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Tactical
Scenario: 11-2004
The Irate Motorist
Scenario
By: Mark Ezzell
It is about 6:00 PM on Labor Day as you begin the road
trip back to your home. You’ve spent
the weekend with a college friend at his condo at the beach & it is now
time to drive the 150 miles to your apartment to get ready for work tomorrow.
You are on a two-lane state highway about 10 miles from
the beach headed to the interstate that will take you to the city. As you pass through a small town, you decide
to fill up your new SUV with gas. You
pull away from the pumps to re-enter traffic but traffic is backed up and at a
virtual stand-still due to other vacationers leaving the beach and heading for
the same interstate. You wait for what
seems like an eternity for a break in the slowly moving traffic. Coming toward you on the highway is a lone
motorcyclist about 4 car-lengths behind the automobile immediately in
front. Since the line of traffic is
moving at about 5 miles per hour, you accelerate and pull into the vacant spot
in front of the motorcyclist. You
glance in the rear-view mirror and note nothing amiss and continue in line at a
very slow speed.
Several minutes later traffic comes to a complete
halt. Although your windows are up and
the air conditioning is on, you hear yelling behind you but see nothing in the
rear-view mirror. Traffic moves again
and continues very slowly for about 3 minutes and again comes to a stop. As you are trying to think of a short-cut to
get you to the interstate, you notice a man standing beside your driver’s side
door yelling. You note that he appears
to be a Latino, about 30 years old wearing a “muscle” t-shirt with numerous
tattoos on his arms & upper body.
You roll the window down several inches and he begins cursing at you
using exceedingly foul language. You
ask what his problem is and he says, “You cut in from of my wife on the
motorcycle almost causing her to crash & I’m going to kick your ass, you
motherf____er”. You glance in the
rear-view mirror & see the motorcyclist at about the same position and
behind her is a beat-up early 90’s red Pontiac Firebird with the driver’s side
door open. The irate driver comes
closer to your window while screaming more obscenities. You happen to notice that the traffic ahead
of you has begun to move so you roll up your window and start to more
forward. Immediately you hear a loud
“clunk” and glance in your side-view mirror in time to see that the irate
motorist has kicked the left-side rear door as you began to move. With traffic moving very slowly forward, you
watch the motorist walk back to the Pontiac, get in and follow the motorcyclist
who is still behind you.
Traffic continues very slowly for about 5 minutes and you
notice a small strip mall ahead on the right side of the highway. Wanting to see what damage was done to your
new SUV, you decide to turn in to the nearly empty mall parking lot. You pull in, stop and exit your vehicle
& close the driver’s-side door. You
notice a 5” dent in the lower portion of the left-side rear door and as you’re
about to get back in your car, you become aware that a vehicle has pulled up
beside you. The red Pontiac is about 15
feet from the side of your car and the irate driver is screaming at you as he
gets out of his vehicle. You note that
the motorcyclist is not in sight and that there are no passengers in the car. The driver displays no weapons but his
aggressive attitude and tattooed, muscled upper body give you cause for
concern.
You are carrying a KelTec .380 cal. semi auto pistol
loaded with CorBon 90 grain JHP ammunition in a DeSantis Gunhide holster in
your right front pocket. Clipped to you
left front pocket is a Buck Strider-Tarani folding knife. Your Samsung cell phone is on the passenger
seat of the car and your Fox “Five Point Three” OC spray is in the inside
pocket of closed driver’s door.
What would you do?
The Irate Motorist
Response
By: Jack Patterson
During
the original confrontation on the highway I would have made note of the
vehicles tag number along with the description of the vehicle and the driver.
If time would have permitted, I also would have gotten the tag number of the
motorcycle. My small personal recorder is great for this, as it allows me to
make these notes without taking my eyes off of the road.
Upon
the discovery of the damage to my vehicle, I would have used my cell phone to
call the local PD to file a report that the insurance companies always want
when you make a claim.
With
the approach of the subject as I was entering my car, I would start the car and
pull away to another area of the parking lot, while re-contacting the local PD
via the cell phone to advise them of the possible escalation of the incident.
If the subject continues to follow, I keep the PD on the line via the hands
free option of the phone and continually up date the dispatcher/call clerk of
the situations status. As long as I am in the car, I am relatively
protected
and have a means of exiting the situation.
If
the subject begins to try to block me in with his vehicle at any point, I use
my vehicle to P. I. T. his and then withdraw from the area. If I screw up and get boxed in my self, I have the PD on
line recording everything that is going
on, and I have all of my tools at hand to respond to subjects level of aggression
at that point.
The Irate Motorist
Response
By: Anonymous
Well, first rule is -Never get out of the
vehicle without your OC in your hand, ever!
But backing up a bit, at first contact, I would have apologized profusely,
never getting out of the car. My OC would be in my hand during the entire
first exchange. I would have picked up the phone and offered to call the
police if the tattooed man thought that they should get involved. I'm
sorry about cutting your wife off, sir, I have a phone handy, would you like
for me to call the police so they can sort things out? If the answer was
no, I would stay in the car, call the police anyway, and start driving away if
possible. If the answer was yes, call the police, I would have called
them at that moment and reported the incident, mentioned that he was very irate
and that I felt threatened, pulled off the road and awaited the police the
whole time staying on the phone with 911. If the man started getting more
irate, I would have driven off, tell the police exactly what I was doing and
why.
If the first exchange fizzled like the story, I would have driven far, far away
before getting out of the car to check damage, while I watched for a
tail. If I figured out the irate man was following me after the first
exchange, I would have conducted a few tail shaking moves to rule out coincidence
and then called the police to report being followed by a potential road rage
person. I never would stop until the police showed up and pulled him
over, then I might stop a mile or so down the road. I would have stayed
on the phone and mentioned that I was feeling threatened and otherwise do
everything I could to keep the police on the phone.
If the phone craps out during any of the above, I'd keep my eyes peeled for a
hospital sign, and follow them to the emergency room (there's always folks at
the emergency room 24 hours a day), park the car right at the doors (this will
draw attention and security/the police) and run in acting a little hysterical
saying something like I'm being followed by some crazy guy, call the
police! If the irate man follows me in and I end up getting into a fight
at least I'll be someplace where I can get patched up afterwards.