Road Rage

I've had a limited number of encounters with road rage in my almost 30 years of driving, but a few weeks ago was an incident I won't soon forget. Husband and I, along with Middle Child in the back seat, were coming home from a school event. We were driving on a main road that our development runs off of, around 8:30 pm. Suddenly, the car in front of us stops on a dime and makes an erratic turn into a driveway on the left.

Husband isn't much of a horn beeper like I am, but he honked (let me add, the horn on a Honda Civic? NOT intimidating!) and then we proceeded on our way and took a right hand turn onto our street. Unbeknownst to me, Husband saw what was coming long before I heard it. As we stopped at the first stop sign, I heard yelling and someone laying on their horn. I turned around and saw what appeared to be a car full of teenage boys with their windows rolled down and arms waving. Frankly, I was scared! I told Husband to NOT pull into our driveway, but to keep driving. And the car continued following us, with its horn blaring. Husband decided to pull into a neighbor's driveway a few houses past our own, in hopes that the car would just move on. No such luck.

The offenders stopped right behind us, blocking us in the neighbor's driveway. They then continued on their rant, which was mostly calling us MotherF'ing everything. Husband told me to call the police and he got out of the car. (For all those who have wondered: when you call 911 on your cell phone, you get some generic operator who asks what city you are in, and then they transfer you to your city's police dept; it took about 15 seconds to get through). I was shaking as I was yelling into the phone that we were in the midst of some extreme road rage and could the police get there pronto. I also had the sense (or lack thereof) to get out of the car and report their license plate. Husband was standing there screaming back at the idiots, attempting to tell them that his wife had just phoned the police, but I don't think they believed him, because they mocked him, asking if I had gotten down all the numbers. In between the vile cursing, of course. Then they finally sped away.

I was shaking and my heart rate was probably not in a safe range. The entire incident probably didn't last more than about 3-4 minutes, but I can't tell you how alarming it felt. We drove back to our house and Husband waited outside for the police to arrive, about 5 minutes later. The officer said that since they were able to run the license plate, he would drive over to the owner's house and "scare" the kids, along with speaking to the parents. He seemed glad that we had reported the incident.

Later, I told Husband that I thought it probably was a bad idea that he got out of the car. Considering how many psychopaths are walking around with guns these days. As men will do, he told me, "I refuse to be terrorized in my own neighborhood."

And yes, those of you with good memories, this is the second time I've had to phone the police in the past 3 months. I'm going to get a reputation in this 'burb, aren't I?