Texas Authorities Continue Search For Semi After 911 Calls From People Claiming To Be Held Inside
BEXAR COUNTY (CBSDFW.COM/CNN) - Dispatchers in Texas received disturbing 911 calls from people pleading for help in Spanish and claiming to be inside the back of a tanker truck, today authorities continue searching for that big rig.
"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 news station KABB.
According to a 911 call that was aired by the affiliate, a caller told dispatchers there were about 80 people in the truck.
Someone could be heard screaming for help, while another screamed, "We are not going to make it."
According to the affiliate, the 911 call was one of several made in reference to a tanker believed to be headed to San Antonio. It's unclear how many 911 calls were made. Audio clips posted by the affiliate have a verbal time stamp of just after 10:00 p.m. on February 8.
"I'd bet a lot of money that if the smugglers do encounter somebody in the back of that trailer that is either very, very ill as a result of the conditions they were exposed or even dead, they're not going to do the right thing," the sheriff said. "They're going to dump a body or they're going to abandon [people] at a hospital maybe, they're certainly not going to do the right thing.
Sheriff Salazar said he is just telling deputies to be on the lookout for anything.
During one of the calls the person claimed several people inside the 18-wheeler were 'already dead.'
The calls were reportedly made to both the San Antonio Police Department and the Bexar County Sheriff's Office. Homeland Security and Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) are helping with the investigation.
(The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2021 Cable News Network, Inc., a Time Warner Company contributed to this report. All rights reserved.)