Close All Tabs - Close All Tabs Presents Snap Judgment: Runaway Car

Episode Date: September 9, 2026

Close All Tabs is on break this week, but we’re sharing a captivating episode about technology gone wrong from our friends at KQED’s Snap Judgment.  A 19 year old picks up his family’s car from the auto mechanic shop, but a few minutes into the drive home the vehicle begins suddenly accelerating and won’t respond to any of his attempts to get it to stop. As his speed continues to build, state troopers have to catch up and think quickly to come up with a way to prevent a tragedy from happening on the road. The Snap Judgment podcast mixes real stories with original music to create cinematic, dramatic audio. Snap’s musical brand of storytelling dares listeners to see the world through the eyes of another. Listen on any podcast platform. Website: https://snapjudgment.org/  Socials:  https://www.instagram.com/snapjudgmentradio https://x.com/snapjudgment  Further Reading/Listening: Vroom — Snap Judgment Podcast Email us at [e-mail] Follow us on Instagram⁠ and ⁠TikTok⁠ Credits: Close All Tabs is hosted by Morgan Sung. Our team includes producer Maya Cueva, editor Chris Hambrick and senior editor Chris Egusa who also composed our theme song and credits music. Our intern is Lauren Yoon. Additional music from APM. Audio engineering by Brendan Willard. Audience engagement support from Maha Sanad. Jen Chien is our Director of Podcasts. Ethan Toven-Lindsey is our Editor in Chief. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

From KQED. Support for KQED podcasts comes from the San Francisco Marin Food Bank. The culinary event, One Big Table on October 3rd, features celebrated Bay Area chefs, dancing, and more, all to help end hunger. Tickets at Sfmfoodbank.org slash one big table. A dark night, a quiet house, but inside, danger was lurking. Oh, not really. We have Exfinity Shield. so we're not worried.

What if protecting your home and devices could be drama-free? Xfinity. Imagine that. Restrictions apply, not available in all areas. Do you have an internet trend, tech subculture, or online oddity you've been wondering about? Well, now you can ask close all tabs to investigate. To submit a question, go to k-QED.org slash close all tabs and scroll to the bottom of the page. Or check out the link in our show notes.

Okay, let's get to the episode. Hi, Tabbies. the Close All Tabs team is on break this week, trying our best to log off for once. But we do have a really fascinating story for you today from our friends at KQED's Snap Judgment. And this one's about technology going rogue. We've covered Waymo's and other autonomous vehicles on the show before. But even if your car doesn't drive itself, you may have noticed that nowadays, all cars are becoming more computerized.

In some cases, it can seem like they're. have a mind of their own. That's what happened in Fargo, North Dakota, when a teenager picked up his family car from the mechanic. During his drive home, the SUV started speeding by itself, with the teenage driver stuck behind the wheel. Close All Tats will be back with a new episode next week. But until then, here's Snap Judgment's runaway car from their episode Vroom. We begin in the cold for the brand new Snap Judgment series, all systems down, when everything is falling apart. What do you do?

We're headed out to a land called Fargo. Actually, West Fargo. A place where winter is coming. The roads get slick. And every now and then, something strange comes roaring out of the snow. But Snap as this is not just another Fargo story. This one is true.

The events took place in West Fargo, North Dakota, in 2024. The names have not been changed. The voices are not altered. This is how it went down. Snap producer Bow Walsh brings us the tale. Snap Judgment. Catherine Dutcher and her 18-year-old son Sam were outrunning errands on a Tuesday evening in September. She needed to pick up dinner, so Catherine asked Sam if she could drop him off at the auto repair shop to get the family car.

We had gotten a call earlier that day that they wanted us to. to pick up the Honda and take it home. Their pilot had been acting quirky, but the mechanic told Catherine that it was good to go. They had driven multiple hours and a considerable amount, and it was fine, and nothing was found with it, that it probably was okay. And it was less than 10 minutes to get to our house from there.

We figured it was a very short drive, and that it should be just fine. What could happen in 10 minutes? Sam got behind the wheel, adjusted the seat and mirrors, and pushed the power button. The engine started no problem. All systems normal. He pulled off the lot and started the 10-minute drive home. It was still relatively bright out.

The sun was starting to go down, but it wasn't dark at all. I drive probably half a mile, and there was some farmland. on my right side. Left side there's houses. About a mile from his parents' house, driving on a two-lane road in Cass County, the speed limit switched from 40 to 55. Sam accelerated, then eased off the gas.

I backed off to stay at 55. It kept going, so then I took my foot off completely, and then it kept going. When I realized, I realized this wasn't slowing down. I was just focused on getting it stopped. But this Honda pilot wasn't interested in stopping. It was speeding up.

Initially, I tried holding the brake, and then holding it and hitting the e-break. Then I tried pumping the brakes. Then I tried putting it into neutral, and nothing happened. Then after that, I just tried park, reverse. And at that point, I realized, this thing's not going to stop.

The car's computerized system ignored everything he did. It was calling the shots. Finally, he hit the power button and held it in. The car just kept going faster. I'm watching the road, thinking, I don't know what to do. I can't get to stop. The only thing I had control over was steering. Now moving at 80 miles per hour, Sam didn't want to take his eyes off the road to dial 911 on his phone.

So he tried to place the call through voice commands. My phone said that number's not in your contacts. So I called my mom. She was in the Hardy's drive-thru. What I called her, saying, hey, it's happening again. And when he said that it was happening again, I knew exactly what he was talking about. The car had accelerated on its own once before. That's why they'd taken it in.

I thought it was maybe going to stop because it stopped very, very quickly the first time. You know, when we talked through, like, where are you? Can you get it to stop? And then I explained to her that the brakes aren't working. We have a Life 360 app on her. so I was able to look and see where he was at and how fast he was going at that point in time. At that point, she knew it was only going 80. I know I can control a car at that speed.

The car was racing east down a rural road that didn't have traffic lights in the northern Fargo area, approaching the Minnesota state line. Sam wasn't just afraid of crashing into another car or careening off the road. His big concern was that if a law enforcement officer were to see him, they would think that he was fleeing them. Because on the road, I do know that there's a sheriff that drives back and forth. And at that point, I told him that I was going to get off the phone, and I would call 911 and notify them. So I quickly hung up and called 911 and informed them of what was going on. Well, this is going to sound absolutely crazy.

So we've been having problems with my car. We took it to the shop because we had an incident where the accelerator stuck and it wouldn't stop. We managed to get it stopped. They had the car for like a week. They said it's just fine. Well, my son is driving the car currently because I'm in the loaner car. And he is going down to 2017. He can't get the car to slow down or stop and he's going about 80 miles an hour.

They probably thought it was crazy. He's worried they're going to try to pull him over. because you can't stop. You truly cannot. Okay. No, I understand. It was just so surreal that I think initially it was like, even though we knew it was happening, it felt like it was such a weird dream that I really didn't feel anything much at all.

Other than, oh, I better, like, let them know this. Okay. It looks like we did let an officer, my partner here let an officer in the area know already. So I'm going to advise you to not call your son back in case are we here try to get a hold of them or the officer tries to call him directly to give him directions, okay? My mom called me back. She wasn't supposed to, but she did. I called them very briefly just to explain they're calling you.

They're going to tell you what to do. You need to answer them. And basically said I loved him and I hung up because I didn't want to interfere with their call. but I also wanted him to know that it's very important that you do answer them. Saying goodbye was kind of scary in the sense of I didn't know what was happening next. So we found 90th Avenue crossing the street north. 10th, eastbound 90th Avenue, cross 80th, 6th. I'll have one in place for...

The pilot was now on 90th Avenue, the straightest road in the area. It was pretty quiet for the most part. There were a few cars, but it's not a bigger roadway. It was just beat trucks, pretty much that were on the road. Some of them semis. But it was only two lanes, and soon Sam started to overtake cars and trucks that were going much slower than him.

It's really narrow, only wide enough for two cars. People realized something's not right. A lot of it, there was a good chunk of, oncoming traffic, so I was passing on the shoulder. Not nicely by any means, but it was enough for them to get around the vehicle. That was scary because going around on the shoulder where it's pretty much loose gravel, the tire starts spinning in those extraction. The only thing to his right off of the shoulder were 20-foot ditches.

It was terrifying because those dishes were steep, so I would have just rolled. Not pleasant. The pilot was now going over 90 miles per hour, and every maneuver put Sam at risk of losing control. There was a turn there that wasn't nice to make at that speed. I was really close to spinning out there. It is difficult to keep the wheel straight at that speed. I was really tensed up. My hands were locked on that wheel, not really letting go of it, as long as I kept control the vehicle and didn't spin out.

Catherine Dutcher had given her son's cell phone number to the 911 operator, who transmitted it from the dispatch center. 10-4, just advising I also attempted to call Sam. I'm on the phone on him. 10-4. Within moments, Sam was on the phone with a Clay County deputy. He asked me, hey, did you try hitting the power button, did you try the e-break? 24 of the e-break, yeah, it doesn't work either. Did you try neutral, which the answer to all those was yes.

Control, uh, drive in that I'm trying to help all. After he went through those steps, I think he might have been a little stumped on like what to do next. 37, you had him try to hit that e-break and it won't do anything. Correct. E-break doesn't do anything. He said it's closing down, about two miles an hour, but that's it. I could hear, like, the resonance of the radio and that buzz that the radio makes.

I didn't like that, that they were going back and forth. I knew it was very serious. It's to the point where it's not just one or two officers. It's multiple, and they are trying to figure out what they want to do about it, And really, I didn't think they exactly knew what to do in this situation because this stuff doesn't happen very often. My only thought was like if no one can get this car to stop, if he can't do emergency breaks, if you can't turn it off, if he can't jam it, how in the world are they going to get this car to stop? I had hoped that it'd be like kind of a replay of that very first brief situation where it,

it was able to just be stopped quickly. So I think on some level, like my denial kicked in, and then it's like, well, you know, this will probably be okay to figure out what to do. As Sam blew through the intersection at Highway 75, the officers on the radio moved on to the next option. They told me directly, here's what we're going to do. We're going to put spike strips out,

and you're going to drive over it to pop the tires. And then let them know I'm going to push sticks out. Please take the tires off. Well, that should small down. Make sure it hit some, I guess. When those tires pop, you lose traction. And most of the time, we'll spin out. Like even if just one blue at that speed.

But first, someone would need to get ahead of Sam to lay down the strips with metal spikes. Get there, time. What I was told on the phone was we can't do that. We can't get far enough ahead of you. No breaks on this ride, Snappers. How long can Sam keep his eyes on the road and his hands on the wheel? Find out when Snapchat returns.

Support for KQED podcasts comes from Star One Credit Union. Give your savings account the love it deserves. When you keep your money with Star One, you keep more of your money. Star One Credit Union in your best interest. dark night, a quiet house, but inside danger was lurking. Oh, not really. We have Xfinity Shield, so we're not worried. What if protecting your home and devices could be drama-free? Xfinity. Imagine that. Restrictions apply, not available in all areas.

Welcome back to Vroom from Snap Judgment's all systems down before the break. Sam Dutcher picked up his family's Honda pilot from the repair shop. He was supposed to drive at home, but then the car started accelerating on its own. but brakes were not working. The car would not shut off. And now, with police, racing to catch up, Sam is trapped behind the wheel of a vehicle that keeps gaining speed. Snap judgment. 2022 Honda pilots, white in color going about 80 miles per hour.

The complainant sun is going through the one driving, reaching speeds of 90 to 100 miles per hour, cannot slow down or stop the vehicle. Shortly after 5 p.m., Minnesota State Trooper Zach Groover was on his way to turn in a receipt for an oil change. He'd gotten earlier that day on his department issued Dodge Charger when he heard the dispatcher relay the call on the radio. We're right on the border of Fargo and Moorhead, so North Dakota, Minnesota. So I was about 20 miles into Minnesota. It was kind of just a, hey, we've got a runaway car, and it's coming into Minnesota. Hopefully help us on the county line if we get there. Hey, I'm about 20 miles in front of this thing

and probably about seven or eight miles to the east of kind of the next major intersection that that car's coming at. So I figured I can go a little bit faster than 80 miles an hour with my lights and sirens on and we'll see if I can get up there and get the bike strip set down. He wasn't going to bother to ask anyone

if he should get involved. Our policy states that we, We have to be requested, but then, you know, something like this is kind of a, it poses a very major traffic safety issue when you've got a car that can't stop going through intersections at 80 miles an hour. So it really does kind of become a life and death thing because if, you know, you get T-boned at 80 miles an hour, it's not going to be good. Grover hit the gas and came up Highway 9,000.

But couldn't quite get to the intersection ahead of Sam. He saw the lights of Cass County police cars in pursuit of the pilot zoom by as he approached from the south. I hadn't seen Sam go by. I just saw the red and blues go by. So at that point, it was kind of just a race to who was going to get to the intersection faster. The officers were driving larger cars, Chevy Tahoe's. They were doing about 80 miles an hour. That's not going to really work.

And then that's kind of when it switched in my head. Like, okay, we're going to try to get in front of them. You got a trooper behind you, and you got one of the clay deputies. We're going to try to send that trooper in front to get six out. Grover's charger had a 300 horsepower engine. and could go a lot faster than the Tahoe's. So we came up behind them and floored it. Once we got up to the road that they were on,

I believe it took me about a minute to catch up to the Cass County Deputy. 35-16-8. I mean, I'm coming around here. My top speed on that road was around 130. 2.190.9.2.9. I'm coming up on your left to pass. And then I went around him, and that was kind of the moment where it's like, There's no car here. Where is this car? When he passed the other officers in the left lane,

the pilot was nowhere to be found. Sam was going so fast that he had pulled away from the police cars in pursuit. Grover went as fast as the charger would let him. You know, just kind of going pedal to the metal, and I could see tail lights up ahead. And then finally, when I was able to, I hit my front radar. And once I was able to get a speed on him,

he was doing 113 and it was kind of like a, oh, okay. He's not doing 80 miles an hour. 37 is still on the phone with them. I saw in my mirrors the red and blue flashing lights. Knowing they were there definitely brought a little bit of peace of mind because it means that they have caught up to me. 2.90 to get in front of them, yeah. I'm right behind them. We're in the hills. I don't want to pass.

We're doing 113. He was quite a ways ahead of me, so I really wasn't directly behind him for very long. I remember from going around me on the side, the lights on. At that point, I passed him just before we got into the town of Hitterdall. Two nights in front of them were just sitting in Hitterdoll. Before he could think about getting far enough ahead of Sam to drop the stopsticks, Grover realized they were coming up on the intersection with Highway 32 in the town of Hitterdall. It turned from like we're going to get in front of him to put sticks down to I need to get up there and block this intersection so he doesn't T-bone a car coming through at 113.

37 north. 503 miles an hour. No brakes. I didn't know what was happening. I didn't know what was going on. I didn't know what was going to happen next. But what I did know was up until the end of the road or until I lost control, it was going to continue driving. By now the sun had set, visibility was getting worse.

To further complicate things, Sam was headed for an intersection where the oncoming cross traffic didn't have a stop sign. It's an uncontrolled intersection going north and south. After you go through that intersection is a set of railroad tracks that's pretty frequently blocked by trains. Central Coffee just advising their going through stop signs eastbound along 90th Avenue. Sam barreling east could potentially T-bone. another vehicle at high speed.

I mean, my thought wasn't what's safest for me. It's what's safest for other drivers. I was honestly more worried about hurting other people than myself. I would have thrown the vehicle off the side of the road before I would have let it hit anyone. Groover slowed down at the intersection with his lights flashing to stop the cross traffic on the highway. I felt like I had a pretty good distance on him and was like, okay, we can get here, get this intersection blocked, and then he just kind of came out of nowhere.

Kind of take deep breath because of those cars on the side of the road. I don't have a lot of room. He was doing at least 112 miles an hour through that intersection. Very scary because it's totally sweet. If you make one mistake, things will go wrong. Yeah, that was kind of a, oh, crap, a moment. just watching him go flying by. I remember I had to sort of around a car at the stop sign.

And he had to do a pretty good jerk around me just so he didn't rear end me, thankfully. So kind of had a bit of a win there. I felt relieved that I got past there, but I also didn't know what was ahead. Sam's pilot flew by Grover in a blur, but now the officer had to catch up and pass Sam again. He was a ways in front of me, but I don't think it took me too horribly long to get caught back up to him, kind of a minute or so.

I was able to just put the pedal to the floor and go. My max speed was 141 miles an hour. Grover was still on the radio with the Clay County deputies, one who was on the phone with Sam, and another who was also driving the next closest car in pursuit. As the officer spoke, they crossed from Clay County into Becker County and realized that they had about three or four miles before the paved road would end. 24, just so you're aware once you get into Becker County, Becker County 14, T's off. We got County 7 used to hit it all, the T intersection. The pavement came to a T and then on the other side of the T was a gravel road.

and once that gravel road ended, it turns into a dirt field, but it was slightly offset from the gravel. I kept glancing over the GPS map. That road ended. I knew this road's going to a tee. What's going to happen? Doing 113 on the gravel would have been scary enough,

and I don't think he would have been able to negotiate that little curve. It was a steep slope at the end that I would just crash into. It was becoming a race against the clock, and three to four miles wasn't a lot of ground to cover going speeds of more than 100 miles per hour. After watching him go through hit it all, it was we're going to have to be a ways ahead of him to be able to get out and get those stop six down.

I knew I wasn't going to have time to stop my squad, get out of my squad, run to the trunk, get my stopsticks down and get him thrown out on the ground. Yeah, 10-4, I think we're not going to be able to get six. He's going too fast. So it was kind of, it shifted from putting stopsticks down to how else can we get this car stopped. 18-year-old Sam Dutcher knew the road ahead of him was coming to an end,

and the cops would not be able to drop the spike strips to slow him down. And his car was still gaining speed. It was slowly accelerating. I think it topped off at 125. Not a nice speed to drive it. It was almost like a roller coaster. That's the closest I can compare it to. Controlling it got difficult because I was starting to get tired.

It was just that my brain was rushing, just pumping adrenaline. I started questioning, how much longer can I keep doing this? Sam was deep into this nightmare. One slight jerk of the steering wheel, one little pothole on the road, and anything could happen. My thought was, there's no way I'm making it through this. I'm going to die. I pride saying, please let me make this through this. He tried to stay focused on the road and not imagine the worst.

I don't feel there was really room to think. about what could happen. I just needed to focus on what is going on and staying in control because if I start focusing on other things, there's a good chance at that speed you are losing control and dying. I was just in a state of mind of this is what's going on. I need to deal with this right now. nothing else right now really matters. Back at home, his mother Catherine was trying to get updates from the 911 operator.

I'm the same mom that called about my kids just a little bit ago. Okay, here it is. The reckless driver? Oh, right, except his accelerator sucks. Oh, okay. It was scary knowing that I couldn't be there. And so I called just to follow up and like, do you guys know where the officers are at? Have they found them?

Have they been able to do anything? What are they doing? So it was more of a sense of me wanting to know what happened. They're on the phone with him now. We have officers from all over and medical all coming to him, okay? Okay. And my husband and I are driving out there too. Yes, and I can understand.

It's got to be extremely stressful. We have, but they are talking with him directly, okay? So they're trying to help him get this taken care of. in the safest way possible, and we've got officers and troopers and all sorts of people going towards him. Okay? Okay. Okay. And when they said that, I think that was the first time I really panicked and thought, like, oh, my God, I think my kid's going to die.

The whole idea of that they had all these people going towards and made me feel like they were anticipating the worst and planning for it. We've got people that are getting there as fast as they're. you can. All right? Okay. Okay, we're all keeping our fingers crossed for him. Okay, thank you. You're welcome. I felt pretty sick to my stomach. It felt like time was so slow.

I had to just sit and wait and trust that they were doing everything that they could do. Out on the road, it was time for a desperate last-ditch effort to prevent a tragedy. At 113 miles an hour, we had about 53 seconds before. before we hit the tee. We were not far. We were running out of time, we were running out of road, and running out of options.

The first option was to do a pursuit intervention technique, a pit, where officers chasing vehicles will nudge the other car from behind to make it spin out. But Groover doubted it could be done on such a narrow road at speeds in excess of 113 miles per hour. We don't train at those speeds, so it was kind of just, we don't really know what's going to happen.

And obviously, you know, we don't want to try to do a pit on him and then have him go into the ditch sideways and roll a bunch of times because that's, I would say that's just as dangerous as him going off the T at 113 and seeing what happens. We were kind of just radioing things. So it was kind of a, you know, we're all talking through each other. Copy state units. Go to LTAC once. everybody's on the same channel.

We were bouncing ideas off of each other just to kind of try to see what we could get done. 7-04. What do you think called just watching? Van Grover had an idea. Just get in front of him and kind of match his speed, let him kind of just make soft contact and just ride the brakes down until we got stopped. 2-90, if that's your plan.

You don't have much room left before T's. So if you can do it, go for it. There was kind of a little bit of a thought, of obviously I'm driving a kind of a mid-sized car and he's in a larger SUV so you know if he starts pushing me we go sideways into the ditch this probably isn't gonna end to the best Groover doing about 130 miles per hour got ahead and passed Sam I noticed going in front of me I didn't know what he was doing I was in front of Sam I started slowing down and it hadn't been relayed to Sam yet

to run into the back of me. 37 and still on the phone with him. I didn't know what was going on because they never told me, hey, this is what we want you to do. In my mindset at the time, he just pulled in front of me. Oh, shoot, I don't want to hit him, so I'll go around him. He actually gets up next to me, and it was kind of at that moment where it was like a, uh-oh, you know, if he gets in front of me, I don't know if I'm going to get back in front of him.

We were kind of neck and neck with you and he'll fall. We were kind of neck and neck both speeding up. Do we have them on the phone? That's in the car? The deputy on the phone with Sam told him what the plan was. He told me, so I want you to hit the car that's going to pull up in front of you. You want me to... What? I repeated that to him.

So you want me to hit the cop car that's pulling in front of me? That's not something I really care to do. My thought was this could not end well. He's going to allow the person to hit him in the back. Once I got in front of him and started slowing down, something started to slow the car down as well. It was weird because... collision, automatic braking, started kicking on, I think.

It felt like we were probably slowed down to 80. The vehicle was making itself engine brake. Why did every other safety feature on this vehicle fail? But that wouldn't work. It was kind of a, okay, hey, this is going really well. And we were slowing down, slowing down, slowing down, slowing down, and he wasn't hitting me. And I was kind of thinking, hey, this is going really well. this might actually work.

I think the forward collision isn't letting him hit me. We're slowing down. I was starting to think, hey, it's not going to hit the vehicle. That's nice. I was watching him in my driver's side mirror, and I'm like, okay, he's, you know, he's coming up, but he's not hitting me. It was really close. I remember seeing the back of his car.

We're slowing down, and I think I was down to about 20 miles an hour, and I lost his headlight in the driver's side mirror. It felt like time slowed down and then smack. If, uh, hold them, hold on. When he hit me, I think that I was doing about 20 miles an hour, and once he hit me, I just dynamited the brakes. Car stop. Oh.

After he hit me, we came to a pretty immediate stop. My squad was enough to just keep his car from moving still. I was just sitting there frozen kind of in shock. When they came to my passenger side door, opened it up, so I can get out of the car. The wheels were still spinning when I got out. It was still running, trying to go. Are we good?

I've never been rear-ended before. I know my head smacked the headrest and it was a pretty good jolt. That hit hard. That was like, it was slowing down, slowing down, and then it wasn't. It's good thing we had a charger, I don't know. I mean, he was doing... When I caught up to him, he was... 24, did you say that the vehicle stopped?

4 car stopped. All medics can clear. We're good. I got a other car, then. I went to send the grass injun. Just sat there and just kind of zoned out for... I don't know how long. My brain kind of just broke. I was kind of just in a sensory overload.

He was cool, calm, and collected. He was kind of just standing in the ditch. Grover will say I was calm. I wouldn't say it was calm. I'd say I shut down, but I'm part of that. Also, I am on the spectrum, so don't really show emotions as much. I mean, I was in the mindset of, I want to go home. I want to go to bed.

I wanted my day to be over. He called me himself when they got the vehicle stopped and he got out. And he's like, Mom, I'm out of the car. I'm okay. And then I just wanted to see him to know it was actually like real. I mean, it was amazing, but it also felt like it wasn't real. I was like, how could you like run into the back of a lot first make her at the speed that you're going to get stopped and not even be injured? it didn't make any real sense until I actually saw him.

I was like, God, like, you know, thank you God for not killing my kid. Thank you for keeping him safe. It felt like a miracle very much so. It was kind of a sigh of relief, knowing that we were able to get it stopped and not have to watch him, you know, go off of a T at 113 miles an hour. You don't really realize kind of what you did until after. the fact and it's kind of like, okay, this is like, this is pretty cool. So when you got home that night, did you tell your wife what happened?

Absolutely not. The thing that I was even more floored about that I found out that next week during this whole thing was that his wife was like seriously pregnant at the time, ready to give birth to his very first son and to think about that. that he put his life on the line to save my son knowing that he had his first one on the way. Like, that was even more, like, amazing to me. I remember him walking up to me, stick it out at his hand, like, he was going to shake my hand. And I'm like, seriously, could I hug you?

I mean, you saved my kid's life. I don't really feel like a handshake is, like, doing justice. A huge thank you to Sam Dutcher and his mother, Catherine, Johnson Dutcher, along with Minnesota State Trooper, Zach Groover, for sharing their story with the SNAP. Sam was currently a student at the North Dakota State College of Science where he's studying to become an auto mechanic. Very special thanks to Lieutenant Mike Lee of the Minnesota State Patrol as well. The original score for that piece was by Renzo Gori was edited by Anna Sussman, was produced by Bo Walsh. That was KQED's Snap Judgment, a podcast that mixes real stories with original music to create cinematic, dramatic audio.

Thanks again to their team for sharing this story with us. While we're on break, our tabs are staying closed. But we'll be back with a fresh episode next week. See you then.