Truck driver hailed as hero
Published: October 16, 2006
Many people consider tow truck drivers scoundrels for hauling off their illegally parked and repossessed cars late at night.
But Steven Wilson, a Manteca resident and driver for Stockton’s BG and Son Auto Transport, was being called a hero Friday for chasing down a man suspected of kidnapping a woman and reporting him to arresting officers.
“Nobody ever says anything when they see these kind of things,” said Wilson, 38. “I got nieces. If it was one of them, my sister or wife, I’d want somebody to do the same thing.”
A spokesman for the Stockton Police Department said Wilson’s quick thinking may have saved the woman from unknown harm.
Police reported that a man, later identified as 46-year-old Alan McBrayer of Sacramento, and his girlfriend had visited Stockton on Thursday to help a friend stranded at a local truck stop on Charter Way near Interstate 5.
McBrayer thought his girlfriend was flirting with the friend and forced her into the camper shell, repeatedly assaulting her, police reported.
Wilson said he was gassing up his tow truck around Midnight Thursday at the Vanco Truck and Auto Plaza around midnight when he noticed McBrayer parked behind him and standing next to his pickup.
McBrayer walked to the back of his truck, Wilson said. It was then Wilson heard a woman cry “Help me, help me” from inside a pickup’s camper shell, and noticed the truck rocking.
Wilson said McBrayer then ran around the side of the truck, got in and sped away. That prompted Wilson and another man riding with him to jot down the license plate number, call police and trail the pickup until police caught up, Wilson said.
“We stayed behind, following,” he said. The truck circled before heading north on Interstate 5, at one point hitting 90 mph. “I think he knew we were watching him. He was spooked out, you know?”
A patrol car quickly swooped in around Wilson’s tow truck and made the pickup driver pull over, arresting McBrayer on Interstate 5 near Country Club Boulevard.
Stockton police Officer Pete Smith said he applauded Wilson for helping police while making sure he didn’t put himself at harm.
“This is exactly the kind of thing we need from our citizens,” Smith said. “He got involved just enough so we could get involved.”
McBrayer was arrested and booked on charges of kidnapping, spousal battery and making terrorist threats, Stockton police officers reported. He is held at the San Joaquin County Jail in lieu of posting $183,333 bail.
The woman sustained minor injuries and was not hospitalized, Smith said.
While calling Wilson a hero, BG and Sons owner Brian Gardner credited his employee with doing his part to salvage their profession’s battered reputation. Wilson was on the job and had a lot to do rather than follow his suspicions, Gardner said.
“A lot of people these days just don’t want to get involved,” Gardner said Friday. “My driver was a hero last night.”
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