I had an interesting trip home from Cleveland this afternoon.
Do you know how when you’re traveling on a highway, you often see another car going your way and seem to follow them for miles and miles? I saw a SUV with New York plates in Ohio on Route 90 not long after leaving Cleveland. I assumed we were both heading towards NY. So I kind of hung back and followed him.
He was making pretty good time, passing semi-trailers and slower traffic. I won’t say we were speeding, but we might have pushed the “Speedometer error” excuse a little. Sometimes I was a little behind. Other times I was maybe a quarter-mile back with several cars in between. It was working out fine.
Somewhere in Pennsylvania, another car from NY comes up from behind us. They sort of joined in our little caravan. But this car had those extra-bright extra-white headlights. You’ve seen them. They’re probably after-market bulbs someone put in the vehicle. Some of them ore okay, others are too bright and should be illegal.
This driver got on the tail of the SUV I saw and sat on his bumper. They had to know they were irritating him, because he changed lanes repeatedly and they kept changing behind him. He slowed down and they slowed down, staying behind him. I sat back watching this unfold, keeping pace.
By now we were in NY and they kept this up after the toll booth. The SUV driver had enough and he sped up. Wouldn’t you know, not much further, there was a Trooper sitting on the side of the road and he took off after them. Everyone slowed down, of course, but who did the Trooper pull over? The SUV. The “bright lights” car, a gold Odyssey, kept going.
After slowing down, the Odyssey came up from behind me again. I wasn’t going to have any part of their game. Before they caught up to me, I sped up, put some distance and a few cars between us. Soon I came to the Angola rest area and I pulled off and watched the cars go by.
One car with normal headlights. Another. Then the car with the bright lights. Good, they were past me. I pulled out of the rest stop and continued.
It wasn’t long before I came upon the Odyssey again. This time they were sitting on the bumper of another car. The car responded by slowing down. In fact, they had put on their four-way flashers and slowed to about 30 mph. I couldn’t believe the stuff this guy was pulling. I already felt bad for the guy who got a speeding ticket, but wouldn’t they rest until they caused an accident?
Other drivers were beginning to notice this. There was enough traffic – now that they were going so slow – that it was obvious something was going on. I had enough. I pulled up from behind close enough to see the plate number and wrote it down. I called 911 and asked to be put through to the State Police Thruway Division and gave them the plate number, description of both the car and what it was doing and where we were. By now we were at the Hamburg exit.
I stayed behind the car, well back, and with the traffic, they were pretty well boxed in now anyway. I was hoping the Trooper from the traffic ticket would catch up, but I never saw one.
Finally, the toll booths were coming up, so I put my four-ways on and stayed behind the car all the way to the booth. When the car was paying it’s toll, I yelled out to the toll attendant to keep them for the police.
Of course, they can’t do that, but sometimes there is a Trooper sitting at the booths. No such luck tonight. But the attendant took his sweet time and stalled as much as he could.
The driver of the car stuck they’re head out the window, and to my surprise, it was a young woman! She was smiling and laughing like it was all a joke. After she left the toll booth and I pulled up to the booth, and tried to regain my composure, the attendant told me he had heard the call go out on the radio and that they probably would catch her soon. I have my doubts, but he seemed to be reassuring me that I had done the right thing calling it in.
I don’t know what might happen. I suppose, someone might get home to find a Police car waiting at their driveway. On the other hand, often things like this rank so low on the scale of importance, that it might get left for a while. I certainly hope someone at least got a good warning. I doubt they would issue a ticket on my say-so, but I’m going to wonder what happened anyway.
And the guy who got the ticket, I wonder how he made out. I specifically mentioned on the phone that the driver with the bright lights was the cause for that, but I’ll bet he’ll still have a ticket to deal with. I wonder if there is any way I could testify in his behalf…? They definitely pulled the wrong car over that time.
So, Miss Brunette, who thought it was so funny, you probably scared the Bejeezzus out of the car that slowed down to 30 mph and boy, did you get a laugh seeing the guy in the SUV get a ticket. Do you do this often? Must be great fun. I tried to equalize things out a little for you, but apparently it was your lucky day and the Trooper who stops at the toll booths for coffee break, was busy tonight. I just hope I’m around to see if you’re still laughing the day when Karma comes around and bites back. Just remember, I was witness to all this “Fun” for over 70 miles and I’m ready to tell anyone what I saw.