For one man trying to sneak into the U.S., freedom didn’t just mean making it over the border. It soon meant just escaping from a truck’s backseat.
At about 3 a.m. Sunday, Customs and Border Protection officers pulled over a 48-year-old woman in a 1998 Dodge pickup truck at the Otay Mesa port of entry.
While she handed over her passport, officers gave her truck a brief inspection. One of them found a man hiding underneath the rear seat of the pickup, according to CPB officials.
When they asked him to come out, they realized he had become wedged into the specially-built smuggling compartment and couldn’t get out on his own.
Officers eventually pulled a lever under the seat and freed the suspect.
He was taken into custody, and using his fingerprints, CPB officials discovered he is a 36-year-old Mexican with no legal ability to enter the U.S., they say.
Both he and the driver, a U.S. citizen, will face federal charges. The duo were taken to the Metropolitan Correctional Center.
