Trucker abandons load of thawing chicken near Missoula

MISSOULA, Mont. - A trailer filled with raw chicken was left to rot near Missoula. The load is still sitting in the Town Pump parking lot at the Wye.

Officials say getting rid of it will be difficult.

The trailer is owned by a company based in Nampa, Idaho, called Dixie River Freight Inc.

The Missoula County Sheriff's Office tells NBC Montana there are 35,000 pounds of chicken inside, worth $80,000. They discovered the truck Tuesday.

The sheriff's office tells NBC Montana an employee of Dixie River allegedly stole the truck and trailer and then left the trailer at the Town Pump Flying J.  The truck has been missing for about a month and was reported stolen recently.

The trailer wasn't included in a stolen vehicle database, leaving deputies to make the discovery this week.

"During that time, the person that stole the truck -- which was an employee of the tractor-trailer company -- was calling the company saying, 'You can have this truck back, but you're going to have to give me some money,' and essentially holding it for ransom," said Missoula County Sheriff's Public Information Officer Paige Pavalone.

The truck and the driver are gone but the trailer still sits there with the stench of rotting, raw chicken fouling the air.

"That's just wrong, especially loaded and shut the reefer off, that's just wrong...there's stuff draining out of the back of the trailer," said Cathi Harp, a truck driver.

It leaves folks wondering how the trailer will be removed.

NBC Montana talked with the Missoula County Health Department. They've inspected the trailer, but they say the doors of the trailer have been sealed the whole time.

They can't exactly move the trailer when juice is dripping everywhere.

"People don't want rotting chicken juice all over their cars if it's transported down the highway or down the roadway. There are things that are in raw chicken that can make you sick, and we don't want someone to incidentally get it on their hands and then ingest it," said Shannon Therriault, an environmental health supervisor with the Missoula County Health Department.

There are two options -- take a leak-proof container and transfer the contents to it on-site or seal the trailer and see if it can be transported to a landfill, opened up there and dumped.

"It's leaking now, but you can imagine that when you move it, any liquid that's in there could slosh around, so it could get worse and we don't want that to happen," said Therriault.

Therriault's been working with the freight company's insurance provider. They've all agreed that none of the chicken can be saved, but they are seeing if the trailer can.

"We can talk to them about how it would need to be cleaned and sanitized in order for it to be able to move food again," said Therriault.

For now, it's a matter of staying away from the trailer.

Harp says she's concerned for her dogs. "I don't want them eating raw chicken," she said.

The health department says people need to stay away from the area, which is blocked off with cones. Department officials want to remove the trailer as soon as possible, and hope it can be done on Thursday.

The sheriff's office says the driver is still on the loose.

Law enforcement's part in this job was to find out about the vehicle and whether it was stolen. It's up to Dixie River Freight to decide whether they would like any charges filed against the suspect.