MERTZON, Texas — Joe Cuevas was lucky, as he came face-to-face with the West Odessa murder suspect who was on the run. The suspect stole Cuevas' Tahoe, leaving him speechless and confused at the time.
Cuevas spoke about how he felt after the aftermath of his Tahoe being stolen.
"I’m just glad that they got him. Thank God, he didn’t hurt anybody else, and I just wish that they would’ve got him sooner than that. Maybe save my Tahoe," said Cuevas.
Cuevas went into details on what occurred during the time of his Tahoe being stolen, and the aftermath of when his vehicle was recovered.
"Well, we were just out in Merton, and we were taking lunch, and my guys were in a work truck working, and I was on the fence line going over stuff with my foreman. Before you know it, one of my coworkers goes, 'Hey who are you?' and turns around, this guy runs to the Tahoe, gets in, slams the door, locks himself in it, starts it, and starts going and by then I was coming running to my Tahoe. The guy reached and tried to open the Tahoe. The guy pulled out his gun, stepped on the car and he was coming straight at me with the Tahoe," Cuevas said. "When he went by, he missed me by like a foot and took off going, and we were all confused and stuff because we were five, six miles west of Mertzon in the middle of nowhere and all of a sudden, my Tahoe gets stolen by some guy that we just saw for two seconds. All we know is that he was a white male probably about 5’8, 5’10, you know, has a red goatee and like red hair and stuff and maybe 180 pounds and we’re just like, 'what the heck is going on?' He was wearing khaki pants and a long sleeve shirt and like a muscle shirt whenever he did that. No other rancher comes in and says 'hey, we got him because he can’t get out of here.' Next thing we know, we find out that he drove my Tahoe through like two or three fences to get out to go to the back road. Then later on three hours later, I found out my Tahoe was totaled back there in the back somewhere. In one of those ranches."
Cuevas stated that it felt almost like a movie because it happened so fast. He didn't have much thought or feelings on the situation at the time.
After his Tahoe was totaled, Cuevas' dad showed up and got him a vehicle so he could pick up his son from school. He is currently using the vehicle his dad gave him.
Cuevas could not answer a lot of the questions that people kept asking him because of the shock of the event. However, right now, he is trying to process all of it and what his next move is after this experience.
Cuevas just prays that something like this never happens again.