Denver Cat Survives 70 mph Jump from Pickup Truck into Eisenhower Tunnel

Bones, a seven-year-old cat, survived a jump from a pickup truck hurtling down Interstate 70 at up to 70 miles per hour. The leap briefly shut down eastbound traffic in the Eisenhower-Johnson Memorial Tunnels.

Walt Hagstrom of Denver discovered his cat had slipped out through a cracked rear window while driving home from Steamboat Springs. The truck’s broken air conditioner forced him to leave the backseat window open. Bones squeezed through the gap somewhere between Silverthorne and Denver.

Walt did not realize Bones was gone until he stopped for gas in Denver. He checked an AirTag on the cat’s collar. The device placed Bones near Loveland Ski Resort.

Abby Hagstrom, Walt’s wife, said she called every rescue and shelter in the area. One call led her to Summit Lost Pet Rescue. Co-founder Brandon Ciullo received a report about the missing cat around 8:30 p.m. Saturday, July 11. He alerted the Colorado Department of Transportation and organized volunteers to search the area Sunday morning.

Bones wandered into the tunnels around 5:30 a.m. Sunday, July 12. Tunnel operations staff rescued him. He spent about an hour cuddling with them before being reunited with his family.

“I know Bones is a tough cat — and he’s been through a lot — but I could not fathom a cat being able to survive jumping out of a Dodge RAM truck at 60-70 miles an hour on a freeway,” Abby Hagstrom said.

The family’s two dogs stayed with Abby while Walt drove the truck back up to Loveland Ski Resort. They searched the base of the resort for Bones.

Summit Lost Pet Rescue, a nonprofit started in 2020, boasts over a 90% success rate for finding lost pets. Volunteers posted about Bones on social media immediately.

The Hagstroms’ 10- and 12-year-old children are currently at a no-phones sleepaway camp in Maine. They will learn that their pet is safe when they return.

Bones arrived home uninjured and ate a hearty meal. He now sits in his Denver house, far from the high-speed traffic that nearly claimed him.

The incident highlights a rare intersection of urban pet ownership and major infrastructure. It also proves that AirTags work well enough to track a cat on a highway.

Abby Hagstrom noted that telling her children Bones was gone was the first worry. The kids view him as an important part of the family.

The closure of the eastbound tunnel was brief. Traffic resumed once Bones was secured. The Colorado Department of Transportation confirmed the timeline.

Walt Hagstrom’s quick thinking with the AirTag solved a mystery that could have gone unsolved. The cat was not lost for long. He was simply moving fast, just like the traffic around him.

Make no mistake: this is not a story about luck. It is a story about technology and a very determined animal. The Hagstroms got their cat back. The tunnels are open. And the rest of us can keep driving without looking under every hood.