An 18 Wheeler, A Missing Tire, And A House

I was driving around when another officer was dispatched to a wreck where an 18-wheeler had lost a tire. The tire supposedly hit a house.

I wasn’t doing anything so I thought I would drive by and take a look. The 18-wheeler was sitting in the center turn lane and was missing two wheels off of the back drivers side of the tractor.

There was an older man standing on the porch of a house. I went and talked to him and asked where the tire was. He took me into his bedroom and showed me the tire. The tire had gone through the wood frame house and ended up against a dresser. There was wood, insulation and other building materials scattered throughout the room.

I then talked to the truck driver. He said another truck driver had told him on the radio he had lost a tire. About that time he saw a tire go past him and into the house. I can only imagine what he thought as one of his tires passed him as he drove down the road.

It turns out the older man who lived in the house had built it in the late 1940’s. He had been a naval aviator in World War 2. I talked to him for a few minutes about that. It was pretty interesting.

Sometimes I get to meet interesting people at work. He was one of them. World War 2 has been something I have been interested in since childhood. Since becoming a police officer I have met a member of the Flying Tigers, survivors of Pearl Harbor, a sailor that was on the U.S.S. Enterprise at Midway, a soldier that landed on Omaha Beach on D-Day and several pilots from the Air Corps during the war. All had interesting stories.