HUTTO, Texas (KXAN) — “Zeus himself decided I no longer needed my truck.”
That’s how Jeremy Jameson reacted after his truck was struck by lightning on April 28. The Hutto resident said he bought the truck — brand new — from Covert Ford in November, and it only had about 11,000 miles on it.
Where and when are lightning deaths most common?
Video Jameson posted to Instagram shows the lightning strike. The headlights can then be seen flashing. Jameson said he heard the loud crash around 8 a.m., and saw the flash on his security camera’s footage.
“I went out to check the truck. The key fob wasn’t working, so I used the little spare manual key to open the door. When I opened the truck door, I could just smell like burning computer smell, and I saw the driver side rear-view mirror was just hanging off,” Jameson said. “I pressed start on the truck, and it turned on the display but nothing else worked, and I got about every error code known to man on that thing.”
-
Damage to a pickup truck in Hutto, Texas, after a lightning strike on April 28, 2024. (Courtesy Jeremy Jameson) -
Damage to a pickup truck in Hutto, Texas, after a lightning strike on April 28, 2024. (Courtesy Jeremy Jameson) -
Damage to a pickup truck in Hutto, Texas, after a lightning strike on April 28, 2024. (Courtesy Jeremy Jameson) -
Damage to a pickup truck in Hutto, Texas, after a lightning strike on April 28, 2024. (Courtesy Jeremy Jameson)
The Ford F-150 is a Heritage Edition, something that Jameson had been searching for for a while. Now, just six months after he purchased it, the damage is still being assessed.
“They’re probably going to deem it a total loss because so far every electrical component they’ve tested has been fried,” Jameson said. “Not only that, but Ford has a backorder on all of their modules, so they don’t even have an estimate on when the parts could come in if they were to order parts for it, so we’re playing the waiting game at this point.”
New report: Texas ranks No. 1 in lightning count in 2022
Meanwhile, his Instagram video has racked up about 11 million views, something Jameson called “mind-boggling.”
“My wife and I are almost sitting back laughing as we see the view counts come in on that thing,” Jameson said. “It’s just amazing. It’s pretty cool to see that.”
Jameson said he’s now looking around for a used truck to buy, to help offset some of the cost from the total loss.
“In the meantime, I’ve been lucky with my insurance,” Jameson said. “They’ve given me a loaner rental car, so I have a pretty sweet minivan that I’m driving right now.”
And he has a request for those who have watched his video: “If anybody has a good used truck for sale, let me know!”
For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KXAN Austin.
Signup bonus from
