Adam Rooks was having a typical Tuesday evening for Schroeder's Towing.
After responding to a call from the Lexington County Sheriff's Department, the driver was delivering a tractor to Columbia on the back of his tow truck.
But sitting at a stop light on Highway 378, at the intersection with U.S. 1 on Lexington's west side, a strange thing happened.
His tow truck, at the rear right tire at least, fell into a hole. The hole had opened in a patch of pavement near a manhole cover at the intersection, swallowing nearly half the tire and rendering the tow truck unmovable.
Even worse for the family sitting in a vehicle to his right, the tractor raised up on two wheels and threatened to overturn on top of them. Luckily for everyone, the tractor came back to rest on the tow truck.
Shortly before 8 p.m., Rooks and two others from his company stood on the side of the road watching and waiting for a large truck to come pull them out of the hole.
Sheriff's deputies were now the one responding to him, instead of the other way around, diverting traffic around the busy evening intersection.
Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.