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October 7, 2025 19 mins

On this episode of Our American Stories, for decades, Thomas Weller was a familiar sight along San Diego’s highways. Drivers with flat tires, empty gas tanks, or broken-down cars often saw him pull over to help, expecting nothing in return. Known as “The San Diego Highwayman,” he lived by a simple rule: if you can help, you should. Now, Weller joins us to share his story.

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Episode Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:10):
And we continue with our American stories. Up next, we
have the voice of Thomas Weller, aka the San Diego Highwayman.
Thomas is nationally recognized for doing something he simply calls
playing on the freeway, but what he does is truly
much more. Here's Thomas with a story of why he

(00:30):
decided he would dedicate much of his life to helping people,
specifically stranded motorists on the side of the road.

Speaker 2 (00:45):
Well, here's nineteen sixty four and hours out against my
mother's Roysterers. Tom caatting around in a snowstorm one night
and I'm coming home about one two o'clock in the morning.
It was a blizzard, and it was a two lane highway,
and I was blown off the road into a snowbank

(01:08):
and my fifty eight Chevy X police car and the
top was white and the back end bottom was black.
That's all he could see the car was the black
trunk sticking out of the snowbank. And I'd been there
for a number of hours, and I was freezing cold,
and a fellow in a pickup came along, only person

(01:29):
that came by that night, and he stopped and he
pulled me out with a chain and I said thank you,
and I tried to pay him. He wouldn't take any money.
What he said was passion on when you have a chance.
And I never even got his name. I didn't really

(01:54):
understand that he'd probably shaved my life until about two
years later, nineteen sixty six. That's when I started doing
what I do and have done ever since. Charles Carrault
called me the highwayman on National TV in nineteen ninety six.

(02:16):
He said, highwaymen of old the figures to fear, but
here's a highwayman to admire. And I thought that was
pretty cool. My someone was sitting there watching it with
me on TV and he turned to me to dad,
isn't a highwayman a bad thing? Anyway? Ever since then,

(02:41):
I've been the San Diego Highwayman. In nineteen sixty four,
I read a book by Rick Raphael called Code three,
and it predicted the future of gigantic cross country highways,
transcontinental highways, and vehicles that were jet powered. And the

(03:05):
story was about this one officer's Beua, which was their
vehicle that was shut up as a wrecker and patrol car.
It had crane on it for lifting vehicles. It had
a jail show in the nose, and there was a
picture of it on the front page of the book,

(03:25):
and it just enthralled me as a teenager. And I
named my rescue rig BUA from that. And my BUA
was a fifty five, fifty fifty seven, fifty eight, fifty nine.
It was parts of a dozen different cars. I found
it initially and a vacant lot wrecked gave thirty five

(03:50):
dollars for it, and I paid fifty dollars for the
front end off of fifty six. BULA was a fifty
five receieve but the fifty six front end fit on
just perfect, So for under one hundred dollars, I had
me a running car.

Speaker 3 (04:04):
This would be the car that Thomas would go on
to rescue thousands of people with.

Speaker 2 (04:12):
I had a full toolkit it grew over the years.
I had basic emergency services stuff. I had my first
response kit because my wife and I took MT courses.
I had gasoline, I had oil. I had air compressed
air for tires. I had several different kinds of jacks,

(04:33):
pie bars, cutting tools. She weighed fifty six hundred pounds
with the dog Sheila were sitting in the seat when
it got weighed.

Speaker 3 (04:45):
Sheila was Thomas's lab also known as his shotgun rider,
who went on every one of his adventures with him.

Speaker 2 (04:53):
I looked all over Shandygo County. When I found her,
I knew it was to be. She was in the
last cage, the last place I looked, and she was
in the back of the cage, and the person took
me to see her. She'd only been just brought in.
I looked at her, and I already had the name

(05:13):
picked out from the Crocodile Dundee movie. Well, I said, Sheila,
would you like to come home with me? And she
got up, came out to the wine and put her
nose through and anyway, two weeks later, after she'd been
through all the processes and gotten fixed and everything, I

(05:35):
came to get her and she jumped into the rig
on the passenger shine, crashed over the driver's shine and
sat down the driver's sheet, put her front paws on
the showing wheel and looked over at me like, okay,
I'm ready, get in. Let's go. And I said, Sida,
you can't drive the vehicle or She put her head

(05:56):
down and her tail went down. She crossed over the
passioner's seat and sat down waited for me, and then
I came around and put the harness on her as
the safety harness to protect them if there was ever
a crash. She lifted her pause one by one in
the front and she did that every time.

Speaker 3 (06:23):
One fourth of July weekend, Thomas was out playing on
the freeway and spotted a family in need.

Speaker 2 (06:30):
They were stranded at the stop right there, and I
stopped to help them, and they were driving a mid
engine mister van with the alternator gone bad on and
the battery was dead, and that's why they died right there.
So I put my jumper battery in and I carry
with me for these things, and I followed them to

(06:52):
their motel up in Kearnye Masha, where I left the
jumper battery in disconnected and showed him how to reconnect it.
And the next morning they came out with their van
to my place in Alcohol and I reinstalled their battery
which i'd charged from overnight, and I gave them a
battery so they can make it home to San Jose

(07:16):
running just on the battery, and I warned him not
to use their lights or signals or air conditioning. And
they made it and the thing was this particular vehicle.
It's hard to work on, and it was the fourth
of July weekend, and it would just totally ruin their
weekend if they'd had to take it somewhere and try
to get it fixed down here. So the little girl

(07:39):
drew for me. They sent me that, and it's up
on my garage wall, and she even put my dog
in the driver's sheet of my bula And it's my
most favorite tank you of all the years that I've
done this.

Speaker 3 (07:58):
Thomas had a card of his own that he would
give to people after helping them.

Speaker 2 (08:03):
It says, assisting you it had been my pleasure. I
asked for no payment other than for you to pass
on a favor by helping someone in distress that you encounter.
And on the backshiter card it's the words from a
country Western shong. It says, you don't owe me a thing.

(08:24):
I've been there too, someone once helped me out. Just
to why I'm helping you. If you really want to
pay me back, here's what you do. Don't let the
chain of love end with you.

Speaker 1 (08:41):
And you've been listening to Thomas Weller, the San Diego Highwayman,
telling his story, which really started fundamentally in a snowbank
where his car was trapped and well, there was no
one in sight until one person came by. As he
put it, Thomas, a fellow in a pickup came by
and pulled me out with it. He wouldn't take money.

(09:02):
I never got his name. Pass it on if you
get a chance, is all he said. And my goodness,
Thomas has been passing it on, and he has had
many chances. A highwayman, to admirer Charles Carrow called him
in nineteen ninety six. Generally highwaymen are feared, not this one.
And we learned about Beulah, his precious car, which he

(09:24):
cobbled together from many different cars for under one hundred bucks.
But as he put it, for under one hundred dollars,
I had a running car weighing in at five six
hundred pounds, with his tools and his dog Sheila. When
we come back more of Thomas Weller's story, a classic
American story. Here on our American stories, and we returned

(10:10):
to our American stories and to Thomas Weller, the San
Diego highwayman who spent much of his life helping motors
who were stranded on the side of the road. Let's
pick up where we last left off.

Speaker 2 (10:25):
I was shout bound one sixty three and there was
a ninety tea bird on the right shoulder with a
blown tire, and the fellow driving it was a fellon
a jailbird. He was wearing a wife beater her shirt
and he had the tear drop tattoos. And just as
I pulled up, his friend pulled up with two sparrow

(10:48):
donuts that they were going to try on the car,
and neither one on them fit. So I gave the
guy my card and I tore my v back with
one that fit, and I drove home here to the
ranch and I picked out one that I knew would fit,
took it back to him, and when I arrived, his
friend had left. He was sitting in the car reading

(11:10):
my card, holding his hand. He didn't believe I was
coming back. He thought he was totally shrewd. He was
down from LA to pick up a friend who was
getting out of jail. I put the spear on and
it worked, and shook hands with him. And this was
a really scary looking guy, and I was kind of
concerned for my safety with him. I turned to leave,

(11:33):
and all of a sudden, he had his hand on
my shoulder and spun me around, and I was thinking, oh, well,
the guy was crying and he said nobody had ever
done anything for him before in his life. And he
said I just changed his life, and it tears me up.

(11:58):
Now I'll tell you about it. He broke down and cried,
this big, secury looking dude. I've had a number of
fellas and gals cry as I'm helping them. They're the
little gal who I helped on the one sixty three.
She was talking to trip Away on the phone when
I pulled up, and she told the Triple A people, well,

(12:22):
the Ghostbuster's car just pulled up behind me. She was
initially scared of me and told me no, she didn't
want to help and want me to leave, but I
want her over and I changed the tower for her
and shut her on her way, and she sent me
a real nice little email saying that she was the

(12:42):
redhead that I'd helped that day, and the reason she
was so scared of me was that she knew I
wasn't trip Awa because she was on the phone to
trip Away as I pulled up, and one of her
best friends had been Karen, not It's a long and
really sad story about Kara. But this chp Offer Craig

(13:07):
Payer killed Kara, not and attempted to get away with it.
So she was not convinced at all initially that I
was there to help her, and it goes uphill from there.
We still correspond via email every so often. I had
one fellow I help his wife. She had a bone

(13:30):
and shredded tire and a damaged fender. But and he
arrived as I was finishing up, and he tried to
pay me. This was an expensive vehicle that had the
bone tire and he was driving an expensive vehicle. Well,
I wouldn't take his money. But I lost my sunglasses
that day, and I either said something about her. He
noticed I didn't have any. He took off his dispenser

(13:53):
sunglasses and gave them to me, and I did accept
those because the sun was pretty bright. There were a
number of hp Offshers through the years who assisted me
at scenes as I assisted them as well, but one
particular offsher offsher Cami a little blonde. The first time

(14:16):
I met her, I was on the right shoulder with
a young girl in a Mustang that was broken down,
and offsher Cami pulled up and walked up to me
and said, let me see your business license. And I
didn't know her name. Then I said offsher, I don't
have a business license, but I do have this, and
I gave him my card, and she read the card

(14:40):
and her demeanor change and she gave me a hug.
And from that day till the last time I shower,
we were good. French. She I would go out to play,
as I called it, when I was despondent or depressed,
because every time I helped somebody it would raise my spirits. Well,

(15:02):
this one night, I'd gone out to play in a
couple hours and I hadn't found a single person to help.
So I'm headed home and all of a sudden I
get lit up and pulled over by a HB. And
I'm thinking, that's just great, perfect ending for a perfect day,
and now I'm going to get a ticket and I
don't know for what. Well, the officer walks up to

(15:23):
my window and six it's hand in the window and
shakes my hand and he said, for the seventeen years
he'd been on the East County beat, he's seen me
at accents and breakdowns and other things doing what I
do and never had a chance to say thank you
because I always took off so fast. I said, you
pulled me over to say thank you. Yep, he sure did,

(15:49):
and that lifts in my spirits considerably. I haven't ever
had a problem asking for help who help others with,
like when my car broke down or the engine blew up,
or I needed a part or spare tires for folks.
I didn't have any trouble asking for others when I

(16:13):
needed stuff for them. But it's difficult asking for me.

Speaker 3 (16:18):
So some of the people who Thomas had helped and
others who'd heard of the work he was doing, took
it upon themselves to help him back. They came together
to raise money for Thomas to get a set of teeth.

Speaker 2 (16:30):
And I'm gonna cry because I do have teeth now,
thanks to like eleven hundred people, some of whom I
had helped and some I never knew and never will know.
And I have my teeth, and I can eat, and
I've gained a little bit of weight back.

Speaker 3 (16:53):
Thomas played on the freeway for fifty one years and
helped over ten thousand people on the side of the road.
In twenty seventeen, Thomas had a stroke that partially disabled him,
preventing him from playing on the freeway any longer.

Speaker 2 (17:09):
I'm recovered from cancer two months ago. Luckily they got
it all. I'm real happy to still be here. Folks
are sent me emails and letters, and a couple of
folks who posted stories on the Internet about their experiences
with me and what it meant to them and the

(17:30):
things that they'd done in return. There's just so many
of them. I got stories to fill several books, but
a lot of them are just in my memory and
my one foot stack high of letters and emails and
pictures in touch, but they're all in my memory. I've
had numerous experiences that convinced me that there are angels

(17:55):
out there, and I've been called an angel many time
in my own shelf. I just realized that I might
not have been here if it hadn't been for that
one fell a help in me. And there's been a
number of people of sens who have a spowers similar
feelings for what I did for them.

Speaker 1 (18:18):
And a terrific job on the production by Madison Derrikut
and a special thanks to Thomas Weller. The San Diego
highwayman fifty one years, ten thousand people helped, ten thousand
stories in the end, and he shared some of them
with us. That nineties tea bird that was blown out,
a blown out tire, that is, and an ex fella
who was driving it, and he was driving to pick

(18:40):
up another X Con coming out of jail. And the
guy looked tough, and he had to leave that ex
con stranded, go back at a tire and then come
back to him. And when he was leaving after having
fixed the problem, he felt a hand on the shoulder.
When he turned around, he was a little afraid, and
then he saw he had nothing to fear at all,
because that X John was crying. No one had ever

(19:02):
done something for me. That man said. He even got
pulled over by a cop who wanted to just thank him.
And how often does that happen in any of our lives,
that we get pulled over by law enforcement just to
say thank you. Numerous experiences in my life tell me
that there are angels out there. Well, Thomas Weller is
one of them. The story of Thomas Weller here on

(19:22):
our American Stories
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Lee Habeeb

Lee Habeeb

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