Not feeling safe living in Vancouver anymore... safe, feeling, living, Vancouver, anymore

jwc

I'm bad at making long story short, so sorry that it's kinda long:

Last weekend, (yeah, Thanksgiving ironically) my husband and I were driving east on West 21st/22nd towards Cambie.  A cyclist's coming in the opposite direction and as there were cars parked on the side, my husband slowed down the car and let him passed by.  The second one approached, coming from Cambie too, but riding right in the middle of the lane.  My husband did the same thing, slowed down and let him passed by.  This guy got really pissed and for no reason, said we almost hit him and should have completely stopped.  He then slapped my car's back door and kept yelling at us.  My husband was mad but what could we do?  So we continued driving east and turned right on Cambie.

After a block or two down Cambie while we were hitting north, my husband spotted him chasing us from behind (yes, he u-turned and stalked us).  My husband immediately turned left on 17th to avoid him, my husband made sure I was ok so he slowed down a bit.  We thought that should be the end of it, but no.  He found us again on 16th while we were in opposite direction again.  All I could do is to call 911 at that point while my husband continued to try his best turning around blocks to avoid him.  I was so scared and tried to explain to the dispatcher on 911 about what happened.  The lady kept asking me where I was and telling us to pull over.  My husband asked why should we stop as this guy is stalking us.  But in the end, we listened to the dispatcher and pulled over on W. 13th, 600 block.  The cyclist found us momentarily and grabbed his water bottle, spit on our car.  My husband shut all windows before he approached and so he took a key out to threaten us, kept yelling and swearing out loud, banging on our windows, even a neighbour came out to see what's happening.  I continued to talk to the cop but officers hadn't yet come as she said.  The guys found me on the phone so he keyed our car and took off.

Officers arrived 20 minutes after this guy left, of course he's long gone.  One officer of the two, got off the car and inspected ours.  (the other one was too busy cleaning up his car)  Nothing she said other than "nothing we could do, you know, we were coming from Dunbar and he must be long gone."   My husband was really upset and complained why the dispatched asked us to stop!  The cop defended "if you believe you are in a dangerous situation, you don't have to listen to the dispatcher."  And I asked he got fingerprints and spits on my car, (according to my knowledge from TV shows), can he be identified?  "No"   

Now, what we could only do, is to claim as hit and run with the claim no. and pay $300 deductible.  I'm so worry because I often drive by and park around that area.  What if that cyclist recognize my car again????   This guy is psycho!!   I'm really scared and everything seems to be so random these days.

[ 本帖最後由 jwc 於 2008-10-15 10:30 編輯 ]

jwc

I understand we should have done this, or done that~
There's a lot we should have done...
but everything is too late.....

on the other hand when I think about this, does it really help if we took a picture?  you think we could find him? or that would just trigger him to do more to harm us or our car?

I just think he was picking on someone, trying to fall before the car and take advantage of....

jwc

I guess my fault was to trust the poice....

jwc

嗰個區都幾雜吓

Really?!  Cambie wor!  around 10th to King Edward.  It wasn't in my impression, but it is.

side question. Did the guy look normal? Did he wear a helmet? Wear biking outfit?

He totally normal.  Wearing a helmet, wearing "oakley-like" sunglasses with backpack on.  AE style outfit. Absolutely not a bum.

I don't understand why your husband slowed down the car and let him passed by? you must be one of through slow slow driver, stop with nonsense, some ppl don't like you to yeild them.

I don't understand why we should not slow down with cars parked on both side driving down an alley.  He claimed that we did not completely stop for him.

Well, yeah, me 又天真又傻 law!  We're obviously not the 受害者 law.  Since I didn't learn from the Canadian education system that everyone should be self-centred and don't trust anyone other than myself.

jwc

Sorry, my mistake, we were heading west at the beginning.  And think about Cambie, on a Sunday afternoon.  It's hard to "escape".  We could, but we just made a mistake, listened to the dispatcher and pulled over and let this happened.  I was being chicken too, as all I thought about was that the cyclist would get hit by our or someone's car if we continued to run around blocks like that.  

Anyhow, all I'm saying is that, these few weeks, I feel so insecured about living here in Vancouver.  News about getting randomly hit or killed are happening everyday.  Maybe my case was a minor one as we didn't get punched or something.

I understand that LYKs are LYKs and so just to use here to express my frustration, but I guess maybe it's just not a great place as everyone has "experienced" a lot and would not care about such a case that happens everyday.

Just a note:  I'm trying to say we should not bear any responsibility, but of what that guy did, it was totally unnecessary.

[ 本帖最後由 jwc 於 2008-10-16 11:22 編輯 ]