BELFAIR, WASHINGTON — A Belfair tow truck driver hiked more than half a mile through dense woods in the middle of the night to rescue a young Uber Eats driver who had followed GPS directions onto a private logging road and gotten his car stuck in the mud nearly a mile and a half from the nearest accessible road.
Sam Cadle of North Shore Towing received the call after a man in his early 20s, unfamiliar with the area, became stranded while making a delivery Sunday night. The driver had been using Waze, which directed him down an unpaved road onto private property. He traveled approximately 1.5 miles before his car became hopelessly stuck.
Cadle said reaching the driver was not straightforward. By around 10:30 p.m., he determined he could not drive his tow truck onto the private property. He found an old logging road but that route was barricaded and also blocked access. With no way to drive in, Cadle set out on foot at approximately 12:30 a.m., hiking about half a mile into the woods. He located the driver, walked him back out, and took him to his mother. Cadle did not charge for any of it.
“I didn’t charge his kid for anything I did Sunday night because I felt a need to get him out of the woods,” Cadle said. “I work in a people-helping business.”
The following morning, Cadle returned to recover the car. After obtaining permission from the Department of Natural Resources to access the area, he drove around to reach the vehicle and hired a mini excavator to pull it out of the mud. Despite minor scratches from the mud and brush, the car was returned to the driver in workable condition.
Cadle said the situation is a reminder for drivers to trust their instincts when something feels off. “If something doesn’t feel right, stop and reassess before you get yourself in trouble. Not everyone out there feels the obligation to help people and get them to safety,” he said.
He said his approach to the job has always gone beyond towing vehicles. “I’ve been in this industry a lot of years and that’s always been my take — I’m here to help people no matter what that looks like. Sometimes that’s a lot of long hours. That’s losing sleep. That’s part of the job. Whether or not I got his car out of there the next day, I wanted to make sure that he was a person was safe and that he got help when no one else would come help him,” Cadle said.
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