Lindsey

Do you ever have one of those moments where something your parent told you that you thought was a bit ridiculous and paranoid turns out to be true? Today, I found myself thinking how good of advice I once got…

So I’m in one the more well-to-do suburbs of Cleveland, one we are kind of looking to move to if/when we buy a house. I’m stopped at a major red light, meaning I’m there for 3 minutes or so.

I’m second in line, with a pickup in front of me and a city bus pulls up behind me. I’m minding my business, fiddling with the radio, when I look up to see an older gentleman in a stocking hat and jacket, wearing glasses and gloves, walk in front of my car. He has kind of a wild, mentally deranged look in his eyes, and before I can react, he’s opening the driver’s side door. I head someone say leave her out this, and see a 30-40 something black guy in a bus driver’s uniform, and the old guy is looking at me, trying to get me to get out. I manage to finally get the door handle out of the guys hand and shut my door, and do what I should have done before I left work, LOCK MY DOORS. I’m trying to move around the truck in front of me to get out of there when the light finally turns, and the old guy is still trying to get in my car, so I speed off.

A background on the bus – you pay when you get on the bus, so this guy had to have paid already. Plus a driver isn’t going to get all the way out of the bus to chase down a 85 cent fare. So this old guy did something bad enough to piss off a bus driver to the point he got off the bus. After seeing the case scenarios at work, I can imagine lots of scenarios.

Also, I saw the old guy run across the road, and the bus chased him down. The bus had been in the straight/turn right lane, and chased the guy by making a left from the wrong lane. So now I’m curious what he did and if I need to let someone know what I saw going on? But man, it was weird.

So Dad telling my in St. Cloud MN to always lock my car doors, especially in big towns with stoplights, was right. I’m just glad I have a funny story to tell rather than a scary one.