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A few months ago I had an incident with a guy who seemed way too emotionally imbalanced to be driving.
It started out like a typical weekend morning, I ran the trash to the dump and then swung by the donut shop on the way home for delicious treat. This was the height of the summer tourist season here, so there were some long lines of
traffic in both directions, meaning it was hard to make a left hand turn (in the US, a left turn means you cross oncoming traffic to get to your lane).
I got my donuts, got up to the end of their driveway and saw... no oncoming traffic to my left! And, despite the fact there's a line of a about a dozen cars in the lane I wanted to be in, they have a big, roughly 8 car-length gap in the middle, just lining up with where I am. Sweet!
As I was pulling into the large gap, I heard a loud WARRRRRG! off to my right; the guy at the back of the gap had stomped on his gas. Since I was 2/3 of the way out into traffic already, I was already committed to the turn and there was still plenty of space. As I caught up to the front of the gap, matching speed with existing traffic, Captain Road Rage (CRR) swooped his large blue Ford pickup with custom exhaust into the center 'Left Turn Only' lane in order to pass me. So he could then swoop back directly into the small space in front of me and slam on his brakes to avoid colliding with the guy that had been in front of me. At this point, we're already a tenth of a mile from where I initially pulled out; I definitely did not cut him off or anything.
I gave CRR a nice golf clap, because now he is roughly #12 of 13 in our long line of cars all heading the same direction, at 10 under the speed limit. clearly, he's a Big Man and I've been put in my place. Yup, he done showed me, because now
I'm going to be 1 - 2 seconds later getting to my destination.
A quarter mile later, we come up to my turn, which has a left turn lane. The light there had turned red, so the cars in front of CRR were stopping. I put on my blinker and start to move as the lanes split. I notice CRR glaring at me - thanks to his giant sideview mirrors I can clearly see his whole face. As I start to move left, he slams on his brakes and comes to a dead halt. Fortunately, I don't tailgate, and I had enough space to adjust my left turn and still miss his bumper. As I go past, I can see him glaring at me (because I dared to pull out in front of him and/or because I failed to collide with him, I guess?) I also noticed that CRR had left a car length and a half between himself and the car stopped in front of him for the light. Which makes it pretty clear, in my opinion, that he was hoping to cause an accident where I would be 'at fault'.
I get my protected left turn signal, and start to make my turn. Again, I hear a loud WARRRRG!, and I check my driver's side mirror. This left turn is more like 135 degrees than 90 degrees, so I get a full view of the intersection behind me. CRR had moved into the left turn lane and was now directly behind me. For some reason I don't trust this move.
My house is off the main road, but only about 500 feet from the traffic light as the crow flies. I take my normal right turn into my neighborhood and watch CRR drive past and keep going. But, my neighborhood is a figure 8, with the main road making one full side of the 8. Being the suspicious jaded soul that I am, I pull slowly around the block and keep going past my driveway. As I do, I see CRR coming up the street that makes the center of the of the figure 8. He pulls around, slews across the road to block both lanes so I have to stop, and gives me the finger with both hands. Then he backs up, lays rubber, while screaming something incomprehensible at me as he goes tearing out of the neighborhood.
At this point, I'm very glad I didn't actually pull into my driveway, because I don't really want a psycho freak like that knowing where I live. I grab my cell phone, swing through the center of the neighborhood, and back out to the main road. Now I'm back directly behind CRR as he's stuck at the light, to get back out going the way he was originally headed before he followed me. And I'm speaking to the 911 operator because I'm pretty convinced this guy is a menace.
When the light turns green, CRR looks at me in his mirror, grins, and then just sits there through the full change of the light. This was very helpful as it gave me a nice view of his plate so I could make sure to memorize it. By now, the 911 operator had transferred me to the <Town> police dept. Judging by the sound of the horns behind me, the people further back were not impressed with CRR, either.
I gave the police his license plate and rundown of the entire situation, following CRR back down and out onto Main Street of <Town>. The officer asks me if CRR is in a blue Ford pickup with a very loud custom exhaust. What an oddly specific question for him to ask, eh? I confirm and give our updated location, which is basically dead center in the summer gridlock of Main Street. The officer then asks me to hold, but either can't or forgot to mute his mic, so I hear him call to someone else: "I've got a location on that blue pickup!" Bad news for CRR, I guess, since it seems the police were actively looking for him already.
The officer then directed me to turn off and stay away from CRR, which I did. Sadly, I have no follow up on this one, other than that I've not seen CRR or his truck since.
It started out like a typical weekend morning, I ran the trash to the dump and then swung by the donut shop on the way home for delicious treat. This was the height of the summer tourist season here, so there were some long lines of
traffic in both directions, meaning it was hard to make a left hand turn (in the US, a left turn means you cross oncoming traffic to get to your lane).
I got my donuts, got up to the end of their driveway and saw... no oncoming traffic to my left! And, despite the fact there's a line of a about a dozen cars in the lane I wanted to be in, they have a big, roughly 8 car-length gap in the middle, just lining up with where I am. Sweet!
As I was pulling into the large gap, I heard a loud WARRRRRG! off to my right; the guy at the back of the gap had stomped on his gas. Since I was 2/3 of the way out into traffic already, I was already committed to the turn and there was still plenty of space. As I caught up to the front of the gap, matching speed with existing traffic, Captain Road Rage (CRR) swooped his large blue Ford pickup with custom exhaust into the center 'Left Turn Only' lane in order to pass me. So he could then swoop back directly into the small space in front of me and slam on his brakes to avoid colliding with the guy that had been in front of me. At this point, we're already a tenth of a mile from where I initially pulled out; I definitely did not cut him off or anything.
I gave CRR a nice golf clap, because now he is roughly #12 of 13 in our long line of cars all heading the same direction, at 10 under the speed limit. clearly, he's a Big Man and I've been put in my place. Yup, he done showed me, because now
I'm going to be 1 - 2 seconds later getting to my destination.
A quarter mile later, we come up to my turn, which has a left turn lane. The light there had turned red, so the cars in front of CRR were stopping. I put on my blinker and start to move as the lanes split. I notice CRR glaring at me - thanks to his giant sideview mirrors I can clearly see his whole face. As I start to move left, he slams on his brakes and comes to a dead halt. Fortunately, I don't tailgate, and I had enough space to adjust my left turn and still miss his bumper. As I go past, I can see him glaring at me (because I dared to pull out in front of him and/or because I failed to collide with him, I guess?) I also noticed that CRR had left a car length and a half between himself and the car stopped in front of him for the light. Which makes it pretty clear, in my opinion, that he was hoping to cause an accident where I would be 'at fault'.
I get my protected left turn signal, and start to make my turn. Again, I hear a loud WARRRRG!, and I check my driver's side mirror. This left turn is more like 135 degrees than 90 degrees, so I get a full view of the intersection behind me. CRR had moved into the left turn lane and was now directly behind me. For some reason I don't trust this move.
My house is off the main road, but only about 500 feet from the traffic light as the crow flies. I take my normal right turn into my neighborhood and watch CRR drive past and keep going. But, my neighborhood is a figure 8, with the main road making one full side of the 8. Being the suspicious jaded soul that I am, I pull slowly around the block and keep going past my driveway. As I do, I see CRR coming up the street that makes the center of the of the figure 8. He pulls around, slews across the road to block both lanes so I have to stop, and gives me the finger with both hands. Then he backs up, lays rubber, while screaming something incomprehensible at me as he goes tearing out of the neighborhood.
At this point, I'm very glad I didn't actually pull into my driveway, because I don't really want a psycho freak like that knowing where I live. I grab my cell phone, swing through the center of the neighborhood, and back out to the main road. Now I'm back directly behind CRR as he's stuck at the light, to get back out going the way he was originally headed before he followed me. And I'm speaking to the 911 operator because I'm pretty convinced this guy is a menace.
When the light turns green, CRR looks at me in his mirror, grins, and then just sits there through the full change of the light. This was very helpful as it gave me a nice view of his plate so I could make sure to memorize it. By now, the 911 operator had transferred me to the <Town> police dept. Judging by the sound of the horns behind me, the people further back were not impressed with CRR, either.
I gave the police his license plate and rundown of the entire situation, following CRR back down and out onto Main Street of <Town>. The officer asks me if CRR is in a blue Ford pickup with a very loud custom exhaust. What an oddly specific question for him to ask, eh? I confirm and give our updated location, which is basically dead center in the summer gridlock of Main Street. The officer then asks me to hold, but either can't or forgot to mute his mic, so I hear him call to someone else: "I've got a location on that blue pickup!" Bad news for CRR, I guess, since it seems the police were actively looking for him already.
The officer then directed me to turn off and stay away from CRR, which I did. Sadly, I have no follow up on this one, other than that I've not seen CRR or his truck since.
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