A guy wearing a Lone Ranger mask has just robbed a Hardee’s in Norton, Virginia. He’s headed down a mountain road toward Big Stone Gap driving a Jeep. Two deputy sheriffs are in hot pursuit down the winding road when the robber’s Jeep slams into a tree on the road’s edge.

The robber takes off running as the two deputy cars pull in behind him. Both deputies join the footrace after the bandit. It would save everybody a lot of trouble if the bandit would just throw up his hands and surrender. But no, that would make life too simple for all three of these people.

It’s very dark and the bandit runs right off the edge of the road. Did I mention that we’re in the mountains? As you can imagine, the bandit begins tumbling about 100 feet down a really steep embankment until he’s finally able to grab a tree limb sticking out of the cliffside.

The deputy chasing the bandit is so close, he can’t stop — and he begins tumbling down the cliffside. The deputy ends up hanging onto the same tree limb with the bandit. Kind of an awkward situation, don’t you think?

The second deputy plays his flashlight over the hillside, and seeing the desperate situation his partner is in — jumps into a tree overhanging both men. Now there’s three people hung up on the side of mountain. Deputy #2 uses his walkie-talkie to call for help. Help does arrive in the form of a third deputy who has a large coil of rope in the trunk of his car.

It takes some fancy knot tying, but all three men are eventually rescued from the mountainside. The bandit has serious but non-life threatening injuries. He’s later charged with armed robbery and failing to stop for police.

The first deputy (the one hanging on the limb with the bandit) has lots of cuts and bruises. The second deputy gets out of this adventure without a scratch. What really hurt both deputies are the words the sheriff lays on both deputies when they report for duty Monday morning. We can’t quote the sheriff here because this is a family newspaper.