I think they did it because there was no key, so the steering was locked. Truck was literally abandoned there. It's also most of the way up a 30-40% incline, so it wasn't exactly accessible, so someone would've had to foot a HUGE bill on recovery to get that thing out in one piece WITHOUT the keys... owner was not present when this happened either, which seemed odd to me. I'd have been out there every second if that was my rig, would have driven it down myself, come hell or high water.
At that point, the body was so entirely ****ed that it would have been a donor rig for sure. At best, a body swap, but you can't be serious about rebuilding it. Bent rear axle, bent front suspension, destroyed body, every window completely shattered... if anything, the motor and trans would've been the only decent things left. The tires were probably good too, looked like they just came off the bead on each wheel.
There were definitely a lot of stripped parts... this is what was noticed missing versus the photos/news report of when it first went down there:
- spare wheel
- gas cans
- license plates
- hi lift
- shackles
- ARB compressor
- Radio
- CB radio+antenna
- Belongings from inside the truck
- Tool set (broken bits of tool box with "TOOLS" label found inside truck)