Beloved Yorkie Sends Truck Into Maine Lake, Police Say

— -- Frederick Anderson’s wife, Dorothy, died two years ago after 60 years of marriage but he stills talks to her picture every night, and cares for Coco, the little Yorkshire terrier that she loved.

The dog almost died Saturday when Anderson of Brewer, Maine, and longtime family friend Lisa Alopogianis were on their way to lay wildflowers, which Anderson’s wife loved, at the woman’s grave.

On the way there, they passed Branch Lake in Ellsworth, and Anderson, 85, stopped his pickup truck so Alopogianis could take photos to show her family back home in Sedona, Arizona. While he waited, he spotted a man with a German shepherd, and because he knew how excited Coco could get in the presence of larger dogs, he put her back into the idling truck while he stood outside talking to the man.

“And he says ‘Fred, I think your truck’s moving,’” Anderson, a retired Marine, told ABC News in a Tuesday interview. “He said ‘I heard a click, I heard something.’”

Anderson said he turned around and saw his 2010 GMC truck barreling forward. It rode over a rock and went right into the pond.

“I was petrified,” he said. “Just screaming, ‘My dog, my dog, my little doggie.’ And I ran down to the water.”

That’s when he felt Alopogianis give him a push. “She said, ‘Fred I’ll get her.’”

Alopogianis kicked off her shoes, threw down her phone and jumped into the cold water and started swimming toward the GMC truck, which was being submerged.

“I was shocked at how slow I was moving and how fast the truck was moving,” she said. “I truly for a moment knew I was afraid and I said, ‘Dear God, I need your help,’ and I think it’s important to be noted that I was given strength to continue swimming and get in there and do that. The hand of God was definitely involved that day.”

When she reached the truck, Coco was scared and wouldn’t come out, so Alopogianis had to go in. She retrieved the dog, swam back to shore and gave her to Anderson. And then she said she did something which she acknowledged was “rather foolish.”

She swam back to the vehicle to get her purse. She said she was worried about her identification, which she needed to return home.

It all worked out well, she said, but added that something beautiful happened afterward.

“I’m now standing there with the recovery crew at the scene and right above where the truck is fully and completely submerged, but right above the truck are all those flowers, floating in a circle,” she said.

Alopogianis said Anderson and his wife had the kind of love that “people dream about,” and she was happy to have saved their dog.

“This is someone who hadn’t been alone in 65 years and this dog is definitely his best friend,” she said. “There’s no way that he would have let that dog drown. He would have drowned with the dog trying to catch the dog.”

Anderson said he has had a previous incident with the truck, when it moved while idling in neutral. When he took it to be checked then, about six months ago, he said there was a problem with the computer that controlled the throttle.

Ellsworth police told ABC that, in this recent case, the dog may have played a role in the accident. Sgt. Glenn Moshier said the dog somehow “managed to knock the vehicle into neutral,” sending it rolling.

In response to Facebook posters’ questions about why the truck was able to be put into neutral without touching the brake, the police department said in Facebook that it, too, was able to move the truck into gear without touching the brake.

Anderson said Coco, who is 11 years old, was doing just fine. He's in the market for a replacement truck, and is grateful to Alopogianis.

“That dog means so much to me because that’s just about all I got left,” he said. “She saved my little dog’s life.”