We were returning from Athens, Ga. on a Thursday night. Highway 138 was a narrow two lane stretch of road that was very dark and sometimes quite foggy. This particular night it was a little foggy and like always we were in a hurry to get home. I was traveling at my normal above the speed limit pace when I topped a hill and was face to face with blue lights. Over in the ditch on the side of the road was a blue El Dorado Cadillac. The Cadillac had run off the road, down the embankment and was resting in a ditch about 25 feet off  the road. I immediately recognized the car as Tony Atlas' ride.

I pulled over, got out and ran back up the road. As I got to where the car was Bill Howard pulled up and stopped.  Please picture this in your mind... The deputy sheriff working the scene looked and sounded exactly like the cop in the old Dodge commercials on TV.  You remember the "You're in heap of trouble now boy" commercials?  This is the type of sheriff we are dealing with... We had a car, a deputy, Bill , and myself, but no Tony Atlas.

The way the car had come to rest there was only about three inches of clearance under the vehicle. Bill proceeds to tell the sheriff that he may be under the car working on it. The sheriff got down on all fours and crawled all around the car shining his light underneath. The only way someone could have been under that car was if they were flat. The scene on the road had turned hilarious because we knew we had a live one. I suggested he may have climbed a tree to scope out where he was, Bill chimed in with we knew the driver and he was known to swing in the trees. I swear this is true... the sheriff walked out into the woods shining his light up into the trees hollering as if someone was actually going to answer him from the treetops.

While we are standing on the hill laughing a car pulls up and out steps Tony Atlas. He sheepishly walks up to the sheriff and tries to explain that he swerved to avoid a deer and ran off the road and lost control of his car ending up in the ditch. He further goes on that he had walked back up the road and was picked up by the family he had rode back with to go and call for help. A wrecker pulling up substantiated his story with the deputy well enough that no citations were issued.