Police in San Antonio, Texas, are looking for a white tanker truck after receiving a desperate 911 call in which people were heard yelling in Spanish for help, saying they are trapped inside a vehicle.
The San Antonio Police Department and Bexar County Police received two emergency calls from alleged victims late on Monday, claiming they are inside a trailer and running out of oxygen, a local Fox affiliate reported.
A translation from Spanish revealed one caller said there were approximately 80 people inside the tanker. The caller allegedly said some people were already dead.
“It’s heartbreaking to hear because clearly behind the caller, in the background, you can hear others in the car, in the trailer, and they’re also screaming for help in Spanish and saying that they’re out of air,” Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar told the news station.
Bexar County Sheriff’s Deputy Johnny Garcia told the Washington Examiner the caller was “gasping for air” and “panicking,” adding that others inside were also experiencing difficulty breathing due to a lack of oxygen.
Video footage from surveillance cameras near Interstate Highway 35 and Fischer Road around midnight on Monday night revealed the tanker pulled up next to a black pickup truck. Both vehicles are shown leaving and later coming back to the same position during the night.
Garcia described how an “individual driving a black truck comes by to pick up the materials left by that 18-wheeler operator,” and both vehicles left the scene “together,” driving in tandem.
He added the vehicles appeared suspicious because they matched the description of the tanker truck described by the caller and noted: “Traffickers typically travel together.”
Authorities are unsure where the tanker truck is traveling from, though Garcia said the department thinks the tanker was headed northbound on I-35. The sheriff’s office, Homeland Security investigators, the state Department of Public Safety, and SAPD are requesting anyone with information to come forward.
“I [would] bet a lot of money that if the smugglers do encounter somebody in the back of that trailer that is very, very ill, as a result of the conditions they were exposed to or even dead, they’re not going to do the right thing. They’re going to dump a body, or they’re going to abandon somebody at a hospital, maybe,” Salazar said. “They’re certainly not going to do the right thing, and so, we’re letting our deputies know to be on the lookout for anything.”
Officials are sure the tanker was headed to San Antonio, and a signal from one of the callers was detected near the highway security camera. There are no reported leads about the tanker’s whereabouts.
