MystyGlyttyr
08-29-2008, 06:33 PM
Cookies for the reference, heh heh.
Long story short, I almost got sideswiped because of a police chase last night. (Why the shit does this keep happening to me?? (http://www.customerssuck.com/board/showthread.php?t=31466))
Short story long now.
It was about 9:30 or so last night, and I had just finished buying groceries and had stopped at a little gas station on the way home to top off my tank. I finished with that and started to head on my way.
This gas station is kind of in an odd spot on a stretch of highway. The highway is sort of part of an interstate, so it's four lanes, two lanes going one way, a median, then two lanes going the other way. On the side I was on, the station is right next to a very sharp blind turn so you can only see about 75 feet to see if there's traffic coming your way. So the station is a little bit like this... (fear my awesome keyboard map)
|| <----highway
||
||
|| <----blind spot curve
||---------------------------------------------
||--------------------------------------------- <---more highway
....................[] <------gas station
Anyway, I looked as carefully as I could, and I didn't see anything coming, so I start to pull out onto the road, still looking. But LITERALLY, this white Oldsmobile came whipping around the corner so fast with a cop car on his ass that by the time I realized what was happening, they were already past me. Probably two inches off my bumper. (ANNOYING HABIT POLICE NEED TO BREAK.)
So I reacted the way I usually do, swearing and slamming my car into reverse in a classic delayed reaction, then when I recovered a little, I jumped on the highway and sped for the smaller side road that went to my house, getting on it, then pulling into the parking lot of an apartment complex so I could call the paper and report the chase.
While I'm on the phone with the reporter, I see a few police cars fly past on the road, but don't think much of it, until I see a white Oldsmobile coming back the opposite direction, and within seconds, the police cars have turned around and are on the guy's butt, pulling him over right at the entrance of the apartments and surrounding him. For fuck's sake.
I've seen enough episodes of World's Wildest Police Chases to know the possibilities before me, so I took the keys out of the ignition and locked the doors to minimize the chances of being carjacked, then ducked down into the floorboard to try and get some shielding between me and any stray bullets. I let the reporter know where I was and what was happening, got off my phone, and set to wait out what was happening.
After a couple of minutes, I hear a tapping on my window, and look up at a policeman standing there with a flashlight on me. I scoot over and open the window to talk to him. (I guess they'd seen me in the car and noticed me duck.)
Policeman: "What are you doing?"
Me: "Hiding in case the guy started shooting."
Policeman: "Oh, you know about the chase then. That was the wrong guy, it's safe now."
Me: "Oh good."
Policeman: *probably noting that I had an Arkansas tag on my plate, and this was happening in Texas* "You probably better get on home just in case."
Me: "Yes, sir, will do."
As soon as he left, I sped all the way home. Hey, I pretty well knew what the police were doing. :lol:
At the time this was going on, I was scared out of my gourd, but 15 hours later with the shock out of the system, that was kind of cool, actually. Apparently (after talking to the reporters) they'd been chasing the guy for about 30 miles at the point and kept chasing him at least another 30 afterwards. I wasn't his first close call, either, as he'd just missed hitting a couple of joggers a town over. And the original reason they had pulled him over was something like, I don't know, a busted taillight or something else equally mundane. UGH.
Yeah, those chases are way, way less fun to be involved in than they are to watch on TV...
Long story short, I almost got sideswiped because of a police chase last night. (Why the shit does this keep happening to me?? (http://www.customerssuck.com/board/showthread.php?t=31466))
Short story long now.
It was about 9:30 or so last night, and I had just finished buying groceries and had stopped at a little gas station on the way home to top off my tank. I finished with that and started to head on my way.
This gas station is kind of in an odd spot on a stretch of highway. The highway is sort of part of an interstate, so it's four lanes, two lanes going one way, a median, then two lanes going the other way. On the side I was on, the station is right next to a very sharp blind turn so you can only see about 75 feet to see if there's traffic coming your way. So the station is a little bit like this... (fear my awesome keyboard map)
|| <----highway
||
||
|| <----blind spot curve
||---------------------------------------------
||--------------------------------------------- <---more highway
....................[] <------gas station
Anyway, I looked as carefully as I could, and I didn't see anything coming, so I start to pull out onto the road, still looking. But LITERALLY, this white Oldsmobile came whipping around the corner so fast with a cop car on his ass that by the time I realized what was happening, they were already past me. Probably two inches off my bumper. (ANNOYING HABIT POLICE NEED TO BREAK.)
So I reacted the way I usually do, swearing and slamming my car into reverse in a classic delayed reaction, then when I recovered a little, I jumped on the highway and sped for the smaller side road that went to my house, getting on it, then pulling into the parking lot of an apartment complex so I could call the paper and report the chase.
While I'm on the phone with the reporter, I see a few police cars fly past on the road, but don't think much of it, until I see a white Oldsmobile coming back the opposite direction, and within seconds, the police cars have turned around and are on the guy's butt, pulling him over right at the entrance of the apartments and surrounding him. For fuck's sake.
I've seen enough episodes of World's Wildest Police Chases to know the possibilities before me, so I took the keys out of the ignition and locked the doors to minimize the chances of being carjacked, then ducked down into the floorboard to try and get some shielding between me and any stray bullets. I let the reporter know where I was and what was happening, got off my phone, and set to wait out what was happening.
After a couple of minutes, I hear a tapping on my window, and look up at a policeman standing there with a flashlight on me. I scoot over and open the window to talk to him. (I guess they'd seen me in the car and noticed me duck.)
Policeman: "What are you doing?"
Me: "Hiding in case the guy started shooting."
Policeman: "Oh, you know about the chase then. That was the wrong guy, it's safe now."
Me: "Oh good."
Policeman: *probably noting that I had an Arkansas tag on my plate, and this was happening in Texas* "You probably better get on home just in case."
Me: "Yes, sir, will do."
As soon as he left, I sped all the way home. Hey, I pretty well knew what the police were doing. :lol:
At the time this was going on, I was scared out of my gourd, but 15 hours later with the shock out of the system, that was kind of cool, actually. Apparently (after talking to the reporters) they'd been chasing the guy for about 30 miles at the point and kept chasing him at least another 30 afterwards. I wasn't his first close call, either, as he'd just missed hitting a couple of joggers a town over. And the original reason they had pulled him over was something like, I don't know, a busted taillight or something else equally mundane. UGH.
Yeah, those chases are way, way less fun to be involved in than they are to watch on TV...