Elephants Deli worker on stolen truck: ‘I need to get off’

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — For Esmeralda Hernandez, Friday began as a regular morning.

Elephants Deli employee was packing a delivery truck at 4 a.m. at their Milwaukie warehouse. She wheeled a dolly with food into the cargo portion of the truck at the same time a thief hopped in the driver's seat and took off.

"At first I was, like, in utter shock. It was like I was, like, no one is supposed to be driving this truck right now except for me," Hernandez told KOIN 6 News. "And then the truck just starts moving."

The theft was caught on surveillance video. Hernandez is seen grabbing onto a post on the left rear of the cargo area and peering around the front toward the cab.

"I was just trying to, like, hold on to something real quick to not fall off the truck so easily. There was, like, a bar that you can hold on to," she said.

But those moments were also filled with a variety of thoughts.

"I was, like, 'This cannot be happening right now. Like, I need, I need to do something. I need to get off this truck.'"

The video shows some packaged food falling onto the pavement from the open back end of the moving truck — all while Hernandez held on to the post.

"He slowed down before some train tracks that was coming in, so he, like, slowed down a bit," she said. "And then that was my moment where I hopped off."

She was able to walk away with some bruises.

But her coworkers spent the rest of the day using an air tag to track the truck to a parking lot in Beaverton. Once they did, they called police, who responded quickly.

The suspect, 29-year-old Forrest Guayante, then allegedly rammed a police car before running off through parking lots and nearby yards. He didn't get far. A K9 caught him.

Hernandez said her wallet was in the cab of the truck. The only thing missing from it was $5.

She is glad the thief was caught.

"I feel like if he wasn't arrested, he could have probably done more damage," she said.

She's taking a few days to recover before going back and admitted to some nervousness about her return.

"You know, going into work at, like, four in the morning when it's, like, dark outside is, you have to be aware of your surroundings all the time," she said.

But she's currently surrounded at home by her loved ones, including her pups Lulu, Luna and Nebula.

"They are my comfort zone right now."