Citizens on Patrol
My phone rang.
"Hello?"
"Is this Holly Snow? Do you own a red Yukon?"
I slowly answered yes. Inside, I started to panic a little. Did Landon get pulled over? Why would the police be calling me?"
Ma'am, your son just about killed me, himself, and his girlfriend!"
"What happened," I asked, sighing loudly.
The voice on the other side of the phone was happy to oblige. He told a story filled with reckless driving and total disrespect shown from Landon. As I listened to this ridiculous man, I realized that he had followed/chased my son and his sister from the entrance of my neighborhood all the way to the house in a different neighborhood where they were dropping off some items we had borrowed.
I was angry, and a long-lost memory came flooding back.I was 18 again. I had just graduated high school and was late for a friend's wedding. I stopped at my best friend's house first, and we raced off. I was driving how you do when you are late...fast.
Out of the corner of my left eye, I saw an old man running into the road. He was wearing boxer shorts (nothing else!) and waving his arms wildly. I was not stopping for this lunatic. I swerved to the right and kept driving.We made it in time to the wedding and everything was beautiful. When all the festivities ended, I dropped my friend off at her home, and pulled into my driveway. I walked into my house and was greeted by my mom and dad...and the police.
I was in trouble.The police officer asked me several questions. I answered them, still not knowing what this was all about. He told me the almost-naked man had called them and wanted me charged with reckless driving. I explained my side of the story. The officer said I should have stopped.
And then, in what I remember to be an amazing display of heroics, my mom stepped in.
"If you think that my 18 year old daughter should stop for some old man in his underwear, that she doesn't know, you're crazy! She did exactly what I have taught her to do!"
YES! I'm not in trouble after all!
Well...that wasn't quite true either. The police officer left. I was in a LOT of trouble. I was charged with reckless driving. I had a court date in August, right before I went to college. It was JUNE! My parents wouldn't let me drive that summer. I went to court, nervously, and waited for hours and hours and hours to be seen. I had never been so uncomfortable in my life. They finally called my name, but the boxer man who called the police on me wasn't there, and neither was the officer assigned to my case, so it was dismissed.
I floated out of the courthouse that day.
Back to the phone call.Incredulously, I asked the man, "You mean you followed my son all the way from my neighborhood to his destination? Then you demanded he open his window to talk to you and he refused??"
The man confirmed that he did just that. He asked me to PLEASE talk to my son about his driving. I promised I would. I let him know that Landon did nothing wrong by refusing to open his window to a complete (and possibly crazy) stranger. The man finished the conversation by saying he had my license, my address, and my name, so...he could call the police but he wouldn't if I would just talk to Landon.
GRRRRR.
Landon and Julie called me moments later. Julie was in tears. I was glad they were ok, but pretty upset at the man. How I wish he would have driven to my house and talked to me face to face! But somehow, I think he is the type of person who'd rather be intimidating to teenagers than face other adults.This is what I think:
Landon probably pulled out in front of this guy, not giving him enough room. Teenage drivers do that a lot. It's part of learning to be a safe driver. You know who else does that? Old people. I live right next to a retirement community, and they are equally as dangerous as the teenagers.
Get the police involved if you must, and then go on your way. While Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol is a hilarious movie, people gotta stop this nonsense. Don't take matters into your own hands.
It is NOT disrespectful to refuse to roll down your car window when someone corners you with his car. In fact, just don't stop at all. If someone is following you, either drive to the police station or drive home. Drive safely, and get help. Don't stop.
Don't give out your personal information. Period. I'm definitely at a disadvantage right now because he knows all about me, and I know nothing about him. I want to know where he lives. I'd like to take my family and toilet paper his house. I think he hasn't had teenagers around for a while, and I'd like to welcome him back into that world for a bit.
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If you are finding yourself needing to police everyone around you, just stop. Don't be a citizen on patrol. This is as true in Texas as it is in Georgia, and everywhere else in the United States. Go rent Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol, laugh it up, and chill out.