We are stuck in Death Valley

Sunday, September 29th, 2024, at 11:47 a.m. (PT), we received a request for help with an offroad recovery in California. The requester, Sebastian Cao, submitted the following information: “It was around 7 pm yesterday, called tow company, they can’t come because it was dark, so we waited in the truck. Call them again this morning , they said they cannot get on this road at all because their truck is too big and heavy. I have very bad reception here. We are stuck on Harry Wade road in Death Valley, black ram 1500. please help. Thank you / I’m with the vehicle.”

Once we verified Sebastian’s information, GPS location, and situation directly with him, we started working on finding volunteers. In this remote area, we had to call volunteers within a 75-mile radius.

Within minutes, we had a few volunteers participating in our lobby, trying to figure out how to offer a hand. We also reached out directly to some volunteers based on our GPS map(*), trying to find out if some specific volunteers who were marked as based near the incident were available. Unfortunately, the one who was a few miles down the road from this request was camping in Idaho, far away from here now.

GPS Map(*), as a reference, we built a GPS map of the United States, and every single volunteer is shown on this map. This tool allows us to quickly peruse who might be closer to a request, especially when we are working in a remote area.

Among the volunteers who offered to assist Sebastian was Timothy Katsopoulos, who, despite being over 200 miles away round trip, was ready to make the drive if needed.

Fortunately, just minutes before he set off, we got in touch with Sebastian and learned that a local sheriff had already come to his rescue, pulling him out with a strap.

We want to extend our gratitude to Timothy for his generous offer to help. It’s truly inspiring to see our volunteers go to such great lengths, selflessly stepping up to assist a stranger.

We always need more volunteers to cover areas like this one. If you would like to receive a text message when we get a request near you, create your account here: offroadportal.org/signup