Stranded Truck’s CB Gets Help From Texas

A Sylmar woman and her teen-age son whose truck became mired in mud in the mountains near Castaic used their citizens band radio to summon help--from Texas.

Marcia Thompson, 49, and her son Daniel, 17, were rescued after a Houston resident, Wayburn Castleschouldt, telephoned sheriff’s deputies in Santa Clarita to tell them of the Thompsons’ plight.

Sheriff’s Sgt. John Baylis said Thompson and her son were driving in the mountains near the Senega Campground, near Templin Highway and the Golden State Freeway, when a sudden downpour turned the dirt road to mud and their pickup truck became stuck.

“The mud caved in on the car. For them to walk six miles to a phone in that mud would have been extremely difficult,” Baylis said. Baylis said that after failing to move the truck for about an hour, the Thompsons began calling for help on their CB radio.

Their calls went unanswered for several hours, but their signal eventually was picked up by Castleschouldt in his truck.

“There were big canyon walls and they couldn’t get anybody local,” Baylis said. “The signals were bouncing all the way around, and then they shot out to the air, then it hit something and bounced down to Texas.

“They are pretty lucky. They could have been stuck there for some time.”

Deputies in a helicopter sighted the mother and son, landed and led them to a waiting sheriff’s car a short distance away, Baylis said. Their truck, however, will be stuck for several days.