MOSES LAKE, Wash. -- It's a jail escape that started with a grain truck and ended with Sheriff's deputies having to strip down to their underwear in order to rescue an inmate.

39-year-old Darrell Smith was arrested on Saturday for kidnapping and robbery. He was supposed to appear before a Grant County judge in Ephrata on Monday morning, but before the hearing, Smith said he was sick and needed to go back to jail.

As the handcuffed Smith and his escort, a single correctional deputy, were heading back to jail, Smith pulled away and ran off.

Smith ran for at least three blocks right through downtown Ephrata, across Main Street, across railroad tracks and into a shed. It was in that shed where Smith found an old grain truck with the keys nearby.

Smith started the truck and then drove about 20 miles to Moses Lake, officers in hot pursuit the entire time.

"It was cruising right down the road at 60 to 65 miles an hour with lights and sirens behind it and not stopping, "said Sgt. Ken Jones, who was involved in the chase.

Then just as Smith and his stolen grain truck reached Moses Lake, Smith decided to do some off-roading.

"He left the roadway at full speed," Sgt. Jones says. "He turned that big old truck into a dune buggy. He made several jumps because of the berms out there on the hill. My estimate is that he was three or three-and-a-half feet in the air at times. It was just like Dukes of Hazzard, all four tires in the air, It was crazy."

The truck was heading directly for a giant hill leading down to the water.

"I saw the truck go over the crest of the hill and go out of sight. I thought he was going to roll the thing clear down into the water," said Jones.

But when Jones and Deputy Ryan Pitt got to the top of the hill, the truck was perched near the top, and Smith was just jumping into the water -- handcuffs, prison jumpsuit and all.

"He more collapsed into the water and started to swim," Jones says. "I started yelling, 'It's too far, it's too cold. Come back to the shore.' He wasn't going anywhere. He looked back a few times and continued his attempt at the doggie paddle."

It became quickly apparent that Smith wasn't going to get very far. About 15-yards offshore he started to tread water and began to bob up and down, struggling to keep his head above the surface.

"He started yelling, 'Help, I'm drowning,' " said Jones.

The two deputies looked at each other and knew they had to try and help the man.

"We both undressed and jumped in."

As they swam at to rescue him, they notice Smith was tiring, taking longer to come up for air. Eventually Jones grabbed him and pulled him to shore.

"When we got back to shore, he looked me right in the face and said, 'You just saved my life, thank you.' '''

Smith was taken to the hospital to be checked out. The deputies weren't injured, just cold and dripping wet.

"You can't make this stuff up, it's a made for TV movie," said Grant County Undersheriff John Turley.

Now Smith faces about a half dozen new felony charges for his joyride in a grain truck.