Very early Friday morning, Brandon R. Farmer and a few friends were walking around in Washington Court House, Ohio, when they spotted a semi-truck trailer stopped at a red light.
Based on a dare, Farmer jumped onto the rear rail of the vehicle before the driver hit the gas, according to authorities.
"Farmer indicated that his intent was to ride on the back of the semi trailer rail until it stopped at the next traffic signal in the downtown and then to dismount," Fayette County Sheriff Vernon Stanforth told the Record Herald.
Listen: Click to hear 911 call (MP3)
Trouble was, the truck didn't stop.
Farmer was unaware that traffic signals in the downtown area were programmed to remain green unless they sensed cross traffic, which on this early morning they didn't. The truck driver, unaware he had a passenger, never slowed as he made his way to the town of Sabina at about 55 mph.
Holding on for dear life, Farmer managed to dig out his cellphone and call 911.
"My emergency?" he told the operator. "I'm on the back of a moving semi. I jumped on because he was at a red light and he took off. It was kind of a joke."
An alert was immediately put out.
At 3:40 a.m., an officer in Sabina saw the semi coming into the village with Farmer still hanging on the back and made a traffic stop on the truck. Farmer had held on for about 17 miles.
Farmer, uninjured, was taken by Sabina police to the county line, where he was picked up by the Fayette County Sheriff's Office. When deputies talked to Farmer, "it was determined that he was under the influence of alcohol," said Stanforth.
Farmer was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct. He is scheduled to appear in court for arraignment on June 28.