Pulling a stuck vehicle out of the mud isn’t a job for just anyone. While it isn’t rocket science, un-stucking an off-roader requires some tact and a little finesse, to make sure things go smoothly and nobody gets hurt. What you definitely don’t want to do is go full Leeroy Jenkins, smash the throttle in the recovery vehicle, and hope for the best. If you do, you can end up doing exactly what happens in this video, where a Ford F-150 Raptor accidentally pulls a stuck SUV into a ditch.
There’s some mystery to this video, as it’s hard to tell exactly what the SUV being recovered is, let alone where all this actually happened. At first glance, it looks like a Ford Bronco, but closer inspection indicates it’s more visually similar to a Bronco Sport; it could even be the new Toyota Land Cruiser. One commenter identified it as a Chinese-market Jetour T2, which seems like a good guess. Ultimately it’s not especially important what the vehicle is, when it’s at the bottom of a ditch. The real story is how it got there.
It’s unclear why the SUV was being recovered in the first place, as it seems to be on flat ground and easily capable of driving itself out. Yet, for reasons unknown to us viewers, a recovery rope was attached between it and an F-150 Raptor. Things get weirder from there. Immediately to the SUV’s right is quite a large, deep ditch, so the Raptor should have pulled the SUV straight before turning around the ditch. Instead, the Raptor is already around the ditch when the driver smashes the throttle and yanks the SUV sideways, directly into the hole, where it proceeds to flip over onto its roof. It’s possible this was the first off-road recovery attempt for everyone involved, as no one protested what was happening until it was too late. Hopefully, whoever was in that SUV is OK.
My favorite part is the cameraperson, though, who just keeps filming, keeping the camera fixed on the action, while the SUV—which likely had at least one person inside—descended into a surprisingly deep ditch. They didn’t even say anything. You hear someone else scream in the background but the cameraperson, like a wartime photographer, never puts the iPhone down from recording quite possibly the strangest failed off-road recovery I’ve ever seen.
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