Man Keeps Truckin' After Car Breaks Down

Your car breaks down, and you've got no other way to get home 25 miles away. What do you do?

One Rockford man decided the quickest way to get back home was to steal someone else's vehicle.

On Saturday, Daniel Elam's car broke down in Marengo. He told police that he needed another way home and saw a semi-tractor parked on the other side of a fence from Skinner Amusement, at 22918 West Grant Highway.

"Instead of calling for help he hopped a fence and decided to look for a vehicle with keys in it," Lt. Andrew Zinke of the McHenry County sheriff's office told Chicago Breaking News.

The 55-year-old man crashed the 1996 International 9200 semi's cab through the fence and began driving home.

Elam didn't quite make it home though. Police chased him from McHenry County to Winnebago County, where the tractor got stuck in a ditch in an industrial park.

Elam is being charged with burglary, two counts of possession of a stolen vehicle, unlawful possession of a converted vehicle, trespassing, fleeing and attempting to elude, and two counts of disobeying a traffic control device.

He is being held in the Winnebago County Correctional Facility, and bond is set at $50,000.

Matt Bartosik is the editor of Off the Rocks' next issue and a "between blogs" blogger.

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