Greg Bondi, Gulfport, Miss., was driving in the Gulf Coast area when he heard the news of a missing toddler.
Emily Propps was traveling with her parents when she was kidnapped by another couple, Brian and Ulanda McCulley. When Bondi heard the news, he begin spreading the word on his CB radio. He also stopped at a couple of truckstops to alert other truckers. He figured that the couple would stop at truckstops.
Bondi, a trucker for 18 years and father of a 4-year-old boy, wanted to help. “If it had been my kid that was missing, I would have wanted people to help me find him,” Bondi said in published reports. “Truckers help people every day. Why not help a little girl?”
The same day that Bondi began broadcasting the news, a trucker radioed him and said that he’d seen the couple and child at a truckstop in Texas. Bondi used his cell phone to alert the police, who then notified the FBI.
“It feels really good to know they found her,” Bondi said. “All I did was come up with the information.”
Capt. Louie Miller, Ocean Springs Police Department, lauded Bondi for “taking the extra step” and helping police find the girl so quickly.
The Highway Angel program recognizes hundreds of truck drivers for their unusual kindness and courtesy to others while on the job. Petro Stopping Centers and Volvo Trucks North America are exclusive sponsors of the Highway Angel Program, which was initiated in 1997. The goal of the program is to support driver professionalism and elevate public awareness of the many outstanding drivers in the trucking industry.
