A woman who was possibly living inside her snow-buried car was rescued when it was accidentally struck by a snowplow.
This came as a surprise to us, but there are apparently parts of California that get snow. A lot of snow. South Lake Tahoe is popular ski town that is currently under an avalanche warning from all the snow they’ve gotten over the past few weeks. So yeah, they get a lot of snow there.
In fact, South Lake Tahoe gets so much snow that a city spokesperson felt it necessary to release a statement to the public on road safety in snowy conditions.
According to the Associated Press, city spokesman Chris Fiore told assembled media to be cautious while driving on South Lake Tahoe’s snow-covered roads. Additionally, he cautioned people against parking their cars illegally, which will get them towed and also slows down snow removal.
He specifically recounted a story recounted by the South Lake Tahoe Police Department of a woman rescued from her snow-covered car. Her car had become buried during the excessive snowfalls before February 17th, trapping her inside when her car’s battery died and prevented the use of her electric windows.
As her car was completely buried to the roof and she was without a cell phone, she was unable to call for rescue or indicate to pedestrians that she was in distress. For all intents and purposes, she was invisible.
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Which explains why her car was struck by a snowplow later that morning, popping open her trunk.
As is the standard operating procedure for city snow removal, workers got out of the plow and began digging out the car in preparation for it to be towed. When the windows became exposed, the woman put her hand on the glass and scared the living crap out of the city workers.
That’s when things got a little weird. According to Fiore, the unnamed woman wasn’t trying to get out or call for help, and in fact, seemed totally calm after finally being released from her snowy prison. She said she’d been trapped for 5 hours, but was unconcerned of her predicament.
Authorities suspect that she was actually homeless and living inside the car. She declined medical assistance and left, leaving the city to have her car towed.