HOUSTON -- A truck driver was robbed at gunpoint by a man demanding his truck and cargo of diesel fuel, KPRC Local 2 reported.

Bobby Lee Julien, 52, said he never thought high gas prices would affect him the way they did early Monday. He said it only took a few seconds for a man to open the passenger side door, jump in the cab, and point a gun right at him.

"I begged him not to shoot me," said Julien. "I feared for my life. The whole time he had a gun pointed at me."

Julien has driven a fuel tanker for 27 years.

"Before I even realized what was going on, he was in the truck."

It was just after 3 a.m. when his truck was carjacked, he said.

"It caught me by surprise," said Julien. "It was the furthest thing from my mind."

He started work at 6 p.m. Sunday and pulled up to a stop sign off state Highway 225 after filling his tanker one last time with diesel fuel.

He said the man told him to start driving.

"He said he wanted the truck, he wanted the fuel," Julien said.

They drove more than eight miles, he said. At one point, the man allegedly told Julien to switch seats and then hit him in the back of the head.

Julien said mentioning his family saved his life.

"I said, 'I have a wife and family; please don't kill me,'" said Julien

He said he was dropped off along the Gulf Freeway feeder road near Woodridge Drive. The Houston Police Department is investigating the alleged theft.

"I'm scared for him to go back out there," said Lottie Julien, Bobby's wife.

She said her husband did not deserve to be attacked. "I don't understand why they picked him, but if they wouldn't have picked him, it would have been someone else," she said.

Fuel tankers pour out of that area, and now other drivers are taking precautions.

Driver Lionel Andrews said he will be locking his truck's doors. "I'm going to lock it, after hearing about that," said Andrews.

Bobby Julien said drivers cannot be too careful. "I just hope (the police) catch him before he actually hurts somebody," he said with tears in his eyes.

Bobby Julien said the man was covered from head to toe, even wearing a mask, so Julien could not give police a very good description.

Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 713-222-TIPS.