A woman driving west toward DeLand on East New York Avenue at about 6:30 p.m. Sept. 9 found herself at the head of a line of traffic. A guy on a motorcycle “began passing all of the vehicles at a high rate of speed.”
When the motorcyclist got next to the woman, he kicked the driver’s side of her car and gave her a middle-finger salute.
Arriving at the intersection of New York Avenue and Kepler Road, Sleazy Rider headed north on Kepler, as did the woman he’d been disrespecting. The traffic light at Kepler and Minnesota turned red, so Sleazy Rider had to come to a stop.
He got off his bike and “began approaching [the woman’s] vehicle [behind him] in a very aggressive manner.” He punched the hood of her car, “yelling and cursing at her saying he was going to fight her and beat her up.”
Then Sleazy Rider went to the passenger side of the woman’s car and pounded on it.
As if this unhinged behavior wasn’t enough, Sleazy picked up some rocks from the roadway and threw them at the woman’s car.
Understandably, “she was extremely afraid of what the rider was going to do to her.”
When the light turned green, Sleazy Rider continued north on Kepler. But his victim grabbed her cellphone and took some good photos of the motorcycle and its rider.
Arriving home, she called the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office and told her story. When a deputy came to her home, she shared with him the photos she’d taken of her harasser and his bike, including his license plate.
The deputy noticed that there were “multiple areas of the passenger side [of the woman’s car] which appeared as if something struck the vehicle causing small dents and scratches in the paint,” and he saw a small dent on the hood.
The deputy ascertained that the owner of the motorcycle was a 26-year-old man residing a little to the west of DeLand.
The guy apparently wasn’t home when the deputy drove to his address that evening, but the lawman found him at home the next day and asked him about the troubling events.
Sleazy Rider apparently decided that his best course of action was to lie to the deputy.
Sleazy said the woman was close behind him when they turned north on Kepler Road and that she “suddenly passed him as they were northbound.” And, he said, the light at Minnesota Avenue was about to turn red, so the woman “slammed on the brakes causing him to slightly run off of the roadway to avoid hitting her.”
He said he walked toward the woman’s car to find out what her problem was and that “she suddenly drove through the red light and continued northbound.”
Of course, being the upstanding citizen he is, Sleazy waited for the light to turn green, and then proceeded north until he was fairly close behind the woman. At that point, she “was activating her windshield washer fluid which was spraying onto him.” Yeah, drivers often try to batter drivers behind them by squirting them with windshield-wiper fluid!
Sleazy said he passed her and tried to kick her car.
The deputy asked Sleazy why he punched the woman’s car at a red light, and the genius said he was angry because she had run him off the road. He also said he never threw rocks at the woman’s car.
Then Sleazy changed his story and denied ever punching the car’s hood. He said he did attempt to kick the woman’s car because he was angry.
Sleazy Rider got a free ride to jail, charged with two misdemeanors: assault, and criminal mischief damaging property over $200 but under $1,000.
Remember, road rage gives ticked-off folks a way to show the whole world how deranged they really are.
— By Keith Allen, based on local police-agency reports. If you have information about a crime, call Crime Stoppers, 1-888-277-TIPS. You could be eligible for a reward.
