(The Associated Press circulated the following article on July 19.)
DECATUR, Ala. — A nude, dehydrated teenager was rescued after apparently spending nearly three days in a railroad tanker car that had been used to store fertilizer, but he refused to tell authorities how he got trapped, police said.
A worker in the area heard 17-year-old Mark Cody White yelling Monday and found clothes beside the tanker.
The teen was rescued through the car’s roof opening by a firefighter who wore a protective suit because the tanker contained a residual amount of diammonium phosphate, which can cause skin irritation.
White, described as shaking and exhausted, was rinsed with water to remove any of the chemical, then was treated at a hospital and released.
His mother, Ramona Barber, said he had wrecked his car in a ditch Friday night and, while walking to a relative’s house, was beaten, robbed and thrown in the tanker by three men.
“It was about 150 degrees in there, and he stripped his clothes off, trying to stay alive. He thought he was going to die because he couldn’t get out. I’m so grateful someone heard him,” she said.
However, police Capt. Ken Collier said Tuesday that no robbery investigation was being conducted.
“He was uncooperative,” Collier said. “He refused to tell police what happened.”