Hit and Run and Huey Meets Toohey

Much excitement in the neighborhood last night. First, Mandy and Ben arrived from Kansas City with Toohey (very, extremely, unblinkingly, exciting short video of Huey and Toohey meeting below). Just before they arrived, though, the police were about the neighborhood because one of my neighbors hit a biker and drove away. A witness followed him home and blocked his car in until the police got there.

I was endeared by the citizen outrage of the witness, who followed my neighbor from the scene two lakes to come block his car in with his own car, and stand waiting for police to arrive to relay what he had seen, which was:

A car had slowed for pedestrians to cross, my neighbor went around the stopped car, giving the finger as he did to the driver of the stopped car, and hit a woman on a bike in the crosswalk who had a child with her just a few feet behind, also on a bike. My neighbor then went around the woman he hit and drove home, parked his car, got into his wife's car, and drove away.

"There's something not right about that," the witness said.

Here's the really scary part: I think I immediately identified with my not-right neighbor. I use the lakes as a necessary route from point A to point B. I have gone around Lake Harriet literally thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of times since I was a kid. The people who go 10 mph pointing at the lake and then pointing at the houses drive me absolutely nuts. "Pull over!" I want to yell. "Have situational awareness and recognize the 10 cars following closely behind you does not mean you're leading a slow moving parade!" Most often, I say in a helpless whimper, "the speed limit is 25!"

When I heard the witness retell his story my mind went immediately to this scenario: the car that stopped for pedestrians had been going 10 mph to see and be seen and my neighbor had had enough because he was just trying to get home from work, thank you very much.

This is not to offer an excuse but just to explain that what scared me even more than what could have happened (the hit biker was not injured, nor was the child with her) is that I identified with the not-right guy instead of the victim. Thinking anything of my neighbor other than "there's something not right," is terrifying.