(Porter County, IN) - A couple of Porter County fishermen found way more than they expected while scoping out a fishing hole Tuesday afternoon.

 

According to Indiana State Police, Mario Garcia and his son-in-law were checking out Salt Creek where it flows under I-94 about a mile east of the Portage exit. There they found the wreckage of a pickup truck with a body inside. “I looked inside and moved the white airbag, and there was a body there. I went to touch it, and he turned around,” said Garcia at a Tuesday night press conference. “He was alive, and he was very happy to see us, like I’ve never seen relief like that. But he was really hurt.”

 

The man told Garcia he had been trapped there since last Wednesday. “He said he tried yelling and screaming, but nobody would hear him. It was just quiet, just the sound of the water.”

 

Garcia could tell from the man’s frail condition that they had found him just in time. “It could have been a different outcome if we either didn’t go out or didn’t see him. I’m just glad we did,” he said.

 

According to Indiana State Police, firemen worked at length to extricate the man, who has since been identified as 27-year-old Matthew Reum of Mishawaka. Reum was immediately flown to Memorial Hospital in South Bend for treatment of severe, life-threatening injuries.

 

Police have determined that Reum’s 2016 Dodge Ram was traveling west on I-94 when it left the roadway and came to rest on the creek’s embankment just below the interstate. Reum was pinned inside and could not reach his cell phone.

 

Reum told police he was able to drink rainwater to stay hydrated. State Police Sgt. Glen Fifield said the recent unseasonably warm weather certainly contributed to Reum’s survival. ”Quite frankly, it’s a miracle that he’s alive,” Fifield said.