Man drives pickup onto friend's roof as a stunt

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Man drives pickup onto friend's roof as a stunt

Saturday, May 27, 2000

By JACK HOPKINS
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

KENT -- As Dave Anthony's pickup truck sank slowly through the roof of a one-story house yesterday morning, he popped a Spin Doctors CD into a player and reached for a can of Budweiser.

"It wouldn't be a good life without a challenge," he said. "If you don't break something, you aren't trying very hard."

Dave Anthony, with his truck in the background. See larger image. Paul Joseph Brown/P-I

Just how Anthony's truck got on top of the house was a tale that had police and firefighters shaking their heads in disbelief.

It began with a few beers and an offer to help tear down a friend's old house. Anthony had already knocked down the garage by ramming it with his 1984 four-wheel-drive GMC pickup truck when he decided to drive his pickup truck onto the roof of the house.

Hoping for a snapshot to send to a four-wheel-drive magazine, he steered the truck over the rubble of the partially collapsed garage and drove onto the roof of the house next to the busy West Valley Highway.

"I just got a wild hair," the Shelton-area man said.

Kent Fire Department Lt. Pat Pawlak would have to agree.

"I've never been out on a call like this before," he said. "And I hope I never am again."

Anthony, a self-proclaimed "39, going on 15," handled the setback with aplomb.

Also see our followup story for the latest developments.

As the sinking vehicle tilted precipitously to the left, he climbed down from his dangerous perch to greet police and firefighters called to the scene by workers at nearby Lucent Technologies.

Police and firefighters weren't amused. They rejected Anthony's requests to be allowed to climb back onto the roof and try to drive his truck to the ground.

It was too dangerous, they said. They insisted on calling Pete's Towing. Soon there were three tow trucks hooked up to Anthony's shiny black pickup with oversize wheels.

But none of that seemed to bother Anthony, who was reveling in all of the attention he was getting. A crowd was gathering and TV crews and newspaper reporters and photographers were scrambling to the scene.

Why did he do it, they asked.

"Because I could," he answered. "I saw the challenge, and I took it."

The two-bedroom house was owned by Ralph Fitzthum, who had sold the property and agreed to remove the vacant house to make way for commercial development. Fitzthum didn't take part in the dangerous adventure. But yesterday, he gazed admiringly at the scene.

"It's a pretty tough truck," Fitzthum said of the vehicle, which has "Live Your Dreams" written across the hood.

Anthony said he has insurance for the truck but wasn't planning on filing a claim for repairs.

"I'll fix it myself," the mechanic and journeyman carpenter said. "I don't want the insurance company to even know about it."

As he waited for the towing company to retrieve his truck, Anthony pulled a can of Budweiser out of an 18-pack sitting on the ground next to the house. Yes, he said, he had been drinking beer "before, during and after" the stunt.

Anthony barely got a taste of the beer before a Kent policeman hurried over and told him to throw the can into a nearby garbage container. Anthony complied.

A crowd of more than 100 laughed and cheered as the towing company winched Anthony's pickup off the roof.

Among them was a Kent woman who was driving by and stopped when she spotted the truck on the roof. "It's bizarre," said the woman, who declined to give her name. "That man is either nuts, drunk or starved for attention."

But an unrepentant Anthony steadfastly insisted it was merely a good stunt that went bad.

"I still think it was a great idea," he said after surveying the damage to his truck -- two broken drive axles, dislocated bumpers and a flat tire. "This house is going to go down in history."

Anthony kept smiling -- until the owner of the towing company came up and told him he wanted $695 for taking the truck off the roof. Immediately.

Anthony didn't have the cash. So the towing company winched up his truck and hauled it away.

He wasn't smiling anymore.

P-I reporter Jack Hopkins can be reached at 206-870-7851 or jackhopkins@seattle-pi.com