Printer-friendly version
Photos and story by Karen Pearlman
June 11, 2025 (El Cajon) – He spent more than 50 years helping close to 10,000 stranded motorists along all stretches of freeways across San Diego County, and now Thomas Weller could use some assistance of his own.
While health issues forced him off the road in 2017, Weller (photo left, Weller in front of his El Cajon home) still goes by the name “San Diego Highwayman” for his decades of service changing tires, replacing batteries, filling up empty gas tanks, standing watch over drivers and passengers in need – all at no charge.
The calling card he always handed out to those whom he helped reads: “Assisting you has been my pleasure. I ask for no payment other than for you to pass on the favor by helping someone in distress that you may encounter.”
Weller, 77, who has recovered from a stroke nearly 10 years ago and is managing his heart issues, lives with his wife of 30 years, Patty, and their rescued dog Sadie Mae (photo, below right), in a house they call “Goose Creek Ranch” in El Cajon.
The modest home that’s more than 50 years old is in need of major repairs that are cost prohibitive for a couple on fixed incomes.
“I've always had a ‘plan’ in the back of my mind for renovations of our home, and of what I could do for others who’ve helped me in the past and those I’ve seen in need,” he said.
But right now, the ‘plan’ for renovations is more urgent, and the man who never accepted tips for his help, has reached a tipping point with repair work needs of his own.
Weller has been living with an aging roof that leaks in several places, a shower that needs to be retrofitted and other plumbing challenges, and other infrastructure repair/upkeep needs.
A fundraising effort has been set up here to help defray costs associated with his deferred maintenance needs.
The “Help the San Diego Highwayman Stay Independent” effort has raised nearly $25,000 of an attempt to raise $45,000.
“Keep passin’ it on”
Featured on national television and publications around the country, Weller is often described by people he’s helped as an angel. Now, some say they continue to honor his only request for reimbursement for his assistance, to keep “passin’ it on,” Weller said.
Weller’s blog here is filled with stories — such as the woman who thanked him for tying down wayward items in the back of her truck along Interstate 8, saving her from possible harm and others from being injured, or the man who ran into Weller years after Weller had helped him on the road and insisted on paying for his lunch.
Weller, who has plied several trades through the years, including stints as a security guard and as an auto mechanic, said he has battled mental health challenges during his life.
He has kept those down moods at a minimum not by visiting a therapist or via medications, but by traveling around looking for others to assist in their times of need.
“I've suffered from depression all my life that I can remember, and when I get to help somebody, my spirits are lifted,” he said.
Among his triumphs, Weller recalls a time in the early 1970s keeping a family from being crushed and burned on southbound Interstate 5 by the S curves in downtown San Diego.
Weller looks back at his time assisting motorists on the freeway with just as much spirit.
“I went and played on the freeway for 50 years,” Weller said. “I call it ‘playing on the freeway,’ but it really wasn’t… except for the fun that I had doing it! Because the slightest mistake and somebody gets hurt or killed or damaged. And luckily in my career I never caused any of that.”
He said life along the freeway is a lot more dangerous today than it was in decades past.
“There are too many distracted, impaired, impatient and SIDs out there,” he said. “SIDs are Selfish Ignorant Drivers.”
Weller said that on Aug. 10, 2011 in downtown San Diego, “one of those SIDs" destroyed the specially modified1955 Ford Country Sedan wagon he nicknamed Beulah, the car he’d been driving since 1966.
Weller still bristles when recalling how the driver passed him on his right, cut in front of him and slammed on the brakes in downtown San Diego, at the northbound Interstate 5 to northbound State Route 163 transition.
“I’m still angry about that,” he said.
He said he was fortunate that he sustained only minor injuries and that his “copilot” at the time, his border collie, Shela, was unharmed, a safety harness keeping her from going through the front windshield of the car.
Beulah and some of the stories of lives Weller touched have all been on display since 2023 in an exhibit at the San Diego Automotive Museum in Balboa Park, where Weller visits frequently.
How It Started
Comments
I remember...