Truck driver modest about sniper capture

2.00pm

FREDERICK - When Ron Lantz pulled his truck into a Maryland rest stop off I-70 early on Thursday, something just clicked.


The truck driver spotted a blue Chevrolet Caprice with New Jersey tags in the parking lot off the Maryland interstate highway, and recalled the police news conference he had just heard in the case of the Washington area sniper who has killed 10 and seriously wounded three since Oct. 2.


"I pulled in. I'd heard those bozos talking about the description of the car, the make of the car, the model of the car, the license plate number," Lantz told CNN. "I pulled in with another driver behind me. I told the other driver that car looked kind of obvious."


Lantz confirmed the car's description with a radio station and then called police on 911.


They instructed Lantz to wait for state troopers to arrive but to block the Chevy in with their vehicles.


The unassuming truck driver waited 15 nerve-racking minutes until the authorities arrived.


"I just sat there and waited ... It was a long 15 minutes," Lantz said.


At one point, he said he started to walk to the restrooms, but then returned to his truck when he saw there were two people inside the car. He said he felt safer inside his cab.


But Lantz refused to call himself a hero in a case that has vexed and terrified the region for three weeks.


"I'm no hero. I don't even want to be classified as a hero. Just let it go like it is. I did my job," he said.


Just five runs from retirement, Lantz seemed unimpressed by the possibility of a financial windfall for his police work.


"I know there's a sizable reward. ... If I had the money, I'd probably take it and give it to the people who were shot," he said.

Further reading:
The Washington sniper

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