Now it can be told...
Dec. 15th, 2006 03:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kengr*Months* back, I witnessed a woman drive a car into the hedge between the Albertsons and the apartments I live in. I haven't mentioned it before because legal proceedings in still in progress.
More specifically, as I was crossing the lot, I heard a distinctive "Vroom. Screech" followed by a muffled crunching noise.
Looking up, I saw this brown car (or was it van? It's been a while) with the front end over the little concrete hump and well into the hedge, which was leaning badly.
As I watched, the car sat there a minute, then backed out. It then stopped, sitting back in the proper parking spot.
I kept an eye on it as that sort of driving makes you want to be ready to dodge. I'd walked maybe 100 feet when the driver (female) did it again.
I memorized the license number, and when I got in the store, went to the customer service desk and got a scrap of paper to write it down on. I also told them what I'd seen. They weren't interested.
I got my stuff purchased, and when I came out, the car was still there. I was watching it *very* carefully as I was near it. She pulled out and turned to glare at me saying "What you looking at". It was that weird sort of aggressive tone you get from folks who are drunk or high.
I watched as she drove out of the lot slowly (and rather uncertainly) and headed up the street toward the major intersection at the corner. I saw her turn into the 7-11 driveway, I suspect she was doing that so she could avoid the light ( the 7-11 is on the corner and has driveways on both streets.
I rushed upstairs and grabbed my cell phone and headed back down while calling 911. I reported her as a drunk driver and told them which way I thought she'd gone.
I didn't see her and decided it wasn't worth walking all the way to the corner to see if she was still visible down the cross street.
So I went back up to my apartment, but away my groceries and left a message for the apartment manager about the damage to the hedge.
A few days later there's a knock on my door. It's the apartment manager and a cop. I tell them the story, even dig out the slip of paper with the license number on it. I find out that the driver had been picked up a mile or so away.
Later, I get a call from a detective asking me more questions (and letting slip that the car was stolen) He also asked me to show up for a grand jury.
The car being stolen explains a lot. I bet it was a stick and she wasn't used to them. :-)
I showed up for the grand jury nut in my haste to catch the bus, I forgot the slip of paper I'd written the jury room number on. After waiting for a couple hours outside the one I thought it was, someone asked me what I was waiting dfor. I told them and they said there weren't any grandy juries in that room that day and sent me off to the DAs office on another floor.
Turns out I'd remembered wrong and the grand jury had already handled that case.
A month or so later, I got a suibpoena to appear at her trial. As instructed, I called the business day before the trial to see if it was still on.
Nope. Been set over to the next month.
This repeated itself until a couple weeks ago. Then, I got one for the 11th. When I called last friday, they said it'd been set over to the 18th. I called today and was informed that she *finally* decided to plead guilty, so there wasn't going to be a trial.
So now that it's over with, I can talk about it.
More specifically, as I was crossing the lot, I heard a distinctive "Vroom. Screech" followed by a muffled crunching noise.
Looking up, I saw this brown car (or was it van? It's been a while) with the front end over the little concrete hump and well into the hedge, which was leaning badly.
As I watched, the car sat there a minute, then backed out. It then stopped, sitting back in the proper parking spot.
I kept an eye on it as that sort of driving makes you want to be ready to dodge. I'd walked maybe 100 feet when the driver (female) did it again.
I memorized the license number, and when I got in the store, went to the customer service desk and got a scrap of paper to write it down on. I also told them what I'd seen. They weren't interested.
I got my stuff purchased, and when I came out, the car was still there. I was watching it *very* carefully as I was near it. She pulled out and turned to glare at me saying "What you looking at". It was that weird sort of aggressive tone you get from folks who are drunk or high.
I watched as she drove out of the lot slowly (and rather uncertainly) and headed up the street toward the major intersection at the corner. I saw her turn into the 7-11 driveway, I suspect she was doing that so she could avoid the light ( the 7-11 is on the corner and has driveways on both streets.
I rushed upstairs and grabbed my cell phone and headed back down while calling 911. I reported her as a drunk driver and told them which way I thought she'd gone.
I didn't see her and decided it wasn't worth walking all the way to the corner to see if she was still visible down the cross street.
So I went back up to my apartment, but away my groceries and left a message for the apartment manager about the damage to the hedge.
A few days later there's a knock on my door. It's the apartment manager and a cop. I tell them the story, even dig out the slip of paper with the license number on it. I find out that the driver had been picked up a mile or so away.
Later, I get a call from a detective asking me more questions (and letting slip that the car was stolen) He also asked me to show up for a grand jury.
The car being stolen explains a lot. I bet it was a stick and she wasn't used to them. :-)
I showed up for the grand jury nut in my haste to catch the bus, I forgot the slip of paper I'd written the jury room number on. After waiting for a couple hours outside the one I thought it was, someone asked me what I was waiting dfor. I told them and they said there weren't any grandy juries in that room that day and sent me off to the DAs office on another floor.
Turns out I'd remembered wrong and the grand jury had already handled that case.
A month or so later, I got a suibpoena to appear at her trial. As instructed, I called the business day before the trial to see if it was still on.
Nope. Been set over to the next month.
This repeated itself until a couple weeks ago. Then, I got one for the 11th. When I called last friday, they said it'd been set over to the 18th. I called today and was informed that she *finally* decided to plead guilty, so there wasn't going to be a trial.
So now that it's over with, I can talk about it.
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no subject
Date: 2006-12-16 04:07 pm (UTC)Good for you though!
no subject
Date: 2006-12-16 04:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-12-17 01:32 am (UTC)Being subpoenaed as a witness is rather like jury duty, only harder to get out of.
If they feel like it, you can be thrown in jail for failure to appear.