A Magnetic Personality

I enjoy taking the long way to work. I realize there is a bus stop a block away from my street. Instead, I enjoy the strut down Laurel Street, go about eight blocks, then turn on to Cedar Street and then eventually hit the main strip and buy a small cup of coffee, which is at the end of the main strip, and then walk back towards the metro bus center. It’s my routine of walking exercise, a good way to start the morning.

The other morning was like any other morning, except for the amount of traffic there was on Laurel Street. I was approaching the light intersection where Laurel and Center Street meet, and one of the side streets (Washington Street, I believe) had a car pulling out. The car was a dark blue PT Cruiser. There was a line of vehicles at the light but the Cruiser did not hesitate; it pulled right out onto Laurel Street and drove in the left lane where the oncoming traffic would come. Luckily there weren’t any oncoming cars and the Cruiser just plowed right through the red light and kept going.

Randomly, at the intersection, coming from the Center Street side, was a police car. I shouldn’t say randomly since the Santa Cruz city police station is on Center Street. Anyway, the police car was the first car at the light and after seeing the Cruiser blast its way through the light and continuing to accelerate down Laurel, the police car followed pursuit. I saw that the Cruiser made a right onto Cedar Street, which is where I usually cross the street to get to and then go down. The police car followed it onto Cedar.

I was only a block away and I was hoping that when I got to the crosswalk I would see the Cruiser pulled over. As I was passing one of the side streets, which is directly across the street from Cedar, there was a couple walking ahead of me, maybe fifteen or twenty. I saw to my left, which is where Cedar began from Laurel Street, the PT Cruiser coming from where he turned. However, he did not stop as he pulled from Cedar, it bolted across Laurel and right down the street that I was passing. Lucky for me, I was not in the crossing, but I did back up as this maniac was going at least 50 mph through the street. The unlucky part was the couple in front me got a first hand experience of the Cruiser maniac. The male of the couple encountered a sideswipe from the Cruiser. It was not a head on collision, but a good enough hit that caused the man to be forced to dive into the street, headfirst. The woman was in a state of hysteria as the man lied there; his face was pretty scraped up but he was talking at least.

I rushed over to see if he and she were alright. The woman was fine and the man seemed to be doing fine so far. I asked if she wanted me to call 911 and she snapped saying she would do it. I then asked if she wanted me to stick around to be a witness, or give a statement. She again declined. Right after this, the police car that was originally in pursuit was still on the Cruiser’s tail. The police car went down the same route that the Cruiser did. It had its lights on and I could see the police officer speaking into his dispatch.

The woman told me to leave and that it would be okay. I continued walking down to the metro center, I chose to skip coffee and just go straight to work. While walking, I kept contemplating on whether or not I should call 911 just to make sure. I turned around and saw her on the phone and the man was sitting up right, so that all looked comforting.

I arrived to work and immediately went upstairs and told my coworker Stacey what I had witnessed. It was all a little surreal for me. I later told some other coworkers, and one of them mentioned that I tend to encounter some strange happenings. This made me think of one of my student workers. I was telling her and some of the other students about my wedding weekend and she replied with, “We decided that we can’t believe you anymore! You have some of the weirdest shit happen to you, yet you are such a normal and dorky guy! What the hell? I mean, your house floods, old men give you hundreds of dollars at a bar, people mistake you for a Mormon and throw coffee at you, deer run you over!” I can elaborate into more detail on some of the stories mentioned, if needed.

What is it about my presence? Why am I a part of these strange predicaments? I think it’s some weird case of a magnetic personality (seeing that a PT Cruiser, a large metal vessel, was a few feet from my body as it went 50 plus, that makes sense).

Anyway, the day went on and I eventually became distracted from my morning actions due to the excitement I take in from the grand world of development.

The next morning I was taking the same path to work, that is, going down Laurel Street, turning onto Cedar Street and then the coffee shop and then to the Metro. I passed by a newspaper stand, which was actually right by where the man got hit by the crazy Cruiser. The front page of the Santa Cruz Sentinel stated “Car Crash Ends in Firing Blaze” or something along those lines. I start reading the first paragraph and it read:

“CAPITOLA — A high-speed car chase just before noon Wednesday turned a normally quiet neighborhood into a fiery crime scene.”

Interesting, Capitola had some excitement. Then the article continued.

“A man suspected of stealing a PT Cruiser on Bay Avenue” Jesus! A PT Cruiser, that had to be my Cruiser, or some really messed up coincidence “snubbed orders by police to stop and, in an attempt to outrun authorities, drove the stolen vehicle into a patrol car and injured a Capitola police officer before crashing it into a home and setting the house ablaze, according to police.”

My god. The article went into further detail on how around 11am, the Capitola police started chasing the Cruiser. It ended, as mentioned, with the Cruiser plowing into a house. I’m still trying to get all the fine points together because I was heading to work around 8:45am or so when I saw the Cruiser and the Capitola police did not interact with him until 11am. So this crazy man must had gone into hiding somewhere for a while.

When I walked into my office there were the usual fifteen to twenty new email waiting for me; three or four of them were from my coworkers asking me if the article they read in the Sentinel was the same thing that I encountered. I replied, assuming as much, unless there is some hot demand for PT Cruisers. I am still trying to figure out why were all the Santa Cruz details not mentioned? A man did get hit by this guy. I wonder if the woman gave a statement or if she did, was there a connection made. Maybe since there was such a gap of time, that the police did not connect the Santa Cruz PT Cruiser chase to be the same with the Capitola PT Cruiser. I’m going to go to the Santa Cruz police station and mention what I encountered, just so there is some awareness, or something!

In pursuit

Poor, poor Cruiser.

Maniac McGee