Tough Neighbourhood

A conversation this past weekend reminded me in a totally random way of something that happened in my neighbourhood last autumn (2005).

I returned home one evening to find my neighbour's van parked in front of my house, which seemed odd. As I neared the van, I noticed that it appeared to have been hit by another car, so I knocked on my neighbour's door (I'll call her Suraia.) to tell her. Suraia and her husband came out and confirmed that they were aware of the accident and that they were at home when it happened, then they told me the whole tale.

Suraia and her husband were at home, minding their own business, when they heard a great thud and crash in front of their house that drew them outside. They came out to find that a large car had crashed into the back of their van as it was parked on the street in front of their house, pushing it 50 feet (15 metres) or so in front of my house. Mind you, Suraia lives in the second house on the street, so the driver of the car that hit her van somehow built up enough speed in the 160 feet (50 metres) after he rounded the corner to knock her van this distance. Further inspection revealed that the impact had dislodged the drinks holder from its slot in the dash and jettisoned it into the back seat!

Not only had the van been hit with such force and pushed this distance, but also the offending vehicle was locked to the van by its bumper and the driver had the car in reverse, trying to dislodge himself. Suraia's husband ran into the street to stop the driver, but he escaped, though not before Suraia noted his plate number.

Several minutes later, Suraia had called the police and was sharing her outrage with another neighbour, when a twenty-something approached her in a large SUV. He said that he'd seen the accident, had pursued the offending driver, and had noted his plate number. Suraia was glad for this witness to come forward and she asked him to stay and make a statement to the police. He declined to speak to the police and said that he'd tell only her the plate number for $50! This outraged her further and brought out the Bronx in her, so she told the witness to be gone in the probably the least diplomatic way possible.

As the witness drove away, Suraia noted his plate number and handed it over to the police when they arrived. The police confirmed that they'd caught up with the driver that crashed into her van at an adult establishment on a nearby thoroughfare and had already taken him into custody. The witness' offer to sell the offending driver's plate number to Suraia was news to the police, but they recounted to Suraia how the witness had already extorted $30 from the driver to NOT reveal his plate number!

This tale has a mostly happy ending, as the police were presumably able to catch and prosecute both the driver and the extorting witness. Suraia's van was repaired, though it's not quite the same, and she and her husband enjoyed driving a rented Lexus during the month that their van was in the repair shop.

I'll wrap up this entry by sharing a few interesting side-notes to this story. First, A friend from out-of-state was visiting me the week before the accident with Suraia's van and had parked his expensive, European sedan in the street in front of my house, directly in what was to be the line of fire. More recently, a womon fleeing the police rounded the corner at the opposite end of my street and crashed into another neighbour's car, pushing it into their front yard and slightly damaging their carport; that was the twelfth car that those neighbours had had damaged while parked in front of their house; the police suspect that she crashed in order to effect her escape on foot and it worked because they didn't catch her! Since these two incidents, I've noticed the police aggressively stopping and ticketing drivers on my street. Ah, life in a city. :J