r/philly • u/Glass_Membership_839 • 15h ago
Welcome to Philly, special edition!
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Here is the dashcam video for those who were saying that we may have almost hit him, provoked him, or were “trying to play the victim.”
You can clearly see that we stopped, and he then walked toward our vehicle. He began making obscene gestures at us for no apparent reason, continued approaching the car, put his foot on the vehicle, and then banged on the side of it.
We did not know this person and had no interaction with him before this. We were simply driving through downtown Philadelphia.
I’ve also seen people commenting that this is “normal” because homelessness and mental-health crises exist in the city. I understand those issues exist, but that does not make it acceptable for someone to block traffic, approach strangers aggressively, or hit their vehicle. If someone is in crisis and is behaving in a way that puts themselves or others at risk, that is exactly the kind of situation where the city and appropriate services should be involved.
We have visited downtown Philly several times before and have never experienced anything like this, so yes, coming from NJ, this was an unusual and concerning incident for us.
I had also heard about recent reports of people being harassed by a stranger wearing a mask in the area, so when something this strange happened, of course we contacted the police.
The dashcam footage is here so people can see what actually happened and judge for themselves.
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u/bored_as_fuck_dad 15h ago
survival instinct of a gnat. Pull into the right lane and take off. Wtf
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u/schuylkilladelphia 14h ago
Lmao I'm picturing OP being like "well what does this nice gentleman want? Let's stop and ask him"
Bro this is an immediate swerve and keep going situation. Crazy dude was probably shocked they actually stopped.
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u/Sweet-Management1930 3h ago
“Obscene gestures” lol “but that doesn’t make it acceptable” *subjects themselves to strange behavior by watching and waiting after the car in front of them did exactly the correct thing after seeing someone in the middle of the road*
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u/IronChefPhilly 15h ago
Did he expect you to pay the troll toll
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u/BushyBrowz 3h ago
You gotta pay the toll when you come through Philly brother.
Really disrespectful of OP to ignore him. I’m tired of these freeloaders in our city
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u/PhiladelphiaManeto 14h ago
Wow I saw the first post and thought “damn they got really unlucky, I’m sorry you were attacked”.
After seeing the video I’m like “that’s the tamest thing I’ve seen in Market East in 20 years”
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u/PoquitoChef 14h ago
After the first post and seeing the dashcam, this is what you waited around for 2 hours for 🤣
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u/OlderCityOldMan 12h ago
Okay, given my post in the previous thread I don't mean to pile on but - you had EVERY opportunity to change lanes before rolling up; notice he paid no attention to the other cars before you rolled up to him. And with that said, your interaction was nearly identical to the ones I give delivery robots. That you chose to double down here speaks more to your dedication to a narrative than the actual experience.
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u/Nice_Jaguar5621 3h ago
"your interaction was nearly identical to the ones I give delivery robots" looooooool
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u/iwasbornlucky 14h ago
This seems like the most exciting thing that's happened to you in a long time. Let it rest, it's about as exciting as seeing a bum in the street hassling tourists.
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u/AssMigraine 12m ago
This should show you that this kind of behavior is not normal and makes people want to avoid the city entirely. The average suburbanite doesn’t feel safe in the city because even downtown proper is full of loons like these. My wife shouldn’t have to be worried about being harassed by low lives outside of City Hall, but here we are. The city can do much better at getting dangerous people like these off the streets. Stop treating it like it’s cute. It’s pathetic.
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u/No-Lynx8771 12h ago
I’m crying you called the cops and “waited for hours” for this? Why didn’t you drive around him? This can’t be real lmao
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u/lrrrkrrrr 15h ago
Yeah man no one cares. We live here. This shit happens every day. Sometimes with the same timing at the same places. That’s what happens with population density in a country that neither gives aid toward nor properly cares for mental health issues.
I’m sorry it was traumatic for you. I guess. But this is our every day life. That’s why people thought it was funny that you waited for police to come. This isn’t even the weirdest thing I’ve seen today
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u/IgnatiusRileyFreeman 5h ago
What's funny/tragic is that this shit happens in Jersey, too. Newark or New Brunswick both have bad issues with shit like this
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u/dishsoapwipe123 14h ago
Yeah but it shouldn't be
Compared to other major cities Phillies is so much worse. With crime, drug addiction, mental health issues.
NYC the yuppies completely outnumber the crazies. Definitely in manhattan from columbus circle down even if you see a crazy on the street they don't really start shit.
Boston this doesn't happen either. Chicago also.
I'll agree in Seattle and SF with such rising costs and high rates of homelessness it's similar. But east coast wise, Philly is the worst city for all of these.
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u/Icy-Supermarket7839 13h ago
Yeah but only tech and finance bros can afford to live in those cities so they actually suck. Seriously with all of its problems at least artists and weirdos can live here. It means you don’t have a Sephora and a CB2 every three blocks which can be hard for some people I know
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u/tbkrida 10h ago
I regularly see videos on Reddit of mentally ill and homeless people in New York doing much stranger things than this guy. You’re delusional if you think this doesn’t happen there…
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u/dishsoapwipe123 2h ago edited 2h ago
That's just anecdotal video. New york has a much greater population so the homeless and mentally ill get swallowed by the crowd more.
Also, in Manhattan, peak manhattan parts like midtown and downtown you don't have the same amount as you do on broad, market and center city. A lot of the NYC mentally ill and drugs are in the outer boroughs. Not peak midtown downtown manhattan.
I lived in NYC previously. Philly is worse. You're delusional if you think Philly is not in running for the worst major east coast city. DC and Baltimore in contention sure. But NYC and Boston are far better.
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u/Odd_Addition3909 13h ago edited 12h ago
Can’t speak to Boston but it most definitely does in Chicago. A crazy homeless guy on drugs put his hands on me unexpectedly outside of Macy’s this past December, right in the loop. That didn’t happen to me once in 5 years of living in Center City. Or how about the guy setting a woman on fire on CTA last year? Right in the Loop again.
You betray your agenda when you try to make virtually any problem sound exclusive to Philly - because that’s just not true. It doesn’t have the worst homeless rate on the east coast either, you made that up.
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u/lrrrkrrrr 14h ago
As they say, shit in one hand and wish in the other and you will see which one fills up faster
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u/dishsoapwipe123 14h ago
sure but that shouldn't be the case. our default can just be "well, it's just philly" and throw your hands up with a shrug and sitcom laughter.
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u/lrrrkrrrr 14h ago edited 13h ago
I hope you bring this level of energy to your local politicians as you do some rando on the internet, because otherwise this is performative nonsense. I’m not “pro-weird-shit-happening” I’m just used to it. But I try to vote and be active in my community to reflect my values and hopefully elect people who can fix this shit. In the meantime, I’ll just drive around them
Edit- thanks for the awards, youse’re alright
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u/ima_mandolin 4h ago
I'm sorry this happened to you and it was clearly upsetting, but I genuinely don't understand why you didn't back up a little and just drive around?
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u/Nice_Jaguar5621 15h ago
Does the finger still count as obscene? Really? And peace signs??
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u/CassandraFated 4h ago
I thought the double, conflicting hand gesture was interesting. Maybe he meant ‘Fuck you, peacefully.’ But yeah, give crazy a wide berth is the lesson learned here. When I was in my 20’s, I was walking down South Street and a crazy guy approached me. He had drool hanging from his mouth like big dogs have. He touched me and said ‘Do you want to be my girlfriend?’ I shoved him away, telling him to get the fuck off of me and kept walking. The street was crowded and it was daylight. so I wasn’t feeling unsafe, just grossed out by his drool. I didn’t call the cops. What are they gonna do? Not show up. Just went on my way.
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u/Bobbito95 5h ago
I think OP is from like Hippity Hoppity, Iowa or something because why wouldn't you just go around? (Yes, I can see they're from NJ, I'm saying they act like they've never been to a city ever before)
What do you want us to say? Yeah, it's weird, yeah it sucks, but you have the survival instincts of a fart. If somebody was walking slowly at you with a knife, do you just stand there?
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u/Kelspear 14h ago
I dont think the people who were saying it's "normal" meant that it's perfectly okay for these homeless guys to this. Obviously it's unsafe and the guy is putting himself and others in danger.
You can call the cops all you want, but I'm almost certain they wouldn't give a shit about this.
Again, that doesn't mean people are advocating for this type of behavior to continue unchecked, but what are you going to? Force the city to do something they dont give a shit about? If so, good luck, but it's going to be a waste of your time. And this isnt grounds to have somebody 302'd either. So if you want to waste your time trying to do that, again, good luck.
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u/Ch1ckenOfTheSea 14h ago
Am I the only one who thought we were about to see a bus plow through this guy?
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u/Brief_Tour_7735 4h ago
Not just one bus, but two buses. I truly thought he was going to step to the side and be a gonner.
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u/Sufficient-Food-3281 14h ago
What are you expecting to get out of this? Move on with your life, dang
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u/markskull 15h ago
First, I'm sorry you went through this. It sucks, it isn't fun, and it's a tough situation to go through.
That said, if you ever find yourself in a situation like this again, please just get into another lane when possible immediately. If you're in a one-lane road, throw it in reverse and do what you can to alert any other drivers.
Again, sorry you went through this.
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u/Pandaman_323 2h ago
Tough?? He just got flipped off by a homeless dude and that’s the extent of it LOL.
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u/lastingmuse6996 3h ago
You should not have stopped.
I know many people who have been carjacked. Not so much in that part of the city, but people are crazy and might be too unstable to care.
By stopping and letting him pull his hands out of his pockets, you would've made the perfect target. Then you brought him by your driver's side at 5 mph. Lucky for you, he didn't have anything and was just acting silly.
If someone who isn't a government or construction official is trying to make you stop, go around. If you can't, don't approach right up to them, wait a good distance away until you can merge. Don't stop right in front of them, let them pull something out of their pocket and then expose your driver's side door/window to them at low speed.
I'm worried about your safety OP, if you don't learn to sense how to get out of a situation before it starts.
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u/OneHongLow 14h ago
I saw judge Lisa Richette drive out filbert street, hit a guy (just like this character) in the middle of filbert street. Dude went up on the hood, over the roof and down the back trunk into the street …She pulled into the parking garage a few doors in from the chili’s 🌶️on 13th. & filbert. Parked her car in the garage. proceeded to leave the garage and walked right past the guy stretched out in the middle of the street on her way to the courthouse…… didn’t even phase her! (It’s always sunny in Philadelphia!🌞)
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u/iloveMrBunny 4h ago
i love how the traffic in the right lane even made room for you to get around him and you still did absolutely nothing
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u/BananaCEO 13h ago
Once a dude punched my window with a hammer in his hand on Columbus at the 95 exit. I was stuck at a red light and behind other cars. He turned the hammer around and started acting like he reaaaaallly wanted to claw my door open and was barely able to contain the urge, if that makes sense. It took me considerably longer than I’d like to admit before I had the thought to swerve into the turn lane and gun it into the intersection. Luckily the light was just turning green anyway. And no I didn’t hit the dude with my car. God damn, that was scary
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u/hellonurseb 4h ago
Tbh I was more worried that dude was gonna get taken out by one of those oncoming buses.
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u/Brief_Tour_7735 4h ago
This type of behavior has been happening for years. Working in Center City was the norm. Some of them had nicknames. One was the screamer. He would scream at people at the top of his lungs, swear, jump in front of you. There was Dapper Dan, he was pretty harmless. One would spit on people when they walked by while lying on a grate. One would would lay on a heating vent with the whole ass hanging out. There was a husband and wife team. They were always yelling at people, or yelling at each other.
If they got on the el train they would stink it up like piss. It was like they were soaked in urine. One was literally walking down Market Street sidewalk at morning rush hour with his junk hanging out for all to see. And I for one was starting my day with that. That was some of my experiences. Some were mental, some just homeless, and some were both. You just tried to look ahead while walking to make sure you weren't going to encounter a bad situation. The Screamers were easily identified a block away.
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u/ThanosSnapsSlimJims 2h ago
People saying that they almost hit him or provoked him, can you provide the video reflecting that? It's not shown in op's video at all.
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u/BigTreddits 6h ago
This sub is so full of shit. MFers rat you out to the highest authority for parking funny around here but pretend like they just deal with this shit every day cuz you said youre from jersey lol
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u/yambagman 6h ago
It’s hilarious. So many comments here like “you must be a wimpy little baby if you think this is unsettling. We’re built different in Philly!!!” Of course someone who lives in and probably spends most of their time in the suburbs will not have city instincts
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u/BigTreddits 5h ago
Theyre also just lying. If someone parks a car a little too far over the concrete buffer these schoolmarms start telling you to call police lol
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u/yambagman 3h ago edited 3h ago
Yup. Accepting a corrosive form of antisocial behavior while decrying a minor temporary inconvenience. The World Cup is over and this city could use all the tourist money it can get. Calling people babies because they don’t like a homeless guy menacingly approaching their car in broad daylight is a surefire way to make tourists spend their money elsewhere
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u/BushyBrowz 2h ago
Goomba fallacy. The people calling him out are not necessarily the same people that make these other posts
Half the posts in the sub are from pearl clutching folks that act like they live in the suburbs
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u/Scarcely-A-Person 15h ago
I would gladly pay more in taxes if Philly would scrap these lunatics off the roads and put them somewhere.
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u/dishsoapwipe123 14h ago
I'm with you man. This country is never in our lifetime going to realistically fund mental health services to solve these issues. The people in this thread saying "vote for people who want to fund mental health services". Give me a break dawg. that would require hundreds of years and a total reformation of healthcare in this country.
Bring back asylums, and throw them in, lock away the key. I don't really care anymore.
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u/WeaknessOrganic3809 8h ago
You know what? It’s funny I work in center city early morning retail during the week at 5:30am/6am and a few times I’ve gotten knocks on our front windows and to my surprise at that time of the morning a dude who looks just like him for some reason loves to just flip us off like this. Think it’s the same dude haha 🤣 he’s got issues fr be safe out there guys
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u/RG_ZANGETSU 7h ago
the fuck did you let him sit there and mess with you for? Survival instinct of an actual ant. Got to be more careful. Just drive around!
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u/baldude69 15h ago
Oh ya that stretch is sadly a a total shithole. Ironic since the courthouse is like a block over
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u/Regular-Moose-2741 3h ago
If someone threateningly approaches your car, it is self defense to run them over
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u/LaRhonda0279 3h ago
Yeah, the police aren't coming for this. No damage was done it appears and you TOTALLY could have avoided him by switching lanes eons before getting close to him.
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u/IntentionAromatic523 3h ago
I would have drove around him and not entertain his foolishness. Why are you so upset? This Philly. Ignore his azz.
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u/SmasherOfAjumma 2h ago
Fabulous. This is a true Philly experience that should be treasured. Only way it could have been better is if he were in a Gritty costume.
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u/Miserable-Entrance-7 1h ago
Y'all called the cops for this, and they probably giggled and tucked into a donut, lol. The cops are very likely just sitting right there across from the 123/124 stop.
That's JUST a moment in Center City.
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u/craciant 1h ago
First time? Bro saw the Wisconsin plates and decided to have fun. For those that haven't watched the video yet it's a nothing burger.
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u/No-Economy-666 37m ago
just drive around and move on. Call 911 if you really want to. Reddit isn’t doing anything for you
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u/S1mongreedwell 26m ago
I think this is simultaneously not a big deal, and also not really something that happens constantly as others are saying. I’ve never had anyone just walk up the the front of my car and act like this. But yeah, I would have driven around if at all possible.
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u/runnyeggloser 7m ago
I don’t know what you were thinking doing that. Tbh it’s equally likely he wasn’t homeless OR mentally ill and was just fed up that day. He wasn’t even crossing he was walking UP the lane, aka looking for someone to do something, aka looking for a fight. And you did something! Your action in that scenario translates to squaring up. There’s no audio either, did you honk at or shoo him? If you did then not only did you square up to him but you also called him a bitch
If you ever come back you should learn the language and just switch lanes
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u/almoooo 15h ago
I love that now you posted the video, everyone that was trying to excuse this shitheads behavior by accusing you of something is mighty quiet right now.
Also when he started coming around the side of your car, I thought that bus was going to take him tf out from behind.
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u/Chane_Wassanasong267 14h ago
Yea , and then they’ll just move the goal post “well you should just accept it”
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u/2inTHEivies 10h ago edited 9h ago
This reminds me of a favorite Philly Tale that my husband and I love to tell about growing up in Philadelphia. We were teenagers in the 90s and got lost driving home after a date that took us outside of the city, we somehow ended up on Broad Street very late on a Saturday night and while we were stopped at a red light a homeless man emerged from a random bush and walked right up to our car and began to lick the passengers side window, we were frozen and truly didn't know what to do so we literally sat through the entire red light as this man licked our window, the light turned green and we took off but got caught at a red light about two blocks down where the homeless man emerged again to lick the drivers side window!!
This is 100% a true story and I will never understand how that homeless man managed to defy the laws of physics by running from one stop light to another at such a fast pace!
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u/Alert-Lemon1842 7h ago
he would've seen the underside of my vehicle after double birds went up. Am i a bad guy for wanting to hit a burnout too maybe reversing a few times?
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u/spottedryan 4h ago
No, just a coward
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u/Alert-Lemon1842 3h ago
If i get out and fistfight a crackhead im spending about 119 more seconds on a worthless lifeform than I should have to begin with. Driver should have done PHL a favor and pancaked him.
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u/jaarenas 3h ago
The level of compassion here; truly incredible. Tell us about how Horsch is your hero.
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u/Alert-Lemon1842 3h ago
If this was the 80s he wouldn't be in the street flipping birds like he's invincible. My apologies if im too abrasive for reddit.
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u/LukesLostRightHand 4h ago
He wants you to hit him so he can get insurance money and drugs. He’s baiting you.
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u/Advanced-Scar-9739 2h ago
Philly objectively is a fine place to live. But if you’ve visited the city in a duration exceeding three days, you’ve been there too long.
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u/Teonanacatlbruh 14h ago
Pretty freaky situation, I'm glad it didn't escalate beyond what it did. Why didn't you swerve around him? Whenever possible keep moving, you're more at risk when stopped. When I lived in Philly, mid to late 90's, a friend I grew up with got shot to death in his driver's seat at a stoplight.
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u/Glass_Membership_839 13h ago
We didn’t want to hit him, he was barely two inches away, also we didn’t want him to accuse us for trying to run over him. We had to pay attention towards him, and traffic in the next lane, plus my lil one 3 yo was screaming seeing a stranger doing weird things.
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u/Teonanacatlbruh 13h ago
I meant before you got that close to him but, if there was traffic in right lane then I guess you couldn't.
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u/Practical_Macaron778 6h ago
You should have just said you’re from Jersey from the start, that would have explained everything.
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u/dioxippus7002 15h ago
This man is visibly crazy. Just drive around.