The Region - News from July 22, 1987

A Border Patrol agent chased after a driverless car with two illegal aliens in the trunk Tuesday and prevented it from veering off Interstate 8 and crashing, a Border Patrol spokesman said. Agent Steve Maxon, 43, pulled over a car filled with illegal aliens at 1:50 a.m. about 60 miles east of San Diego and 15 miles north of the border, Border Patrol spokesman Wayne Kirkpatrick said. The aliens bailed out of the car and started running away. Four were caught, but two or three, including the smuggler, escaped. The smuggler’s car, which had been left in gear, began rolling west down a steep incline on Interstate 8 while Maxon was putting one of the aliens into his car. When the alien yelled that his brother was in the trunk, Maxon drove after the car and bumped it with his own car to keep it from breaking through the guardrail and crashing into a canyon, Kirkpatrick said. The cars reached speeds of up to 55 m.p.h.