SUGAR GROVE – A Sugar Grove police officer helped rescue a kitten that had been clinging to the air cleaner of a semi truck for hundreds of miles following a traffic stop late last month.
According to a news release, Officer Kevin Forest stopped the driver of a semi truck about 5:30 p.m. on May 25 for talking on a cell phone in a construction zone. He was pulled over near Route 47 and Chelsea Avenue in Sugar Grove.
During the traffic stop, the officer heard a cat and asked the driver if a cat was on board. When the driver said he didn't have a cat with him, Forest decided to investigate further, the release states.
Forest checked under the hood of the semi and found a kitten clinging to the truck's air cleaner. Sgt. Tom Barna with the Sugar Grove Police Department said the air cleaner was located near the truck's engine toward the windshield.
"[Forest] was just going to pull him over and warn him, but then he heard a cat meowing and wondered where it was coming from," Barna said.
The trucker had left from Tomah, Wis., and the truck had traveled 284 miles by the time Forest had stopped the driver.
Barna said Forest took care of the kitten until Kane County Animal Control picked it up.
