Strangest Moment in your Life

[simms]

I cut and pasted this from another forum I regularly visit. Worth the read.

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This is mostly cut-and-paste from another forum I posted to shortly after the incident, with a few additional details. I figured the crowd here might enjoy the story, and a few of you might actually believe it. Every word is true.

Anybody remember the episode of Seinfeld where they decide that Jerry is Even Steven? He throws a twenty out the window and then finds another one in his pocket. I figured out this weekend who I am: I'm The Guy That Weird Things Happen To. Sometimes it's of my own doing; most of the time it's not. The most recent episode was not.

I took a trip back home (Erie, PA) three weeks ago for my cousin's bachelor party. I stopped to eat at a local place at the entrance to Presque Isle State Park, and afterward decided to make the fourteen mile drive around the park.

I was a little past the halfway point, driving in a line of traffic with the cruise set at 25 mph (the park speed limit), and enjoying the scenery. A large Ford pickup a few cars ahead of me suddenly pulled off into a large dirt and gravel parking lot adjacent to the road. He made a large loop while gunning his engine and spinning his tires, kicking up a ton of dust and gravel in the process. Nothing unusual, I figured he was just some punk showing off. I was wrong.

He turned and made a straight line back to the road, which put him right in my path. I was about to hit the brakes to keep from hitting him when he slammed on his and stopped just in time. It happened so fast I didn't even think to flip him off and just looked at him as I went past.

He pulled back on the road behind me, and immediately pulled right up to my bumper. I was in a good, mellow mood, and didn't really feel like dealing with an a$$hole (and couldn't quite figure out why he was tailgaiting me) so I decided to ignore him for another two miles until an extra lane joined the road and he could pass me.

Then he rammed into my car. I was royally pissed. I guessed that he was mad that I didn't slam on the brakes and let him cut me off, and this was his way of getting back at me. I grabbed my cellphone and dialed 911; he hit hard enough that there was probably damage, and I didn't want him to get away. He had a huge dog on the passenger seat next to him, so I didn't think I could confront him myself (I was alone).

While I was on the phone with the dispatcher, he rammed me again, harder this time. I thought "Oh, Fsck!" and realized he wasn't going away. I was transferred to the local PD dispatch, and started calling out landmarks as I was passing them so the cops would know where I was.

He rammed my car again and again, probably ten to fifteen times in total. One was hard enough that my hand slipped off the steering wheel and I was thrown, HARD, against the seat. Another time he rammed into me and hit the gas, pushing my car faster as I stood on the brakes. I think the only reason I managed to not lose control was the slow speed; I had cars in front of me the whole time and never went over 30 mph.

I kept looking in the mirror so I'd know when to brace for the next impact, and I noticed his demeanor was really strange. Normally, when a person is road-raging he'll be animated: pounding on the steering wheel, gesturing, yelling, etc. This guy was calm and methodical, like he was driving to the store. I noticed that he had his left hand on the steering wheel, but was holding the first two fingers of his right hand straight out to the right. It seemed strange, but I was more concerned with the fact that his car was much bigger than mine and he seemed intent on ramming me into the car in front of me.

The police dispatcher yelled at me to get away from him in any way possible, but I couldn't. There was constant traffic coming the other way, and the berm wasn't wide enough to safely pass on the right. I figured I had a better chance of maintaining control of the car than if I wrecked and had to deal with him on the side of the road. It probably turned out to be a wise decision.

Finally, the opposing traffic cleared, and I moved into the other lane, gunned it, and passed the two cars in front of me. Once I put those two cars between us, he backed off. The dispatcher directed me to the ranger station a mile ahead, and I stopped there to wait for the rangers to catch him.

He blew past two rangers and they took off after him. A third ranger pulled his truck in front of him, threw it in park, and the guy crashed into him. He pulled the guy from his truck, roughed him up a bit, and arrested him.

I was sitting in the station giving my statement when the ranger who arrested him came up to me, said, "It could have been worse..." and showed me a loaded Smith & Wesson revolver he took from the guy. I realized that it wasn't his fingers pointing to the side I'd seen; it was the barrel of the gun. The lunatic had it in his hand the whole time! It makes me really glad I didn't chance crashing on the berm.

When the rangers took him into custody, he was completely derainged and couldn't even answer basic questions. They had him committed the same day, and he'll be spending at least the next several months in an institution. It turns out the guy is bipolar, and after some time off his meds, decided that he's on a mission from god to kill all of the child molesters. The ranger who arrested him is guessing that he saw me in his rearview mirror and pulled off the road to get a better look...and apparently I fit his child molester profile. Whether it was the non-descript white car, my appearance, or I was just in the wrong place or the wrong time, I'll never know. Without a doubt, though, it was the most bizarre experience of my life.

[loho33]

how does anyone top that....

[pandaharo]

Crazy....

I would have passed the other cars by driving on the shoulder of the highway if there was one. What car were you driving? Seems to be a very steardy car that allow you drive after so many hits.

[AnimeEd]

it wasn't him

how come people always do that even if the tread starters clearly say that it was not them

[hugh_da_man]

it wasn't him

how come people always do that even if the tread starters clearly say that it was not them

Don't you love it when that happens? It creates some pretty funny blogs. (ie http://blog.noetech.com/archives/200...erhaulin.shtml)

[munch]

wow, talk about life-threatening experience!

[deep]

Strange moment that actually DID happen to me in high school. I was driving home from practice with another guy from the basketball team who lived out near my parents. We were just chatting and listening to the radio, when we pulled up to a stop sign next to another car. Suddenly, over the speakers in Jason's car we hear, very clearly in a conversational voice, "How are you guys doing?". We look at each other, and then look over at the other car, and see the guy speaking as we hear "You doin' OK tonight?". We sort of laugh, as he's obviously using some sort of portable radio transmitter, but he turns left and as we pull away from the light we realise that it's a tape playing, not the radio.

So either this guy has a powerful enough blaster to induce sounds over our speaker cables, or something even weirder was going on. I dunno.

[Yaowsers]

Here is a strange one. During grade school (I think I was about 12 years old) there was this girl that suddenly walked up to me and claimed that her and I were related. I had no clue what so ever she was talking about. A couple weeks later her sister tells me the same thing that we're related. She said something like how her grandfather and my grandfather were such and such. I still have no clue what she meant and I never cared too much. My thoughts of banging them went completely down the drain from there. If I did see them now I'd probably still do it though.

[spol]

his expeince could be turned into a nice short movie.

[loho33]

Don't you love it when that happens? It creates some pretty funny blogs. (ie http://blog.noetech.com/archives/200...erhaulin.shtml)

OMG....*speechless*

[Keelie]

this probably wasnt the strangest moment in my life, but it was strange, and kinda freaky.

my bf lived in the house he was raised in, his mom moved and let him have it. there was this old phone mounted on the livingroom wall that had been there for god knows how many years. it was also a party line it was so old. a year or so later they were doing away with all party lines and he got a new phone with a new number, the old one was cut off.

it had to of been 3 or 4 months later, the phone was still on the wall as it was somewhat of an antique.. my sister was over and we were at the kitchen table, when all of a sudden the old phone rang, we looked at each other and were kinda freaked out, didnt answer it tho

[UrbanPoet]

this probably wasnt the strangest moment in my life, but it was strange, and kinda freaky.

my bf lived in the house he was raised in, his mom moved and let him have it. there was this old phone mounted on the livingroom wall that had been there for god knows how many years. it was also a party line it was so old. a year or so later they were doing away with all party lines and he got a new phone with a new number, the old one was cut off.

it had to of been 3 or 4 months later, the phone was still on the wall as it was somewhat of an antique.. my sister was over and we were at the kitchen table, when all of a sudden the old phone rang, we looked at each other and were kinda freaked out, didnt answer it tho

good.. b/c u might have been sucked into the phone and sent into a paralel universe

[dalion]

strangest moment in my life happend this morning when my exs mother called my cell phone at 8:30am to ask who I was... HEH wierd family...

[Keelie]

good.. b/c u might have been sucked into the phone and sent into a paralel universe

hehe wasnt sure

[psiwashing]

i was listening to the radio, "FM1" dial, to Steal My Sunshine by LEN, about 5 or 6 years ago. I changed to the "FM2", which is another station about 2 hours away physically, and about 5 numbers away (106.5 -> 101.7).

The second I switched to the other, it was the exact same Len song, at the exaxt same second, if not beat as the other channel. I could switch b/w FM1 and FM2 and literally not miss a word or note. It was completely bizarre. I though at first it was some interference and I really was just picking up one signal, but after the song was over, it was a different song on each channel.

I don't know what the odds are, lets say they each played that song once per day. And maybe they play 15 songs an hour x 24 hours, so something like 360 songs per day. To have the same song at the same second has gotta be quite rare, but conceivable.

that's the mildest-strangest thing in my life. more to come if time permits.