Unlucky Iowa deputy: Squad car rammed by truck, then fall through ice

First a truck rammed into Deputy Brandon Hamilton's SUV, then came the plunge into an icy river.

Welcome to your new job with the Washington County sheriff's department, Hamilton.

"Brandon hasn't had much luck working," Sheriff Jerry Dunbar said Wednesday. "His wife says she's going to take out some more life insurance."

Hamilton, 25, began his job about 2 1/2 months ago, joining the eastern Iowa department after nearly two years as a police officer in the town of Washington.

When a snowstorm hit Iowa in late December, only a couple of weeks after Hamilton started, he and another deputy were helping a driver who slid off a highway when a tractor-trailer slammed into the sheriff department's Ford Explorer.

Hamilton and the motorist were in the SUV.

"We were both on the passenger side of the vehicle," he said. "I looked up and there was a semi, had jackknifed, and was coming across the median and hit us on the driver's side."

He cut his hand on broken glass but was stitched up at a hospital and took only a couple of days off before returning to work. The others involved weren't hurt.

Hamilton didn't have any other problems until Sunday, when he was called to the English River near Wellman.

Some people riding four-wheelers had found a safe on the ice-covered river, apparently stolen during a recent home burglary and tossed off a bridge.

The safe was in the middle of the 20-foot-wide river, and temperatures were near freezing.

The ice seemed thick, so Hamilton walked out to photograph the safe.

"It looked solid," he said.

It wasn't, and Hamilton suddenly plunged into deep, icy water.

"I came back up and tried to grab the ice in front of me and that section shattered and I went back under," he said. "The kid that had called it in was out there with me. I made sure I had someone with me, and he laid down on his stomach and put his hand out and pulled me out of the water."

They managed to slide back to thicker ice and got off the river.

He left the safe, which was empty.

Hamilton was taken to a hospital, then released a few hours later.

The sheriff said Hamilton returned to work and is doing fine.

"I'm like 'Wow.' He's a super good guy, but just in the wrong place at the wrong time," Dunbar said. "He still loves his job."

-- Associated Press