LIFE IMITATES TOOBWORLD

TENAHA, Texas (CNN) -- Roderick Daniels was traveling through East Texas in October 2007 when, he says, he was the victim of a highway robbery.Police in the small East Texas town of Tenaha are accused of unjustly taking valuables from motorists.

The Tennessee man says he was ordered to pull his car over and surrender his jewelry and $8,500 in cash that he had with him to buy a new car.But Daniels couldn't go to the police to report the incident.The men who stopped him were the police.Daniels was stopped on U.S. Highway 59 outside Tenaha, near the Louisiana state line. Police said he was driving 37 mph in a 35 mph zone. They hauled him off to jail and threatened him with money-laundering charges -- but offered to release him if he signed papers forfeiting his property.

"I actually thought this was a joke," Daniels told CNN.But he signed."To be honest, I was five, six hundred miles from home," he said. "I was petrified."

For more on the story, click here.

Fans of 'The Rockford Files' surely recognized the scenario. Jimbo found himself in the same situation when he visited Pastoria, California, in the episode "Pastoria Prime Pick". (It's also one of my favorite episodes, up there with "South By Southwest" and "The Battle-Axe And The Exploding Cigars".)

Care to see the episode?



BCnU!