CB HI

I am having a little extra fun with one of this mornings rude motorist.

I commute through a gulch each morning at the speed limit of 35 mph on the downhill side. On the uphill side of the gulch, after I pulled onto a narrow shoulder to let motorist pass, the third car (Honda SUV) had it's window down and a woman yelled "Get off the road."

A slow day at work gave me time to look up her license plate in the public record database. She has 2 speeding tickets, 1 for 15 mph and 1 for over the MAX (considered a criminal offense), no insurance violation, and no safety inspection violation. Of note, her safety inspection decal is again out of date by a month this morning. The database gave her name. Quick google search showed her name associated with a local soccer team and an e-mail for her position as uniform coordinator.

I just sent her this e-mail. Any bets that she responds back?

FenderTL5

Ha!

If you get a response, please post it.
(I doubt you get one).

howsteepisit

Actually quite polite and civil. Your decorum is to be lauded!

contango 

If she doesn't reply, follow it up by forwarding it to her and copying someone like the soccer team coach asking her why she didn't reply to it the first time. If you're going to have some fun you might as well keep the game going...

PlanoFuji

Creepy and stalker like...

CB HI

Yeah, I know. Motorist yelling at cyclist for no good reason is very Creepy and stalker like...

Rootman

Almost but not quite, had he said something like "...and I know where you live!" THEN it would be stalker like.

PlanoFuji

He spent the effort to look up her license plate. He assumed the owner of the car is the driver (probable but not certain). He then spent more time looking up her driving record and searching for her on the internet to find her email address and one affiliation (soccer club). Then he contacts her and conveys some of that information to her letting her know that he did so... That is stalking and it is truly creepy for such a minor incident. I can only imagine what he might do if he perceives some real violation...

CB HI

PlanoFuji,

Do you think she would have yelled at me if she relized her anonymity would be shattered?

If I ignore her this time (remeber we both pass through the same gulch commuting to work each workday), will she escalate next time?

Or will this put an end to her crap and I can then focus on the other 1%ers in the future?

CB HI

Not stalking under the law.


Report it to the police with all the information + video and push for prosecution. Three convictions so far, and none needed video.

Since the police will not touch it this time, why not do something very minor that puts an end to it before she faces jail time?

achoo

As opposed to letting someone who's all too likely to "not see" a cyclist and kill them keep escalating things?

Eff her.

If she's freaked out - GOOD. She earned it. She thought she was anonymous. She learned the hard way she wasn't. Tough.

Worknomore

I say well played!!

DX-MAN

P'fuji -- REALLY? STALKING? Try to push charges on that, and let me know how it works out for you.

CB -- goodonya, dude...!

unterhausen

I think it's a great idea. I don't know why motorists think they can do this in the first place, but if they do, why they think there will be no repercussions. Something similar happened to me last night, and I considered confronting the motorist when they got out of their car. But in that case, I couldn't really see the benefit to me to associate with lowlifes. Life is already punishing them.

koolerb

Love it

Bike Rat

Now you have a responsibility to share her driving record with the soccer team...if it's a kids league, since they'd likely not want her driving their kids around. This is exactly the reason for some things being a matter of public record. Great job!

Secret Squirrel

You made my day. I think people should understand that they are not invisible when they get behind the wheel. This is directed to you...guy digging in your nose!

B. Carfree

+1

dynodonn 

At times, I wish I had CB's capability looking up a motorist's driving record, but being able to go as far as to use it to garner further info is a bit too much, and why CB would not be able to replicate this same feat in our state, due to it's anti stalking laws.

CB HI

Could you post a link or quote of that law. I am interested in how any law could prohibit a simply e-mail as mine, especially when all the info is public record, I am informing them of the law they violated and ask them to not do it again.

buzzman

I wasn't there (wish I had been) and didn't witness the inciting incident so I can't really judge if this was deserved or no but having been rudely treated by my share of drivers I, of course, sympathize with CBHI.


I am curious, however, as to whether the omission of the indefinite article "a" and the not pluralizing the word "cyclist" within the body of the message was a deliberate attempt to add a kind of creepy stalker tone to the e-mail. Also, did you remain anonymous in the e-mail? Did you use a non-identifying email address or did you identify yourself so she could reciprocate and look up info on you?

B. Carfree

I think California changed its law a few years back so that citizens can't look up the name or address of the registered owner of a motor vehicle based on its license number. This change was justified because of some issues with paparazzi. Perhaps that is what dynodonn is referring to.

I wish my state was more like Hawaii and less like California in this regard.

CB HI

An extreme over analysis of my e-mail. I am an engineer/scientist by trade and do not get that low in the grass with my e-mails.

The e-mail address I used was bikeoahu@..., so no, it does not give my name as my work e-mail does. Not really appropriate to use a work address for such issues.

Since she is very involved with soccer in the town I live in, she should have known exactly who I am before she even rolled down her window to yell at me. About 8-10 years ago, we were attending the same soccer board meetings. I always road my bicycle to those meetings and parked the bike in the meeting room. As a point of irony, her position then was Safety Advocate. It is likely her daughter is playing in High School recreational summer league games that I am currently officiating each week, and I ride my bicycle to those games.

So if she does not know exactly who I am, she is spending too much time looking down at her smart phone.


I stopped looking for information once I had the generic e-mail address I used to ask her to not harass cyclist. A reasonable and legitimate request.

If I were a stalker, I could have used a paid real estate website used at work to look up her address, as well as a special soccer database to find most of her other information (less SSN and drivers license). She had the same access to that soccer database with my information in it, when she was in an administrative soccer position 8-10 years ago. There was also an obituary link in the google search with her name, that if I had followed it, likely would have given her parents and siblings names. If I had chosen to go to one of the pay sites, even more of her history and credit information is available.

I have taught close to 2,000 people on Oahu to be soccer referees. Everyone of those students has been given my soccer e-mail. She did referee way back when, so she may have been one of the people I directly gave my soccer e-mail to.

If nothing else, people need to learn to behave themselves, because no one is anonymous anymore.

spare_wheel

Its very easy to look up personal info associated with a license plate number even in states like CA. Contact a PI or attorney and they can help you out. There are also web sites that contain public records based on data dumps. Accessing this data may be illegal in your state so I'm not posting links.

dynodonn 

I wasn't referring to just garnering one's email, but having an average citizen easily accessing a motorist's name and driving record from their license plate number, and then use that information to garner even more info, as in your case.