AFTER HIS BROTHER WAS CAUGHT IN A STOLEN CAR, A KANSAS MAN WENT TO BAIL HIM OUT – IN A STOLEN CAR
WHERE KANSAS, USA WHEN 29 NOVEMBER 2019
At some point during the early hours of 29 November 2019, 35-year-old Eric McCracken found himself wandering the streets of the Kansas town of Meriden without a set of wheels to get him home.
Meriden is a tiny little town with poor public transport links at the best of times, never mind in the middle of the night.
Fortunately for Eric, though, one Meriden resident had failed to properly secure their 2007 Chevrolet Trailblazer SUV, and Eric managed to get inside the vehicle and start it up. He then set off northwest through the even tinier towns of Hoyt and Mayetta before branching west across the Prairie Band of Potawatomi Nation Reservation.
You’d think given that he was driving someone else’s car that Eric would have been more careful. But it was as he was crossing the Potawatomi Reservation that he committed an unspecified traffic infraction, drawing the attention of a Jackson County Sheriff ’s deputy, who pulled him over and asked to see his licence. The car had not yet been reported stolen, but Eric’s driving licence had been suspended following a previous traffic violation, so he was arrested and taken to the Jackson County Jail in nearby Holton.
While at the jail Eric contacted his younger brother Keith and asked him to come and bail him out. Keith would do anything for his brother, but he too found himself without any means to get all the way out to Holton. But if there’s one thing you can say about those McCrackens, it’s that they’re problem solvers. So the ever-resourceful Keith set out in search of a suitable vehicle in which to come to his brother’s rescue.
Before very long, Keith set eyes on a 2015 Chevrolet Silverado, which is a big truck styled very much like an SUV. Keith didn’t think twice before breaking into the Silverado, starting it up and setting off towards Holton. Or perhaps he did think twice about driving a freshly stolen vehicle to a jail, but the obvious risks were outweighed by his love for his brother.
Now, you might assume that Keith would be arrested almost as soon as he pul
