Peace region man’s car stolen after hitting a moose

CHARLIE LAKE, B.C. — A local man is asking the community if they have any information regarding his vehicle that was stolen a couple of hours after he hit a moose on October 12th.

Zeke Maldonado, the shop foreman at Archtech Welding and Machining, said he was heading to work around 5:15 a.m. Thursday morning when a moose ran across the road around Mile 68 on the Alaska Highway.

“I swerved to the left into oncoming traffic so that I would miss the moose,” Maldonado said.

“[I] caught its back two legs, which then threw the moose on top my car, crushed the windshield in, and crushed the roof in, blew the sunroof.”

The impact showered him with glass and spun his car around, landing him in the middle of the highway.

Maldonado said when he came to his senses, he realized he needed to get off the highway, or he might get hit.

“I tried to start it. I couldn’t start my car. So then I put it in neutral, I jumped out and pushed my car to the side of the highway and was able to get off the road before [a vehicle] came along,” Maldonado said.

A couple of people offered Maldonado help, with one person helping him move the moose off the highway and another allowing him to use their phone to call his wife. She came to pick him up around 6:30 a.m. to take him to work, leaving his vehicle on the side of the highway.

After finishing some tasks that needed to be completed at work, Maldonado called ICBC about hitting the moose and his car.

He said a local towing company went to pick it up around mid-morning and found the moose around Mile 68, but his car was missing.

“They drove all the way up to Mile 72, near Shepherd’s Inn and turned around and came back, and they could not find my vehicle anywhere,” Maldonado said.

He called every tow truck company in Fort St. John and Wonowon, as well as the RCMP and Dawson Road Maintenance, but nobody picked up his car.

Maldonado had to call the RCMP and ICBC again to tell them that his vehicle had been stolen after he hit a moose on the highway.

He posted in a Facebook group the same day, asking if anyone had seen anything. Maldonado got a couple of replies from people saying a man and woman were walking around his vehicle before they headed south down the highway in a white or silver car.

The Charlie Lake CVSE Inspection Station checked their surveillance cameras for him and said his car wasn’t seen coming that way.

“So somewhere between [Mile] 68 and 54, somebody’s got my stolen car there,” Maldonado said.

He’s looking for someone who saw the license plate of the people who may have been near his car and anyone with dashcam footage of the area that morning.

Anyone with information on the stolen vehicle can contact Maldonado through Facebook or by calling Arctech at 250-785-5151. The Fort St. John RCMP can be reached at 250-787-8140.