July 23, 2003
BOB-A-LOOOOOO
When you live in Florida, you come to expect strange news stories.
This one is just the latest addition to the great canon of weirdness this state has to offer:
MIAMI -- Cuban migrants fashioned a boat out of a 1951 Chevy pickup truck and drove it to within 40 miles of the United States before they were spotted, taken off and returned to the island, the U.S. Coast Guard said Wednesday.
The truck was sunk by the Coast Guard.
The dozen migrants, some sheltered in the truck cab or under a yellow tarp covering the bed, were first found by a U.S. Customs aircraft on July 16 south of Key West, Coast Guard Petty Officer Ryan Doss said.
A propeller attached to the drive shaft of the green vintage pickup was pushing it along at about 8 mph, Doss said. The truck-raft was kept afloat by empty 55-gallon drums attached to the bottom as pontoons.
``It was actually being powered by the truck engine,'' Doss said.
Doss said the truck was sunk as a hazard to ocean navigation.
Migrants have been founds on rafts or small boats made out of refrigerators, bathtubs, surfboards and inner tubes, but the truck was unique.
``We haven't come across any vehicles like that before,'' Doss said.
Now, I can understand you have to follow policy and return the Cubans to the island. But sinking the truck? That's just wrong. That damn thing belonged on a permanant rotator mixing margaritas above the bar at the Hard Rock Cafe in Miami.
Clearly we need to adjust our foreign policy when it comes to granting asylum to those who exhibit obvious engineering skills and enough ingenuity to pull off such a feat. Last time I saw a car turn into a boat that worked, James Bond was at the wheel.
I mean, half the population of white senior citizens in Florida plows their car into a swimming pool at some point during their driving careers. You don't see us sending them back to Europe, fer crissakes.