Video: Patterson Man Spots Kids Riding Dangerously In Pickup Truck Bed

PATTERSON (CBS13) - It looks like a terrifying trip: kids holding on for dear life in the back of a truck as it drives off with the tailgate open.

"It's stupid, it's dangerous, and I mean, I'm just looking out for those kids," said Miguel Jimenez.

Jimenez couldn't believe his eyes, so he took video and later confronted the driver.

"I was honking my horn, yelling at her: 'What are you doing? What are you doing!? There's kids in your trunk,'" he said.

It takes a lot to make Jimenez this mad. But carelessness with kids put the Patterson father of two over the edge.

As the Escalade pulls off, he yells: "You gotta be kidding me, lady!"

And it's obviously no joke. You see the tailgate open and kids hanging on in the back of the truck.

"Unbelievable! Unbelievable!" said Jimenez.

"I almost drove away and then I stopped and said 'no, I gotta do something. I gotta say something, 'cuz no one else is going to,'" he said.

Miguel says he saw three children back there, with the woman driving, leaving the Patterson
Savemart.

And a passenger threatens to throw a rock at him.

That's where the video ends, but Jimenez wasn't about to let her drive off. He says he actually followed her out of the parking lot. She eventually pulled over.

"[She] started yelling at me that she didn't know they were back there," he said. "Three kids. Did you forget where they were?"

"It's very unsafe and could be endangering to a child."

We showed Jimenez's video to Deputy Anthony Bejaran of the Stanislaus Sheriff's Dept. He said riding with kids in the back is illegal.

"As an infraction, but that could change depending on certain variables like speed or if they're involved in an accident where it could become a child endangerment case," he said.

Watching his video again, Jimenez can only shake his head.

"That's just, wow, I can't even imagine what goes through your mind. I'm gonna put my kids in my trunk pretty much, the trunk pretty much," he said.

After the confrontation with the driver, Jimenez says she put the kids back in the truck and drove off. She was long gone by the time the cops arrived.

Because the vehicle had dealer plates and you can't see the driver in the video, investigators say there isn't much more they can do with this case.