05/02/2008

Associated Press

State police in Beaver County say an Indiana trucker has reported being accosted by a gunman who posed like a motorist needing assistance.

Police say the trucker, 44-year-old Paul Michael Brant, of Fort Wayne, told them he was flagged down on Route 18 in Big Beaver about 3:30 a.m. Thursday.

When the trucker got out to help, police say the man pulled a gun and ordered the trucker back in his rig to drive. Police say the gunman ordered the trucker out of the truck after a while and told him to run away into some woods where the trucker got lost.

Police say the trucker told them he heard someone trying to drive the truck away. But the trucker found his rig abandoned only a short distance from where he left it when he ran into the woods.