Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Citizens Arrest!

I had an interesting encounter today.  I was at a stoplight, stopped, and knew the light so I knew it would be little bit before it changed.  I was on my way to grab a drink at a convenience store (if you love frozen Coke/Icee/Slurpees, the machine at the Kangaroo chain of convenience stores really is the best of the breed) and thus wanted to get rid of the mostly watered down tea that I had.  I checked my mirror because there was a left turn lane beside me that was vacant to make sure nothing was coming around me, and opened the door a bit and dumped the tea/water/ice out on the road.  I even took a couple seconds to shake the cup well as I glanced at the light that was still red.

I closed the door, put the cup back in the cupholder, the light changed, and we went.  I do remember well that there was a white F-150 behind me, but couldn't see much else further back.  I crossed the intersection and turned into the Kangaroo, which is out in front of a big strip mall in Carrboro.  Ran in, got my drink, paid, and headed out.  As I was getting in the car I noticed a car moving across behind my car through the parking lot.  The windows were down and I could see an older lady driving.  An older man in the passenger seat yelled "hey" and I looked to see why.  I wasn't sure it was directed at me (seemed possible I just overheard something he was yelling at her), so I continued getting in the car.  But as I did I could see the lady had stopped and the man was getting out with a piece of paper in his hand and heading toward me.

I stopped with the door open, seated in the car, and turned around as he approached.  I figured he needed directions or something.  I said "can I help you?"  He said "I just want you to know you should expect a call from the police about what you did over there" and he sort of pointed toward the intersection where I had dumped my drink.  I said "excuse me?"  I had no clue what he was talking about at the time.  He said "you dumped that tray over there."  And he turned around and started walking back to his car.  I said "for dumping out a DRINK?!?" and started laughing.  He just got in the car and the lady drove away.

I think he said "tray", I'm not completely sure.  The ice was the "half moon" shaped ice from home which is pretty "white" versus clear, so maybe he thought I dumped something out that was solid, I don't know.  I don't even know where he was when he saw me do it unless he was behind that truck or sitting in the parking lot of a different convenience store that would have been to my left.  I do know I dumped out some liquid and ice, and unless I'm missing something big, there's no crime there.  It's been about 30 minutes and no call from the police...my guess is they are out looking for, uh, actual criminals, though. 

No comments: