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Cargo Truck Driver Killed By Robbers At Speedbump
posted (October 25, 2013)
And turning away from politics now, there is a murder to report tonight. A 61 year old driver from Yo Creek was killed today in a ruthless roadside robbery. George Blanco was driving with his boss, who is a meat wholesaler from Shipyard, when a gunman seized upon the vehicle in Sandhill. Jules Vasquez found out what happened next:..

Jules Vasquez reporting
Four men were in this Cargo truck when it passed the last speed-bump in Sandhill near the Old Northern Highway Junction. That's when a gunman on the left side of the road shot the driver, 61 year old George Blanco - while a man with a knife came up on the right. The driver fell over the wheel dead, and the vehicle veered off the road.

Abraham Penner was sleeping behind the driver.

Abraham Penner
"I just heard like a tire blow out and by the time I heard that the man said stop and give me all the money, if not I will kill all of you. My brother and my father jump out the other door and the gunman opened the driver's door and driver dropped out because he was dead and then I jumped out and he (the gun man) said give me all the money. I lay down and I pull out my wallet and after that the two guys; one with a knife and the other with a gun....."

They gathered all three men on the roadside and demanded their money and the money from the day's sales which was in the truck. They made off on foot with close to ten thousand dollars, leaving their slippers and tracks behind.

After that the men ran off, and Penner had to make the difficult call from his dead coworker's phone:

Abraham Penner
"After that I took out his phone and I call his son. He son didn't believe that his father was dead, but I told him that it happened."

"I thought that maybe they would killed me too. I am very happy that they didn't kill anybody else. I am sorry that they killed the driver."

This is the third time they have been robbed; once in the city, recently in Ladyville and now, fatally in Sandhill:

Jules Vasquez
"You think you can keep doing this job?"

Abraham Penner
"Well, we have to see what we could do, I don't know. We have to ask people and see what they will say."

So far, Ladyville police have no one detained.

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