Bill has issues with truckers, his Mom worked the parking
lot of the New Haven truckstop. he knows his Dad is a
trucker, but doesn't know which one, out of thousands, he
is.

Every night, on CB channel 19 you can hear Billy boy calling
out, ''Breaker, breaker...Daddy, is that you?''

Sad & pathetic, eh?

SV

"Bob Crantz" wrote in message
news
Is that your kind of hero?

Amen!

"Mys Terry" wrote in message
news
On Fri, 24 Feb 2006 15:40:08 GMT, "Bob Crantz"

wrote:

I think truckers are America's superheroes!

Bless them!

Amen!

"Joe" wrote in message

groups.com
....
A trucker was the one who stopped the DC snipers.

Must be cool to be a trucker, sorta like a super hero.

Joe



Suspect Had Rape Record
Florida Truck Driver Was Jailed, Released
February 18, 2006
By TRACY GORDON FOX, Courant Staff Writer

The truck driver charged Friday with the kidnapping and
rape of an
Ashford woman served 12 years in a Florida prison for
committing
nearly exactly the same crime 18 years ago.

Thomas E. Hooks, 50, was sentenced to 27 years in prison
for an April
4, 1988, attack. In that incident, he rammed a woman's
vehicle off the
road with his 18-wheeler, forced her into the truck at
gunpoint and
raped her twice before discarding her at the side of the
road,
according to published reports.

Hooks was released in 2000, having served less than half
of his
sentence, and soon got another job as a truck driver,
working for
Southern Cal Transport of Birmingham, Ala., according to
police
records.

On Feb. 6, police said, Hooks waved down the Ashford
woman on an I-84
exit ramp, telling her there was something wrong with
his truck. When
she got out of her car to offer her cellphone, he forced
her into the
sleeper cab, where he blindfolded her, raped her and
threatened to
shoot her if she looked at him, police said.

Initially, the details seemed sketchy. The rapist was
described as a
heavy-set black man, 45 to 50, driving a common-looking
white
tractor-trailer one exit from a major truck stop where
hundreds of big
rigs drive through daily.

But using details from the victim and information from
witnesses who
saw Hooks and his truck, detectives from the Department
of Public
Safety's Eastern District Major Crime Squad tracked
Hooks and the
Alabama trucking company he had been working for. The
state police
forensic laboratory also found Hooks' DNA on a piece of
evidence left
at the crime scene, sources said.

Hooks, of 1030 Cynthia Lane, Pensacola, Fla., was
charged with
first-degree kidnapping, first-degree aggravated sexual
assault,
criminal use of a firearm in the commission of a felony,
unlawful
restraint and third-degree sexual assault.

Now Connecticut authorities said they would be working
with police
along the East Coast to determine whether Hooks is
responsible for
similar unsolved crimes.

"We will certainly provide the information we have in
our case to law
enforcement, due to the transient business he was in,"
said Sgt. J.
Paul Vance, a state police spokesman.

Hooks was arrested Friday shortly after 11 a.m. at Route
372 and
Industrial Park Road in Cromwell, on a run through
Connecticut, state
police said. Troopers seized the truck and plan to
search it for
evidence. Hooks was held, with bail set at $1 million,
and is
scheduled to appear in Superior Court in Danielson
Tuesday, police
said.

The woman and her family learned the details of Hooks'
prior crime
after his arrest Friday.

"I'm furious. That's disgusting," the Ashford victim's
brother said of
Hooks' being convicted of a similar crime and released
early. Hooks'
picture can be found on Florida's sexual offender
website.

The Ashford mother of three was ecstatic that state
police detectives
had been able to track down her attacker, her brother
said.

"She's extremely relieved. The nightmare is over," he
said, adding
that she had gone out to lunch with her sister to
celebrate after
hearing the news. "We are all elated. My mom called me
in tears."

The day after the Feb. 6 assault, the victim's family
put up signs
along the highway, urging anyone who may have seen the
white
tractor-trailer or its driver to call a tip line. State
police also
set up roadblocks, and questioned commuters coming home
around the
time of the evening attack.

The woman was returning home from her job with warm
Chinese food in
the back of her car and heading to pick up her children
at day care
when she stopped to help the truck driver, she told
police.

Police credit the woman's "great courage with her
ability to recall
specific important detail," in helping them solve the
crime, Vance
said.

The woman managed to call 911 from a cellphone and shout
for help
during the attack, a call that sent troopers to the exit
where her car
had been left, its engine still running.

But the truck driver had already driven to the next
exit, near the
truck stop, where he eventually dragged the woman out of
his truck and
tied her to a tree, police said. She managed to get free
of the ropes
and flagged down a passing motorist, who called state
police.

The woman "suffered a great deal in this criminal act,"
Vance said.
"The victim's cooperation with the state police
detectives has enabled
them to keep this investigation moving forward."

She was able to identify Hooks through photographs after
police
learned of his identity, sources said. The trucking
company he worked
for was cooperative in the investigation, police said.
No one was
available for comment at the company Friday.

A team of detectives used cellphone records, satellite
tracking
systems and some forensic evidence to track Hooks,
sources said.

"Since the 6th of February, certain investigators have
worked
nonstop," Vance said.

The victim's brother said he has been amazed by her
strength. The
family is hoping Hooks will be convicted and not be set
free this
time.

"She's strong and pulling through this better than
most," her brother
said. "She could have just crawled up in a ball. But she
wanted
everyone to know what had happened if it helps to save
one person."