Third on a Match/Three's Company/How I deesculated a paranoid road rage extravaganza

[GlockSpock]

I do want to note that this will be the third "road rage" post within a week or two on TGO. I really do believe that in the mix of COVID, election/politics, social media, all very heavily intertwined with paranoia, fear, and conspiracy theories, a lot of people are on edge more than they've likely ever been and as such reports of road rage and similiar events does not surprise me in the least. I initially considered posting about it but decided against it. However, after seeing other somewhat similar posts I decided it was important for me to do this.

I was out running errands about a week ago. It was shortly after 5:30 PM and I decided to grab a few beers before heading home. I stopped at the convenience station, grabbed the goods, and waited in what seemed to be a decently long line for probably 5-10 minutes. I remember not speaking to anyone in the line, but instead watching outside two men assisting a young lady with her old, old F O R D pickup. I was pleased to see they helped her get it started rather quickly, and all seemed right in the world.

After checkout, I started to leave. Generally speaking, from this gas station, I can be home within 3-4 minutes. There is exactly one red light and then three additional intersections before I am in front of my driveway. Fast forward about 2 minutes. I'm sitting at the first intersection after the red light. There is a single vehicle in front of me at the stop sign. I quickly notice this driver turned 180 degrees around, facing me and generally looking rather wide eyed at me. At the time, I didn't think much about it other than it seemed odd considering this guy should have simply turned left or right instead. I concluded he either thought he knew me or someone else, or had a case of the heebee jeebies.

So, he turned left and I turned left. He sped up rather a bit and I generally thought all was well. As we neared the next turn (for me) off the main road, I was hoping I'd see him continue straight. Well, last moment he threw his turn signal on and turned the same direction. Since I was going home and didn't want to go anywhere else, I turned too. This is a country road with residential houses alongside. He pulled approximately a few hundred yards up that road and stopped the vehicle. I quickly realized that something was about to get interesting as he exited the vehicle towards me.

I'm a rather caring guy. There are, potentially, legitimate reasons for approaching another driver. Maybe he needed help, or saw something on my vehicle that needed addressing. That is all certainly possible. I made sure to leave a lot of room between my vehicle and his. I also left the vehicle in D with my foot on the brake. I also I slightly cracked my window as he was waving his arms and yelling at me. I missed what he said initially, so I asked if he could repeat what he said. It's been a week, but I'll paraphrase to the best of my ability.

Hey, I want to know what your problem is.

What do you mean?

You've been following me ever since I left the store up there. What's your problem with me?

Sir, I'm just trying to get home.

Where do you live?

I don't need to tell you that.

I knew you didn't live on this road. You need to get out from behind me. You need to go on right now.

So, at this point, I carefully but quickly just passed him and kept going. I was very afraid that he would attempt to follow me and had plans on diversion, but he very speedily turned his truck around and went the other direction. In hindsight, he may have very well been in front of me a place or two in the convenience store. I'm sure in his mind, I made eye contact with him once in the store, followed him out of the store, and was going to follow him home for some sort of mischief. I'm mostly sure he was either certifiably paranoid or on drugs of some sort. But, I didn't care to get to know him, anger him, or stick around much longer than needed. The whole encounter was probably 10 seconds.

My point? Deescalation is always the preferred method of handling conflict. Even though he flew off the handle immediately I treated him with respect and called him Sir. Had he given me the chance, I would have simply apologized for anything that I had done and assured him I stopped at the store for beer and was headed home to my family. I could have verbally disputed with him, I could have upped the game by cursing/name calling. I could have acted big and tough by acting in threatening manners.

At the end of all of it, I just wanted to get home to my family without incident and drink my beer. Be careful out there folks.

[Erik88]

29 minutes ago, GlockSpock said:

You've been following me ever since I left the store up there. What's your problem with me?

 

Man, it would have been really tempting to mess with him and say "I've been hired by Mr Soros to give you your mandatory COVID vaccine".

 

 

 

[Garufa]

2 minutes ago, Erik88 said:

Man, it would have been really tempting to mess with him and say "I've been hired by Mr Soros to give you your mandatory COVID vaccine".

 

 

 

Or simply tell him you're a contact tracer.

[GlockSpock]

29 minutes ago, Erik88 said:

Man, it would have been really tempting to mess with him and say "I've been hired by Mr Soros to give you your mandatory COVID vaccine".

 

 

 

 

26 minutes ago, Garufa said:

Or simply tell him you're a contact tracer.

I always appreciate a great sense of humor...but I really wanted to make it home.

[E4 No More]

Isn't schizophrenia wonderful? I wouldn't have stopped but rather drove around him. There are way too many bat- crazy people out there these days.

[Omega]

People can be ridiculously triggered by seemingly innocent actions on your part.  On my way back from Denver, I was pulling a trailer and generally stayed in the right lane.  I would move to the left when approaching highway entrances with traffic, to give them time to merge.  One such entrance, right after I passed it (seen no traffic) a guy comes around me and cuts right in front of me, within inches, with no traffic around us.  I thought of honking and possibly flipping him off, but thought better of it as nothing good would come of it.  Sometimes it's up to the sane ones to avoid/defuse the crazy ones.

[GlockSpock]

1 hour ago, E4 No More said:

Isn't schizophrenia wonderful? I wouldn't have stopped but rather drove around him. There are way too many bat- crazy people out there these days.

It's a rather skinny road. Between that and the fact I was curious what he was about to say, I kept my distance with the window slightly cracked. Agreed on the last part.

[gary_boom]

I had to look up contract tracing. I bet I am on someone’s list now. 

[DWARREN123]

I think you did it right, do not ever make it worse.

If you have to draw or shoot do it and do not talk about.

If you do draw or shoot always be the first to call the police about it!

[Quavodus]

It's only gonna get worse too. 

[JunkiCosmonaut]

If you want to see some crazy people. Probably people with schizophrenia go nuts over random people "following them" check out gang stalking. The guy in your interaction may have just been one of those people that believes people are trying to stalk him. 

[hornett22]

I keep driving and ignoring them until they leave me no choices. 

Fortunately, everyone has been quite civil around here. I have "alerted" a couple tailgaters but they got the point and it went no further.

Only thing I don't ignore is a tailgater. 

Edited January 23, 2021 by hornett22
####s and giggles