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Ali Abdilahi received a scholarship from the company where he had been training to become an over-the-road truck driver.
The president of American Truck Training North in Newport says Abdilahi accepted the $6,495 scholarship for the four-week course and passed his driving test on Thursday.
“He just put his nose to the grindstone and did it,” ATTN President Gary Pressley said. “And he passed on his first try. Normally, it takes people a couple of tries.”
Abdilahi was charged in April with attempting to kidnap a 14-year-old girl in St. Paul. He denied the charges, saying the girl was bleeding and trying to flag a car down when he stopped to help her.
The charges were eventually dropped after police had doubts about the accuser’s story, but the 32-year-old father of two lost $7,500 in bail money and his car, which police sold at auction because he could not afford the $1,000 to get it out of storage.
His arrest received coverage in the local media and even got all the way back to his home country of Somalia.
Abdilahi was in a training program for truck drivers at the time of his arrest, but was told by his boss that he would never get a job with a felony on his record. He had trouble finding other work, and there was more financial strain when his wife gave birth to the couple’s second daughter.
Now, with the charges dropped and a truck driver’s license in his pocket, things are starting to look up for him.
“We just thought it was terrible what had happened, and when we found out the circumstances, we contacted him and said, ’Ali, want to come back? We’ll give you a grant,“’ Pressley said. “We’re confident we can place him.”
