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NuBer92 wrote:what does the surname have anything to do with anything???

Potentially, nothing at all. Equally potentially, everything. It is simply one of the facts of the case that we've learned, so I mentioned it, and, if this guy is caught, it will help to identify him, so it is potentially very pertinent. Read my previous posts on this forum relevant to issues of race and ethnicity. You'll see that I'm not a racist bugaboo, so let's not even go there.

Here are some other facts. My wife said that the suspect vehicle was kind of trashy looking, that the rear bumper area bore evidence of previous minor collisions or abuse, and that the bottom portion of the spare tire mounted on the rear exterior (just above the bumper) was actually shredded - before he hit her. The vehicle was last registered to an address in Dallas. The most recent registration expired in January. The fact that my wife, who was alone in her car, is very fair skinned, and the other two paragons of morality and virtue were very dark skinned might mean nothing at all, or it might mean everything. Hate crime can cut both ways. My best guess is that they are laborers of some kind who were working on a job in Grapevine, and were headed home, since turning left onto William D. Tate would have taken them down to either the 114 freeway, or the 121 freeway. Since the vehicle registration is expired, we have no way of knowing if he was headed in the direction of Dallas, or Fort Worth - or somewhere else, for that matter. It is also my best guess that these two fine upstanding men who behaved so absolutely perfectly and honorably in this situation are probably in the country illegally, and have no insurance. But all of that is just an educated guess.

Well, a police report has been filed, and unless he is caught, it is in our insurance company's hands. I'm just glad that my wife handled it well and that she is safe. I bear a more than passing interest, through my church, in social justice issues. But justice is impartial. Wrong doers need to be caught, and they deserve punishment - whether they are racially motivated predators, or simply illegals who behave irresponsibly and are trying to fly below the radar of the law.

Crossfire wrote:TAM - glad to hear that Mrs. TAM is OK. She definitely did the right thing in a scary situation. I don't know if I would have handled it that well!
But, she did great, getting a good description and keeping her wits about her.

You taught her well! She was particularly glad to hear your reaction. It meant a lot to her.

Thanks guys. She's pretty mad now. She spent all day today whenever we were out together, scanning the streets to see if she could see that car again. The Annoyed Woman is a lass of of scotch/irish extraction. I've been married to her for over 20 years, and I know darn well not to get on her bad side! Those guys would be lucky to get arrested before she sees them again.


But I am sure glad that things worked out OK.

My wife had a bit of an experience yesterday. She was in Grapevine at the westbound at the intersection of W. Dallas Rd. and William D. Tate, waiting to make a left hand turn south onto William D. Tate, driving her 2000 Toyota Camry. She was about the 6th car in line in the turn lane, just waiting for the signal to change. Suddenly, and without any warning, the male driver in front of her, in a 1995 Isuzu Trooper, threw his car into reverse and accelerated hard backwards into the front of my wife's car. She barely had time to try and honk her horn before the impact. It buckled her hood and crumpled the front and bumper panels pretty good, but the car was still drivable.

The other driver, who had a male passenger with him, slowly pulled forward and out of the turn lane, waving for my wife to follow them, which she did. He crossed over to the right lane and made the right hand turn on Ball Rd, and then turned immediately into a parking lot where there is a new bank and a German bakery. She followed him into the parking lot, and he kept waving out his window for her to follow, but he would not stop. He drove the entire length of the long, narrow lot to the other end, waving for her to follow them. When they got to the far end, where there is another driveway, he turned onto a deserted side street (N. Ira E. Woods), still waving for her to follow him.

She followed their truck out onto the street, but at that point, she started getting scared because things weren't playing out the way they should, and so she backed off a bit and started to call 911. While she was phoning, the other driver suddenly sped off. All of this happened in the same block as the Grapevine PD station, so she drove over then and filed a report.

The Annoyed Woman has her CHL, although she is fairly new to it. I reminded her later that she had a gun if things got too far out of hand, but I think she did the right thing by backing off. She was rightfully scared, and who knows what their intentions were, when they wouldn't stop in the first parking lot where there was plenty of room to pull over and exchange insurance information?

Anyway, she was able to give the police and our insurance company a good description of both the vehicle and its license plate number, and enough of the driver and his passenger. The plate is registered to a 1995 Isuzu, and the color of the vehicle is right, and it is registered to a guy with a hispanic surname and we now know his address in Dallas. We're letting our insurance company handle it from here on out, but for a minute there, my wife was scared that she was going to have to put Roscoe to use.