Monday, October 27, 2008

Do I have "nut magnet" written on me?

I had the strangest encounter on the way home. I was heading to a local gas station to fill up the tank. The person in front of me was driving somewhat erratically (slowing suddenly several blocks before the station), and then, lucky me, this person turned into the same gas station I was going to use. This person's fine driving skills seemed to continue as she (I found out shortly that it was a "she") stopped as someone else was coming out and she couldn't negotiate the turn into the station at the same time.

As the person heading out passed on several openings in traffic while I was hanging out there in the lane, I gave a short toot of the horn. Finally, they moved and the car in front of me pulled in and stopped at the first pump, instead of pulling to the second so I could pull to the pumps and we could both gas up. Fortunately, the guy working there made her pull up.

Once we were at the pumps, she started yelling about how I was following her and how she was going to call the cops if I followed her after we left. She kept it up the whole time I was there, even jumping out of the car at one point. She was screaming as I got ready to leave, so I decided, for better or worse, that I'd better try to stop her before she followed me or tried to ram my car.

I still have a badge from my county days, so I showed it to her, told her to calm down and (okay, this may not have been the best move, but...) told her she needed to get some help. Yeah, that helped. She then started screaming about how I shouldn't be a cop. Remember folks (not that I followed this advice, but...) never argue with crazy people!

BTW, even if I were straight and the type to stalk people, she would have very little to worry about! But isn't that always the way? Like the ugly guys who think gay men want to jump them.

I drove for a few minutes and then circled back toward the gas station. I checked from a distance that her car was gone and then pulled back in. I asked the attendants to save her license plate number for a few weeks, assuming she paid with a credit card and they keep that number, but I didn't even ask that. Honestly, the whole thing really had me rattled. This woman was very disturbed!

3 comments:

Sooo-this-is-me said...

My Mom and I have a running joke that if there is a crazy person in the group, they will come to one of us. Of course maybe birds of a feather, so maybe we should not be so quick to judge.

Andy said...

What was Michelle Bachman doing in Long Island?

Greg said...

Yep, one way or another, the gas station's a big pain lately, huh...? ; )