thief had legally purchased Smokey’s truck.
Yet, instead of requiring proof of purchase from the alleged thief who was videoed climbing into the pickup at 3 am and then instigating a high-speed chase through a tiny town and hiding in a haystack, Stormy must prove he did not sell the pickup.
Authorities want an air-tight case.
Meanwhile, Stormy will fly back to South Dakota, rent a car to get to work and eventually find a way back to Ryegate to reclaim his pickup.
A few days later, I drove the same route.
The most interesting view I followed was of a portable, homemade, tiny house managing to hang on to the asphalt on a windy day.
I don’t know about the person who was driving, but I know Made in Montana nonfiction is hard to beat.