Christmas morning, senior Alec Zeiner unwrapped a ball of duct tape to find a set of keys to his new red jeep Cherokee.

“I was so excited but it took me about 30 minutes to find the keys in the tape,” he said.

His father gave it to him two years ago. He said he knew he was going to get a big present, but didn’t know what it was going to be.

Several months later he improved his jeep with a lift, a rack, bigger tires, off-road lights, a bumper and a stinger bar.  He said each time he has bought tires, they continuously got bigger. The off-road lights are for mudding, which help him see better at night. The stinger bar pushes objects out of the way as the jeep moves forward, and also pushes trees before the bumper can.

“I got these additions to my truck because I wanted to make it more off-road capable and make me able to go further, up bigger hills and over big rocks,” he said.

This past Christmas Zeiner was rear ended by another truck. He said that it totaled the other car but only left a scratch on his bumper.

Zeiner said he not only loves the different additions to his jeep, but he enjoys working on his jeep with his dad.

“It’s my hobby to work on cars and my favorite part about it is that my dad bought and built it with me so it’s a father-son project,” he said.