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Man Drowns After Driving Stolen National Grid Truck Into Hudson River

by Jana Ritter - Published: 9/28/2016

A string of trucking related police chases have been making headlines this month but this most recent incident is the most bizarre and tragic yet. It began with a man stealing a National Grid truck in Troy, NY and ended with him driving right into the Hudson River.

                                                               stolen National Grid truck pulled from river

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The strange chain of events started early Wednesday morning shortly before 1 am, when authorities say that 21-year-old Joshua Evans had somehow broke into the National Grid property through a barbed wire fence and stole a utility rig, possibly with its keys left in the ignition. He began driving recklessly around the premises and backed into a house bordering the National Grid property, then continued driving along the canal. A terrified woman who lives in the house called police from her first-floor bedroom and reported a truck had hit her house and was driving erratically on the National Grid grounds near Duow Street.

When police arrived on the scene a short time later, they found Evans spinning donuts and speeding around the private lot. Officers first attempted to run towards the truck on foot and simply talk the driver into stopping the truck. But according to Troy Police Captain Dan DeWolfe, Evans didn’t pay any attention to the officers and continued his rampage staring blankly ahead. "They're chasing after him, trying to get his attention and he was just a blank stare. Not paying attention to them at all," DeWolfe recounted. Instead the situation escalated when Evans began ramming the bordering fence until he eventually drove the truck through it and onto the neighboring federal property, managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. DeWolf says that officers then lost sight of Evans as the truck was rounding the corner of a large building. Police later discovered that he had crashed his way through a barrier at the USACE's Hudson River dock and then drove the truck into 30 feet of water. The truck immediately sank to the bottom and Evans drowned along with it.

                                                              Joshua Evans drowns after stealing truck

He was pronounced dead at the scene when divers recovered his body hours later. A team of tow trucks were also called in to perform the difficult job of pulling the massive vehicle from the river. "It's tragic. Thank God nobody else was hurt," DeWolfe said. Late Wednesday morning police also stated that National Grid is cooperating in their investigation and that the main focus now is determining exactly how Evans got the keys to the truck, and why he stole it. DeWolf speculated that because National Grid's lot is presumed to be secure, it might be common practice to leave truck keys in the ignition. "It's locked up pretty good over there. They've got barbed wire on the fences. All the gates are locked. But where there's a will, there's a way," he said.

On Wednesday afternoon, police also confirmed that Evans has a criminal record with a pending charge of felony arson from an incident that occurred in February, 2016. Evans had been accused of setting fire to the Antiques Warehouse as well as a neighboring building but had since been released from jail while awaiting prosecution.