A damaged trailer can make getting away from a crash considerably harder when it draws a line back to your house.
Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd says that is essentially what happened after a large pickup truck towing a trailer ran over residential mailboxes and garbage bins in Polk County, Florida. The driver left after the crash, according to Judd, but the trailer had been damaged.
As the truck continued down the road, the damaged trailer gouged the pavement. Deputies followed the mark all the way to a home, where Judd says they found 27-year-old Hector Osvaldo Alvarez taking a nap.
The Polk County Sheriff’s Office had a shorter introduction for its Morning Briefing: “Wake up, Hector! You’re going to jail.”
Waking Hector
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According to Judd, deputies woke Alvarez and started asking questions.
Was it his truck? Alvarez said yes. Was it his trailer? Again, yes. Had anyone else been given permission to use them? No.
Judd said deputies also asked Alvarez whether he had been drinking that day. Alvarez told them that he and his friends had been drinking.
Then deputies explained why they were standing at his house. The truck and trailer had run over mailboxes and garbage bins before leaving the scene.
Alvarez’s response, as recounted by Judd, was remarkably uncomplicated.
“Well, if the truck was on the road, that must have been me,” Judd recalled him saying.
An Honest Answer
The Polk County Sheriff’s Office arrested Alvarez. Jail records identify him as Hector Osvaldo Alvarez and show he was booked Aug. 13 on one count of leaving the scene of a crash involving property damage under Florida Statute 316.061(1).
Alvarez was released Aug. 14 after a $250 cash bond was paid.
Judd had already introduced Alvarez as “really an honest guy.” When he reached the part about deputies finding Alvarez asleep at home, the sheriff supplied his own snoring sound effects.
He ended with some advice for Alvarez: “Hector, you’re a good man, but you can’t drink and drive and run over people’s mailboxes.”
One viewer dubbed the episode “Hector and Gretel.”
Alvarez is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in a court of law.