U.S. Soldiers' lives saved by a toy truck

On duty for his country in Afghanistan, U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Christopher Fessenden enjoys a unique hobby: driving a radio-controlled model truck his brother Ernie sent him. But with a little Army know-how, this hobby turned into much more recently when it saved six soldiers' lives.

ABC News reports:

The little truck was used by the troops to run ahead of them on patrols and look for roadside bombs. Fessenden has had it since 2007, when Ernie and Kevin Guy, the owner of the Everything Hobby shop in Rochester, rigged it with a wireless video camera and shipped it to him.

Last week, it paid off. Chris Fessenden said he had loaned the truck to a group of fellow soldiers, who used it to check the road ahead of them on a patrol. It got tangled in a trip wire connected to what Fessenden guesses could have been 500 lbs. of explosives. The bomb went off. The six soldiers controlling the truck from their Humvee were unhurt.