California deputy speaks out after saving Arizona man who was stranded in wilderness

PHOENIX - A Phoenix man is thankful to be alive, after he was stranded in the California wilderness for four days.

The man, 65-year-old Brent Lendriet, managed to survive below-freezing temperatures in his truck without a heater. Now, he is telling his story.

"I've never been so happy to be in the back of a sheriff's car in my life," said Lendriet.

Lendriet said at one point, he was not sure if he was going to survive. The man was near the Halfmoon Campground at the Los Padres National Forest when he went missing.

"I'm looking for a family treasure that has been handed down through a lineage to me of 10,000 lbs of gold that was stashed there in the 8's that's worth $300 million today," said Lendriet.

The day Lendriet crossed in, Forest Service officials closed the road into the campground. Lendriet eventually drove into another area that was closed months before because it's too treacherous and rugged.

"I ended up having to get stuck," Lendriet recalled. "I jumped out of my truck into this ice-cold water. I have a winch on my truck, so I could pull that out, traverse across the water, pick up the winch to a tree, and pull myself out. It's getting near sunset. It's ice-cold water. The temperatures were dropping into the twenties and thirties or teens, even, and I'm on the wrong side of the creek."

The rain prevented Lendriet from starting a fire. His clothes were drenched in water, and he didn't have any heat.

"I'm from Phoenix, but the heater in my truck doesn't work. Who needs a heater in Phoenix? That was the second problem," said Lendriet.

Staying warm was a challenge, but Lendriet faced another challenge: he was also running low on food. He was surviving off frozen burgers and beef jerky.

"I layered up and put on eight shirts or something like that and as many pairs of pants as I could fit on, coiled up in a comforter with my dog," Lendriet recalled. "I wasn't comfortable, but I didn't freeze to death either."

Four days later, Lendriet was rescued by the Sheriff's Department, after his girlfriend let them know he was out there.

"After sunset on the fourth day, I had a strobe light. I saw him driving around looking for me," Lendriet recalls. "I flagged him down and said ‘Am I happy to see you.’"

Now that he is in somewhere safe (and probably warm), Lendriet is thankful he didn't have to spend another night in the freezing cold.

Lendriet also said his lesson had been learned quite thoroughly: two days after being rescued, he went back to get his truck, but he wasn't fined, nor was a ticket issued. According to Lendriet, sheriff's officials told him he had already been through enough.

Deputy Sheriff recalls Lendriet's rescue

A day after speaking with Lendriet, we spoke with the sheriff's deputy who helped rescue the Arizona man.

"It looked like he looked like he hadn't been eating," said Deputy Josh Vulich with the Ventura County Sheriff's Office. "He was clearly covered in mud from trying to get his truck out of the mud that he was stuck in. He looked panicked and scared."

Deputy Vulich said Lendriet was found behind a closed gate that wasn't supposed to be traveled on, because it wasn't safe.

"Kind of gave him a little bit of a scolding for being in an area he's not supposed to be," said Deputy Vulich. 

Lendriet said if it weren't for Deputy Vulich, he might not have made it.

"The guy is wonderful," said Lendriet. "He's amazing. He's so right on, and then he came back to help me pull my truck out two days later."

As mentioned above, Lendriet was not fined, nor was a ticket issued.

"He was out there for a very long time," said Deputy Vulich. "It seems like he suffered quite a bit, and the fact that he went through that experience was kind of why I opted not to give him a citation for it."

Area where Lendriet went missing