I haven’t ruled this out, either.
By the way, you mentioned the timeline earlier. This is another aspect of Zimmerman’s story that is implausible. But even if we ignore his outlandish claims about Martin doubling back and circling his car, things don’t add up if we assume Zimmerman was near the clubhouse when he made that call.
Here’s a theory that has been tossed around elsewhere, that resonates strongly with me:
Zimmerman phoned the cops while parked near the clubhouse, after spotting the kid near the entrance into the community. It is probable that sometime before calling, he had crept along in his vehicle as Martin walked down the street; this is why Martin reported to his GF he was being followed.
While GZ was on the phone, Martin eventually caught up to his truck and passed him. If GZ was parked at the clubhouse, he would have been near the intersection of Twin Trees and Retreat View Circle. Thus, after Martin walked passed GZ’s parked truck, GZ would have loss sight of him as he disappeared around the corner.
So this is when GZ went to follow Martin in his truck. And this is where we get to the interesting part. When GZ drives turns onto Twin Trees, contrary to expectation, the kid is no where in sight. OMG! The kid has run off! This is the conclusion that GZ leaps to. But it’s the wrong conclusion. The kid hasn’t run, but rather he’s standing near the clubhouse mailboxes, trying to get out of the rain. This is verified by Martin’s GF. In her affidavit, she says Martin decided to take shelter at the mailboxes at some point on his way home.
So what’s GZ doing while Martin is relaxing at the mailboxes? He was running around like a chicken with its head off, convinced that Martin had taken flight all the way down the dog path and was heading to the back entrance of the community. It doesn’t matter that this would have meant Martin had suddenly transformed himself into an Olympic sprinter from Krypton; this is what his wild delusional paranoid brain led him to believe.
So he got out of his truck and took off running. The dispatcher told him not to follow, he said “okay”, but he continued to head south (either on Retreat View Circle or the backyard pathway) in search for the kid. After turning up empty, that is when he headed back to his car. By that time, Martin has finally made his way to the T area. This is when they encounter each other.
This theory answers a lot of the questions that folks on both sides of the debate keep bringing up, and it clears up the problematic timeline. One such question: If Martin ran away from Zimmerman at the point that GZ said he did, why did he stop running so quickly? Why didn’t he just run all the way home? The answer is that he never ran away; Zimmerman just imagined that he did. It also explains how Zimmerman and Martin didn’t end up encountering each other sooner.
The theory is supported by Martin’s GF and is consistent with science. There is no way that Martin could have made it to the end of the street in the short time it took GZ to turn down Twin Trees. So I think the theory fits better than the story that Zimmerman provided.