SAN ANTONIO – A man who temporarily lost his big rig to thieves on the city’s Southeast side says he believes the entire truck actually wasn’t the intended target.
Instead, Pedro Valdivia said he suspects the crooks were after some expensive truck parts, specifically a hose used to blow sand or cement out of a tanker-style truck.
“It's a $6,000 part when it's brand-new,” he said. “They could've gotten, at least, about $4,000 for that.”
Valdivia found his truck and all of its parts early Thursday morning, clear across town, in the 1100 block of Patton Boulevard.
He was able to track it down through the use of an app on his phone, tied to a global tracking system.
“Thank goodness for GPS. It’s well worth the $40 we pay each month for it ,” Valdivia said.
One of his drivers, he said, had stopped at a Pilot gas station, near Loop 1604 and Interstate 37, and left the big rig running while he went inside.
Someone quickly jumped inside and drove off.
The driver then called Valdivia, who notified police and turned to his GPS.
“I started informing them where the truck was at. They started getting officers out there,” he said.
Valdivia said he saw three men jump out of the parked stolen truck and run away.
He ran after one man but pulled a muscle in his leg.
Officers managed to arrest that man. They launched a search for two others but they got away.
Valdivia said he doesn’t blame the driver for what happened.
He said he actually instructs his workers to leave their rigs running when they get out of them.
That way they can avoid trouble when it comes to restarting the engine, he said.
“Normally, they should have an extra key to leave the truck on, lock the truck,” Valdivia said. “But, no, he’s not in trouble. I mean, it happens.”
While he did get his vehicle back, Valdivia said it will need some repairs before he can put it back on the road.
He said an engineer will have to reinstall the parts that the thieves removed from the truck.