Portland Billboard Worker Gets Unexpected Ride When Truck Stolen

PORTLAND, OR — Early Wednesday morning, a man who was standing on top of his truck to do some work suddenly found himself going for a ride as a thief made off with the truck, police said.

The unidentified victim was not seriously injured, police said, and the thief eventually was stopped and charged with kidnapping and other counts.

The incident began while the worker stood on a ladder rack atop the pickup truck so he could access a billboard platform and do some work, around Southwest Oak Street and Third Avenue. He looked down and noticed a man rummaging around inside of the truck, police said.

The worker started climbing down, yelling at the man to get out of his truck.

The man chose another option. He drove away — with the truck's owner clinging to the ladders mounted on the rack and screaming for help.

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People saw the truck and called 911.

Officers spotted the truck — it was hard to miss with the man clinging to the ladders above it — as the driver headed southbound on Barbur Boulevard then Southwest Capitol Highway, followed by a turn onto Southwest Beaverton Hillsdale Highway.

Police said that the man was jerking the truck from side to side as if he was trying to fling the man off the truck.

Officers followed from a distance and tried to keep other traffic away from the truck, hoping that he would stop driving erratically, police said.

The man then did a U-turn onto Bertha Boulevard, then northbound Interstate 5, northbound Interstate 405, and then onto Highway 26 west.

The whole time, the truck's owner was clinging to the ladder. But as the truck left Highway 26 onto Southwest Canyon Road, the owner was finally able to jump into the bed of the truck, and then jump from the truck to a patch of grass by Southwest Canyon Road and Southwest Canyon Lane in Beaverton.

The driver kept going, then made the mistake of turning onto a dead-end road, where police cornered him, police said.

The driver, Jacob E. Sopher, 36, of Portland is charged with robbery, kidnapping, reckless driving, unauthorized use of a motor vehicle, and reckless endangering.