I have a feeling my car is about to be vandalized

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

…or worse.

There is an intersection right by my house where there is a left turn only lane and a straight only lane. It is the habit of some people to take advantage of the almost-always-empty left turn lane to veer in front of the line of straight cars immediately after the light turns green. It’s dangerous and stupid, and there have been accidents as a result.

Today, I was waiting at the front of the straight lane, and a car comes barrelling into the turn lane, goes well past the stop line into the crosswalk (another pet peeve, but here indicative, along with his lack of turn signal, that he’s about to be an ass and get in front of me), and as soon as the light is green, he’s off like a shot. But so am I. One, because I am usually pretty quick on the light. Two because I don’t want him to get away with it. I win, he curses, flips me off, honks his horn, and turns left (despite the fact that the cars in the opposite direction are trying to drive). I proceed to my house, and in behind me, I see his car going something near double the speed limit from his detour to confront me (having had to go a block or two out of the way to get back to my spot). I signal all my turns to home because I am a good, conscientious driver. He swings in behind me. I get out of my car, he sits idling in his, and proceeds to berate me with various obscenities about my parentage, my own status as a “little bitch,” what he will do to me for such a grave insult to his overly adequate manhood, etc. I calmly state that the traffic pattern is clearly marked, and he was trying to illegally circumvent it. More cursing, insulting my mother, etc, and he peels away down my tight residential street.

I didn’t have the good sense at the time to catch his license plate number, but now I am wishing that I had. None of his threats directly stated that he’d be back to take out his anger on my car, but the fact is that he is irrationally angry, and he knows where I live and my car is parked. I’m feeling a bit intimidated and worried by it, since he seemed psychotic enough to hold a grudge over him failing to cut me off.

I really don’t have the money to pay for new tires, windshield, paint job after a keying, etc. And I really don’t have the desire to be shot/stabbed/beaten. Yeah, I acted somewhat wrongly myself, but I would let this go, if only I knew that he’d do the same.

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MMmmm I love the smell of rubber in the morning. It smell’s like… roadrage!

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[QUOTE=Only Mostly DeadI really don’t have the money to pay for new tires, windshield, paint job after a keying, etc. And I really don’t have the desire to be shot/stabbed/beaten. Yeah, I acted somewhat wrongly myself, but I would let this go, if only I knew that he’d do the same.[/QUOTE]

I’m guessing that if you’d known in advance what his reaction would be, you’d have let him pass at the red light. So while I’ll concede the point that he was behaving like a complete ass, I am left wondering what net harm would have come to you to let him behave like an ass and get on with your day without incident.

There is an old saying: Never argue with an idiot. People may not know the difference. Corrollary: They bring you down to their level and beat you with experience.

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It’s unlikely he’ll be back. Nothing really happened except that words were exchanged.

And next time, please just let 'em go. You’re not the Idiot Police.

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Of course, you are completely right. If I had known, I would have let him pass, and for now on, I might be a little more generous to other idiots who pull the same thing, whether I suffer any damages from this or not. It’s just that knee-jerk reaction that somebody should let this ass know that he is doing something wrong (dangerous/stupid/illegal), and I’m in the position to be that somebody, usually without further incident. I can’t really justify my own actions, other than saying that much.

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The most valuable lesson you could have learned is never go home when an angry person is following.

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Why not call the cops, explain what happened, and suggest they stake out the intersection to catch all the idiots misusing the turn lane? I once offered my driveway to the sheriff for a speed trap to catch some drag racers, and they got 10 tickets because of it.

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I might have done the same thing you did Only Mostly Dead.

I abhor people like him, and if he was in such a hurry (to justify his illegal maneuver around you), Why did he take the time to confront you rather than continuing to the emergency that he is so perilously late for?

But you and I both should probably heed the advice given and avoid these people.

We are not going to cure them of The Case of Stupid that they so proudly display.

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I realize how poorly worded the OP was in this regard. I did not realize I was leading him straight to my home, via my turn signals, until I was essentially in my own driveway. I could see him coming up fast behind as I was slowing down to turn into my driveway (turn signal on).

I’m hoping there is no further incident, and he was merely venting. Heck, I’ve done the same when I have been cut off, if I expect the person is about to arrive at their destination, I’ll follow them and chew them out (with considerably less blustered cursing). Thankfully, this is an area that is relatively low on vandalisms (I’ve received the worst that I’ve heard of, and that was a copy of the Washington Times gushing over some decision Bush made left on my windshield, presumably in response to a Kerry bumper sticker) and break-ins, and pretty much absent of gang activity. So hopefully he won’t break the neighborhood’s norm.

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I have the same problem. This morning, I was waiting to turn left from a residential street onto a slightly busier one. I go this route every morning. Some days I can turn with barely even a hesitation. Other days, like this morning, I find myself sitting at the stop sign for several minutes, waiting for a break in traffic.

I am not an overly cautious driver. I don’t speed in residential or business areas, I try not to do anything too terribly stupid, and I do my best to obey traffic laws. But I’m not above peeling out a little to catch a break in the traffic when I’m trying to make a turn. This morning, however, there was no break in the traffic, and I had to wait about five minutes until there was.

At three minutes, the guy behind me started honking every ten to twenty seconds. He could see the road as clearly as I could, and the best I can assume is that he was attempting to get me killed–which would have delayed his own trip even longer.

So I gave him the finger. Every time he honked. It’s New Jersey–it’s expected of me. And if I hadn’t been worried I wouldn’t get to work on time, I would have waited even longer and deliberately not turned, because I’m that much of a bitch.

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Do you have a good relationship with your auto mechanic?
If so, phone him, & ask to leave the car there over there the next few nights.

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Let me just say I love you

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Not a bad idea. And in fact, I considered the possibility of leaving it at Only Mostly Missus’ apartment complex for at least tonight. But sadly, I need my car in the morning to get to work. If I have to choose between a possibility (which right now, after some reflection on the incident and some time to cool off, I peg at about 1%) that I won’t be able to use my car in the morning because the tires are slashed, or a 100% possibility that I can’t use it because it’s 10 miles away, I’ll make the choice to keep it here and hope.

Status update in the morning, I suppose.

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Can you organize the neighbors to call in a complaint to the police every time they see someone performing that asinine maneuver at the stoplight? Eventually they’ll get tired of hearing about it and start patrolling the area more.

I’m not sure what your location is, but around here the police will do a Watch In Passing on your house if you think you might have problems overnight. Might be something to check into.

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Sadly, I’m not the one to lead the charge. I’m renting a room in a house, and will be leaving in August, at which point the intersection will be surrounded by a sufficiently large SEP generator.

And the intersection is at one entrance to the neighborhood, but near virtually nobody’s house.

It’s just an annoyance to live with (assuming my tires remain intact)

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  1. Never intentionally tick off another driver. With road rage as it is, you never know who will jump out of his car with a gun or other weapon. You may feel better sticking it to the other driver, but you can end up dead.

  2. How about contacting your city council rep about the dangerous intersection and have the city do something about it, such as putting up more signs or a cop nearby to hand out citations. Enough incidents have occurred to justify the work.

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Gone overnight and the car is fine. I think it puts me in the clear. Who’d go back more than 24 hours later to finish the job? (Okay, maybe a sophisticated pissed off person, who’d want to mildly distance their incident from the crime. He didn’t seem the type)

18

I was thinking about this today as I sat at the same intersection, waiting to turn. (It was easier today, and nobody was behind me. :slight_smile: ) And I came up with a question.

Did the guy wave to you before the light turned? I’ll forgive another driver just about anything as long as they wave to me.

19

I once had a nutcase in an 18-wheeler try to follow me home after he thought I cut him off. I knew he was following me from the gestures he was making in his windshield, so instead of going home, I headed to the local grocery store parking lot to see if I could confirm that he was following me.

He was.

He proceeded to follow me all around the parking lot (in his 18-wheeler) as I drove up and down the aisles trying to lose him. Finally, he realized he couldn’t keep up with the sharp turns of the aisles so he parked the 18-wheeler and jumped out of the cab and sprinted after my car on foot!

This was a serious nutjob.

At that point, I drove off, since he was on foot and would take a bit to get back to his vehicle. I didn’t go home though, in case he somehow was able to follow me.

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On the rare occasions this has happened to me, I find that a little side trip to the Police Department’s parking lot usually changes their mind. :slight_smile: