MESQUITE, Texas — Early Friday morning, Mesquite police officers followed a stolen truck. The driver drove that truck right into the backyard of a home on Poplar Circle, where a man named Kevin Phillips lives. He saw police lights outside his window.
"I thought 'oh, I hope the neighbors are okay, because they can’t be here with me!'" he told WFAA.
But they were. And for the five days since then, the truck's been stuck in Kevin's backyard.
"It’s definitely been a big conversation piece," he said. "For sure."
Officers told Phillips the stolen truck was wedged too deep into his wet yard to tow.
"They're telling us it's too muddy to get it out," he explained. "They did assure me they’d be keeping in touch, and that it wouldn’t be here…forever!"
But the days with the big red stuck truck, Phillips said, are starting to drag. Because the Chevy hit his gas line, knocking out Kevin’s heat and hot water.
"What was most alarming was you could smell natural gas," he remembered.
And strangers started showing up in his backyard. Police, he said, sent the truck owner, who brought her insurance adjuster.
"They gave my private address and sent them here," he said. "This isn’t an impound lot, this is private property!"
Phillips said he feels badly for the truck owner and understands the truck really is wedged in his ground good, but badly wants and expects it to get resolved.
"I'm just not sure what the next steps are just yet," he said.
When WFAA reached out to the Mesquite Police Department for comment on Tuesday, officers said they sent another wrecker to Phillips' house Tuesday night. But the wrecker almost got stuck in the mud too, meaning he will have to wait a bit longer.
The driver of the stolen truck, they added, ran on foot and got away.