George Zimmerman Truck Rescue Surprise In Sanford [Video, Breaking]

George Zimmerman’s truck rescue efforts came as a surprise to many who believed the controversial former defendant was staying well away from Sanford, Florida — the site of the fatal shooting of unarmed teen Trayvon Martin.

But George Zimmerman popped up briefly this weekend and reportedly assisted in a truck rescue, helping to extricate a man trapped in an overturned vehicle.

Zimmerman’s safety and presumed hiding after the not guilty verdict was received to much outcry last weekend have been intermittent topics of discussion, so for the man at the center of the controversy to appear so near to the scene of the shooting is certainly a surprise.

Cynics might suggest that the George Zimmerman truck rescue story seems conveniently timed, and that perhaps lessons were not learned about doing jobs better kept to professional emergency service workers.

But Sanford Police corroborate the story, saying Zimmerman indeed stepped in and helped during a vehicular accident in which a man was trapped in a truck:

“Sanford Police Department Capt. Jim McAuliffe told ABC News that Zimmerman ‘pulled an individual from a truck that had rolled over’ at the intersection of a Florida highway last week. Florida Highway Patrol is now handling the case, McAuliffe said… The crash occurred at the intersection of I-4 and route 417, police said. The crash site is less than a mile from where he shot Martin.”

The George Zimmerman sighting was particularly unusual in light of the family’s repeatedly expressed fear a vigilante will take the law into their own hands and harm Zimmerman or his family members in anger over the verdict.

Just recently, Robert Zimmerman Sr. (father of George and brother Robert Zimmerman, Jr.) said:

“We have had an enormous amount of death threats. George’s legal counsel has had death threats, the police chief of Sanford, many people have had death threats. ‘Everyone with Georgie’s DNA should be killed’ — just every kind of horrible thing you can imagine.”

Following George Zimmerman’s truck rescue, he slipped back into hiding and has not been sighted since.