Blasts From The Past

Here are some entries from the past, related to driving cab on Mau'i:

NOVEMBER 15, 2003

At about 1:15am this morning I made a pickup at a local nightclub. Two "local" ladies wanted to leave the club but were being accosted by one of their boyfriends who was trying to instigate a fight. The ladies got into my cab and then the guy tried to force them to get out. I locked the doors and windows and left the club. He jumped into a new Audi and pursued us.

He chased us down the road (some chase, I was only doing 30mph) trying to get me to stop. When that failed, he tried three times, unsuccessfully, to ram my cab. Unfortunately, he was successful on his fourth attempt. Hit me at a 45 degree angle at about 30mph.

Caved in the driver's door. Destroyed the left front and left rear quarter panels. Rang my "chimes". Then he and a buddy of his jumped out of their vehicle and tried to smash in the cabs windows and force open the doors.

During this entire incident I was on the radio advising my co-drivers what was occurring and having them call 9-1-1. One of my other cabs arrived just as these two idiots got back in their car and raced away. He followed them while being in contact with the local police. The Audi was pretty badly damaged and was abandoned about 1/2 mile away when they fled on foot. The girlfriend (ex?) was able to tell the police who the driver was and where he lived. Neither of my passengers was hurt, just "shook up". I am a little tender at the moment and will see how I feel when I wakeup (hopefully ) later today.

My cab (a 1998 Ford Crown Victoria) has about $5,000 worth of damage but is driveable (though not usable). They will probably "total" the Audi. His right front wheel was torn from the suspension.

The police are going to pursue this as an ADW (assault with a deadly weapon) rather than a traffic accident.

I'll keep you advised.

And it started out as such a good night.

FOLLOWUP:

The girl friend married him. In August, 2005 he was to have been sentenced to 5 years in prison. The day before his sentencing he and his wife, among others, were arrested by the DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) for possession for sale of 64 pounds of "ice" (crystal meth). The sentence for that is a minimum of 25 years to life in a Federal prison.

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JANUARY 23, 2004

Last night was unusually slow.

About midnight I noticed some lightning over the west/southwest horizon.

At 12:30am it started to sprinkle. I went home, closed all the windows and brought the litter box in from the lanai.

At 1:00am we had a steady rain accompanied by a phenomenal light show.

At 1:30am the winds started blowing. Steady at 50mph and gusting to about 75mph. The rain was now coming in torrents. At 10mph, with my wipers on high, I could just barely see the roadway. The phone also started ringing.

Since it was soooo slow, I had cut our coverage down to two cabs. Now, every drunk in Kihei was calling, begging for a ride.

At 1:40am the roads began to flood. From 1:00am until 2:30am we received almost 18" of rain being driven by hurricane force gusts.

On our main coastal street (south Kihei road), we had flowing water between 1' to 3' deep. At the crest of one small hill along that road, there was 1' of water on the roadway flowing towards the really flooded areas.

By 2:00am the wind was right at hurricane strength with higher gusts and the light show was nonstop. Only briefly did it turn dark. The changing focal point of continuous illumination was difficult to adjust for. The wall of sound was like the finale of the "1812 Overture."

What would be a 10 minute run was now taking up to 30 minutes, as we often had to backtrack to use alternate routes. On one street of mild incline, the water was moving so fast that rocks the size of a lunch box were being propelled down the street also.

At 2:30am it stopped in an eye blink. The storm continued to pound the mountain above us as it moved off to the east/northeast But the roads were now flooded and the runoff was still coming down the mountain.

I had a late run to the airport and got off late. By 6:00am we still had major flooding on portions of the low road but things were starting to return to normal. Most roadways had a veneer of palm fronds, tree branches and a gravel garden.

Of course, this did not help our beach situation. We still are having high surf and having a driving rain come in from the southwest didn't help matters at all. Onel surfer "dude" told me that he went out into the storm at the penultimate and saw the wave fronts at 30'+!!!

My one joy in all this is that it wasn't snow. At the normal 10:1 ratio, that would have been 180" of snow in, basically, 2 hours. Also (my cab has an external thermometer) the temperature never went below 73F.
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February 2, 2005
At 1:03AM I made a pickup at one of the nicer bars in Kihei to take a "local" male to the resort community of Wailea, which is south of Kihei. About two minutes into the trip I hear the unmistakeable sound of an automatic pistol having a round racked into the chamber. Less than two seconds later the weapon is discharged within inches of my left ear. I am uninjured and immediately slam on the brakes and bail out of my cab in the middle of the street. I immediately call 9-1-1 and advise the dispatcher that a drunk local male had just discharged a firearm in my vehicle. He exited the cab with his hands empty and I ordered him to keep his hands in plain sight and to place them on the trunk of my car. I saw the weapon lying on the center of the rear seat and took possession of it. About 20 seconds later Mau'i police arrived. Turns out that the subject was an off-duty Mau'i police officer from the town of Wailuku, which is located in the central part of the island. The Kihei officers took him into custody.

The bullet entered and exited the molding at the front of the left rear window. The window was down at the time and the bullet hole in the molding was the only damage. The discharge was about 4 inches from the left of my head.

I don't know why he discharged his weapon but I am glad that he was a bad shot.

I'll keep you apprised as to any follow up on this.

I told the IAD (Internal Affairs Division) Captain that I would prefer no criminal prosecution but that it be handled by IAD with whatever action they deem appropriate.

FOLLOWUP:

The officer kept his job. He was suspended for a while and then placed on administrative leave. He enrolled in AA. He returned to patrol duties in August of 2005 on a one year probation. He called me in late August to apologize.

Apology was accepted and a career was saved.

And I racked up one hell of a lot of "brownie points" with MPD.