Thumper
05-02-2021, 09:55 AM
Lynn and I were about to head out Saturday morning, but as we approached the rear exit of the hotel, we heard a man yelling like a madman just outside the exit. Other guests who were headed that direction abruptly turned around and scattered. Me? I'm the curious type and just HAD to see what all the commotion was, so I headed straight for the door. As I approached the door (still couldn't see what the commotion was all about), I heard some dude hollering, "I'm gonna fucking KILL you!!"
Ummm, now common sense told me that maybe I should slow down a bit and think this thing through, but it "sounded" like a SERIOUS fight going on in the parking lot and I was headed out to jump right in the middle of it (at the same time slipping my hand in the pocket containing my little peashooter Walther PPKS). Sometimes, I'm not sure if carrying heat makes you braver or "stoopider". ;) I told Lynn to run up to the front desk and have them contact the cops and I continued heading for the door.
Once I got outside, I witnessed a black dude screaming at a young boy (looked to be about 12 years old) and stomping around cussing and screaming like a crazy nutcase! The kid was bawling and totally terrified but it was so bizarre, I had no clue what was going on. There was a big Nissan Pathfinder up on the sidewalk that had careened off an oak tree and slammed into a new Lexus. It hit the Lexus so hard, it shoved it sideways into a new (still had paper tags on it) Toyota Avalon that had been parked next to it! The weird thing was, the ONLY people out there was the dude who was kicking and screaming .... and the kid who appeared to be the target of his rage! Man, it looked like a war zone and I couldn't figure out WTF was going on or how all the carnage happened in a frigging hotel parking lot!
About this time, a woman runs out the back door with another kid who looked to be about 15 or so and she's screaming, "WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED???" The younger boy then runs to her and about that time Lynn walks out. I told her to get (who I assumed to be mom) and the kids away from there and I'd try to settle the crazy dude down before he killed somebody (he was in a total, 100% crazy rage)! I pulled him away from the mess and calmed him down enough to find out what was going on.
The older kid was here for a basketball tournament and the family was about to leave. Dad (the guy in the rage) came out with the two boys and all were in the car waiting for mom. Then dad realized they'd forgotten to bring some bottled water with them, so he ran back into the hotel to grab some water from their room (leaving the car running with the boys in it). A few seconds later, the older boy comes running into the hotel yelling that his little brother had wrecked the car! WTF? That's when dad ran out and discovered the carnage! It seems, the youngest boy thought it'd be cool to pull the car out of the parking space (it was backed in) a few feet and back it back in before dad knew anything about it. Well, obviously things didn't go as planned and it appears the accelerator was on the floor for the short (maybe 50 foot) trip across the lot, over the curb, side-swiped the tree and slammed into the side of the Lexus and Toyota before coming to a stop. A pretty exciting, but very brief "joyride"!
Lynn had mom and the future NASCAR driver about 100 feet away calming them down, another team member's parents took the older boy to the tournament and I stayed with dad to keep them all separated and get him calmed down as much as possible. He was a raving maniac, but once he calmed down, was a REALLY nice guy. He didn't know what he was gonna do as they were 200 miles from home and their car was undrivable. Admittedly, it was a real mess, but could have been MUCH worse, neither of the kids (or anyone else) were injured. I did notice one odd thing, although the front end of the car was destroyed, the airbags didn't deploy. Hmmmm ....
Luckily the guy had full coverage insurance, so that should take some of the sting out of the whole thing, but he really did have a mess on his hands and I can't imagine the stress he still had ahead of him. The cops finally arrived and luckily he was calmed down and very apologetic about his rage and thanked me for stepping in. I then asked him if he'd please go over to his kid and give him a hug as he was still over with mom and Lynn and was still crying uncontrollably. He did just that and returned to fill the cops in with the details. We offered to stay and give them a ride to the tournament, rental car company or wherever they might need to go, but they declined. We then left and went about our day, but I have no clue how their nightmare of a day went after that. What a mess.
Ummm, now common sense told me that maybe I should slow down a bit and think this thing through, but it "sounded" like a SERIOUS fight going on in the parking lot and I was headed out to jump right in the middle of it (at the same time slipping my hand in the pocket containing my little peashooter Walther PPKS). Sometimes, I'm not sure if carrying heat makes you braver or "stoopider". ;) I told Lynn to run up to the front desk and have them contact the cops and I continued heading for the door.
Once I got outside, I witnessed a black dude screaming at a young boy (looked to be about 12 years old) and stomping around cussing and screaming like a crazy nutcase! The kid was bawling and totally terrified but it was so bizarre, I had no clue what was going on. There was a big Nissan Pathfinder up on the sidewalk that had careened off an oak tree and slammed into a new Lexus. It hit the Lexus so hard, it shoved it sideways into a new (still had paper tags on it) Toyota Avalon that had been parked next to it! The weird thing was, the ONLY people out there was the dude who was kicking and screaming .... and the kid who appeared to be the target of his rage! Man, it looked like a war zone and I couldn't figure out WTF was going on or how all the carnage happened in a frigging hotel parking lot!
About this time, a woman runs out the back door with another kid who looked to be about 15 or so and she's screaming, "WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED???" The younger boy then runs to her and about that time Lynn walks out. I told her to get (who I assumed to be mom) and the kids away from there and I'd try to settle the crazy dude down before he killed somebody (he was in a total, 100% crazy rage)! I pulled him away from the mess and calmed him down enough to find out what was going on.
The older kid was here for a basketball tournament and the family was about to leave. Dad (the guy in the rage) came out with the two boys and all were in the car waiting for mom. Then dad realized they'd forgotten to bring some bottled water with them, so he ran back into the hotel to grab some water from their room (leaving the car running with the boys in it). A few seconds later, the older boy comes running into the hotel yelling that his little brother had wrecked the car! WTF? That's when dad ran out and discovered the carnage! It seems, the youngest boy thought it'd be cool to pull the car out of the parking space (it was backed in) a few feet and back it back in before dad knew anything about it. Well, obviously things didn't go as planned and it appears the accelerator was on the floor for the short (maybe 50 foot) trip across the lot, over the curb, side-swiped the tree and slammed into the side of the Lexus and Toyota before coming to a stop. A pretty exciting, but very brief "joyride"!
Lynn had mom and the future NASCAR driver about 100 feet away calming them down, another team member's parents took the older boy to the tournament and I stayed with dad to keep them all separated and get him calmed down as much as possible. He was a raving maniac, but once he calmed down, was a REALLY nice guy. He didn't know what he was gonna do as they were 200 miles from home and their car was undrivable. Admittedly, it was a real mess, but could have been MUCH worse, neither of the kids (or anyone else) were injured. I did notice one odd thing, although the front end of the car was destroyed, the airbags didn't deploy. Hmmmm ....
Luckily the guy had full coverage insurance, so that should take some of the sting out of the whole thing, but he really did have a mess on his hands and I can't imagine the stress he still had ahead of him. The cops finally arrived and luckily he was calmed down and very apologetic about his rage and thanked me for stepping in. I then asked him if he'd please go over to his kid and give him a hug as he was still over with mom and Lynn and was still crying uncontrollably. He did just that and returned to fill the cops in with the details. We offered to stay and give them a ride to the tournament, rental car company or wherever they might need to go, but they declined. We then left and went about our day, but I have no clue how their nightmare of a day went after that. What a mess.