The internet is awash with stories that are coming in all over the place about Mr. James Sikes, of runaway Pruis fame, from Monday's unintended acceleration incident near San Diego, California. Our good friends over at the awesome automotive blogs Jalopnik and The Truth About Cars have been unfolding the story bit by bit as information comes in.
From what Jalopnik has uncovered Sikes was in some serious financial trouble, saddled with $700,000 in debt and had filed for bankruptcy in 2008. Sikes also has a history of things being stolen from him at rather opportune times, like his entire kitchen when his house was being foreclosed on. There are at least three reported incidents of theft against Sikes and probably more to come out of the woodwork as the day and weekend wears on.
To top all of this off though as sort of a Pièce de résistance Sikes and his wife are the proud owners of an adult website for swingers. I'm not talking about the Austin Powers Grrrrrrrr Baby, It's the Swinging 60's here either. This is seriously the stuff excellent sitcoms are based on, I mean really how could you not want to watch a show about a couple of bankrupt swingers who run a shady website, commit insurance fraud and attempt to fake a runaway Toyota? The man even rocks a Bill Cosby-esque sweater.
From what Jalopnik has uncovered Sikes was in some serious financial trouble, saddled with $700,000 in debt and had filed for bankruptcy in 2008. Sikes also has a history of things being stolen from him at rather opportune times, like his entire kitchen when his house was being foreclosed on. There are at least three reported incidents of theft against Sikes and probably more to come out of the woodwork as the day and weekend wears on.
To top all of this off though as sort of a Pièce de résistance Sikes and his wife are the proud owners of an adult website for swingers. I'm not talking about the Austin Powers Grrrrrrrr Baby, It's the Swinging 60's here either. This is seriously the stuff excellent sitcoms are based on, I mean really how could you not want to watch a show about a couple of bankrupt swingers who run a shady website, commit insurance fraud and attempt to fake a runaway Toyota? The man even rocks a Bill Cosby-esque sweater.
The evidence that is surfacing certainly pointing to Sikes doing this for the money, the fame, the whatever it is these people get out of creating an elaborated media circus around them. At least Richard Heene, Balloon Boy's attention whore father, was at least creative in his hoax and made it somewhat believable (well until the kid spilled the beans). Sikes wasn't even creative with his hoax, he rode the brakes worse then an old lady on her way to bingo and just kept the accelerator pinned until he felt as if he'd sufficient done grandstanding and just stopped. I guess Sikes didn't realise what a bunch of bored office employees that scour the internet could dig up on him.
I got slightly bored and figured I throw some more fuel into the fire as well. After looking up some Prius geeks, I uncovered the top speed of the generation of Prius Sikes owned was 106mph. So if the accelerator was stuck why would the car only hit 94mph? Cars don't magically stop accelerating 12mph short of their top speed...unless someone is holding the car are a given speed.
I know Sikes has come out and said he's not going to sue Toyota over this, but really he isn't fooling anyone, he's fully expecting some kind of "Shut-up" money from Toyota. I somehow don't think this is going to come, especially based on Toyota's latest investigation of the Prius in question which has left them "mystified". Cue the X-files theme.
So is Sikes full of it? Probably. Was this all a hoaxes? More than likely. Is this the last of the run away Toyota incidents that will populate the media? Not a chance, this is only the beginning.
I got slightly bored and figured I throw some more fuel into the fire as well. After looking up some Prius geeks, I uncovered the top speed of the generation of Prius Sikes owned was 106mph. So if the accelerator was stuck why would the car only hit 94mph? Cars don't magically stop accelerating 12mph short of their top speed...unless someone is holding the car are a given speed.
I know Sikes has come out and said he's not going to sue Toyota over this, but really he isn't fooling anyone, he's fully expecting some kind of "Shut-up" money from Toyota. I somehow don't think this is going to come, especially based on Toyota's latest investigation of the Prius in question which has left them "mystified". Cue the X-files theme.
So is Sikes full of it? Probably. Was this all a hoaxes? More than likely. Is this the last of the run away Toyota incidents that will populate the media? Not a chance, this is only the beginning.
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