Truck stolen with Spectrum utility worker still in bucket, police say

CALDWELL COUNTY, N.C. — A major highway in Caldwell County reopened more than 12 hours after someone stole and crashed a Spectrum bucket truck. Police said it happened while a utility worker was up in the bucket repairing a line along Highway 18 south of Lenoir.

Investigators said the suspect drove south along Highway 18 before crashing. When the truck was stolen, its boom was extended as the thief drove more than a half mile down the road, striking utility lines.

Police said while the Spectrum worker was attached to a safety harness, at some point, he came out of the bucket and was suspended in the air by a safety strap attached to the bucket. The worker was able to cut the safety line and fell to the ground, injuring his leg, according to police.

When police finally arrived at the scene, the suspect, later identified as Frank Moody, was taken into custody. He has been charged with felony assault with a deadly weapon, larceny of a motor vehicle, and felony injuring wires and fixtures of utility companies.

Channel 9′s Dave Faherty learned that Moody had been released from jail just two hours before the incident. He had been in jail since last week after being arrested on a misdemeanor larceny case.

David Hipsher worked in a bucket truck over the years trimming trees. He is thankful the worker wasn’t seriously hurt.

“I can’t imagine it,” he said.

“I’ve been up 80 feet, and you’re that far up in the air — just, the wind can shift and make you move. Rock you back two or three feet, so he had to be terrified.”

For more than 12 hours, Highway 18 was shut down as repairs were made to the damaged lines.

Barbara Absher said it was hard to think of the worker up in the bucket going down the road.

“I can’t. I can’t. I feel for his family,” she said. “You know he was just doing what he was supposed to do.”

Some witnesses told Faherty the suspect tried to walk off after the crash, but they held him until police arrived. Faherty reached out to Spectrum earlier but has not heard back.

Channel 9 learned of another crash nearby where a man on a bicycle was struck and killed. The highway patrol said that person was hit along Old Morganton Road, which was being used as an alternate route around the repairs being done along Highway 18.

Investigators said the driver who struck the person on the bicycle stayed at the scene.

That road was shut down for more than an hour. There’s no word on any charges in that incident.

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