Another one bites the dust

Once again, the curve on Hobart has claimed another victim. In this case, it wasn’t an innocent victim.

At about 1am this morning I half woke-up to a weird “wumph” sound. I didn’t think it was cars crashing (they make a more metallic sound) but something had happened. Then after a few seconds, I heard footsteps and a bang noise like someone slamming open a gate and then another noise, which I think was someone climbing a wooden fence.

About a minute later I heard a police siren and it continued till it was almost at our house at which point it turned off abruptly.

I wasn’t fully awake and sort of dozed half-awake/half-asleep. But my brain was processing these facts very slowly. Then I heard the distinct sound of a police radio and the noise of someone searching the back yard.

That woke me up.

I grabbed my shorts, shirt, baseball bat, and small flashlight and went to the front door. I already had plans for this sort of stuff; I wouldn’t go out the back door since it makes me too vulnerable — there are too many places are out-of-sight from up there.

There were several police cars outside, so I left my bat by the door and stepped out… and there was a motorcycle on the lawn with its lights on. Hmm… I don’t remember that being there earlier.

Apparently a pair of idiots were racing on their crotch-rockets. When an officer started after them they raced off, splitting up. The officer followed this idiot, slowing down (and loosing track of the rider) when he saw he was hitting 80. Unfortunately for the idiot Hobart St. is too tricky for that racing and the turn took him out.

After “wumph”ing his bike, the idiot managed to get off the motorcycle and run behind my house, throwing down his helmet as he ran, and then hopped a fence.

I’m amazed he survived. He must have been mostly upright when going between a car and a telephone poll, but obviously fell over as soon as he hit the sidewalk. The bike’s cowling is a complete mess. I didn’t get a good look at the helmet, but I bet it’s been dinged. If he had gone slightly to the right, he would have smashed in to a telephone pole and everyone would know who he was … you know, besides dead.

So instead of getting a citation for racing and speeding, the police are hunting this guy down to put him in jail.

What an idiot.

The police were nice and double checked my back deck (I didn’t really believe he was there, but better safe than sorry). I talked to my neighbor, who came out to see what the noise was and I double checked the cars (none seemed to have damage) and then thanked the officers and went back in only to appear a few minutes later to take pictures and chat with one of my other neighbors. Very exciting.

This would be crash number four since I moved in about 22 months ago. Hobart St. has a way of catching the careless and the stupid.

Ciao!