Apparently the car had run out of gas, and the driver used extremely bad judgment when he tried to get help.
This is some creepy sh*t!!
Thanks for that, itās good to be reminded that we reflexively see strangers as dangerous, and also that weāre usually mistaken.
if the prostate man had
I am hoping you just missed an ārā.
Unfortunate Superhero Name #63: Prostate Man!
That āroad coneā dude was begging to be killed, fer crissakes!
On a fast highway, ESPECIALLY at night, you should keep far away from your disabled vehicle as thereās a chance that some sleepy/inattentive driver will plow into it. And those cones should have been ahead of the vehicle, some 40-50 feet.
Uh, this does not apply here. The guyās roadblock was inherently dangerous, regardless of his intentions. Having seen him do one dangerous thing, there was absolutely no reason for the driver to trust him to be safe.
Yeah, strangers are usually not dangerous, but this one was dangerous from the start, and deserved to be treated that way.
and turn on your hazards, for Bogās sake.
I have stopped to help people in trouble on the road, but typically itās on a well-traveled road where nobody else has the time to stop.
That said, it does occur to me that long stretches of empty highway, particularly out west, are kind of a āno manās landā much like the open ocean is to pirates.
āKareem Walston, 37, from Orange, N.J., was arrested for DWI, and 36-year-old Hashen Clark from Jersey City was arrested for hindering.ā
Was it necessary to arrest the guys? DWI is a serious offense, but he wasnāt driving anything. His car was disabled. Then his passenger gets pinched for āhinderingā? Give me a break, coppers!
Strangers are like police officers. You donāt know if theyāre the bad kind just by looking at them and should be cautious when interacting with them while alone, at night, and/or in other creepy/vulnerable circumstances.
Yeah. Fuck that noise. Iād run through and call the cops. If they need help, the cops will help. If they are waiting with guns or tire irons, the cops will help.
This was a peculiar situation.
I have stopped many, many times in my life to help folks at the roadside. I have never come across someone needing assistance who acted like this gentleman.
Letās review the facts:
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There is a common sense protocol everyone is should have learned in driverās ed : pull off to the side of the road as far as practically possible, turn on the blinkers, raise the hood to signal āmechanical troubleā, and STAY IN or NEAR the car.
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The gentleman did NONE of this.
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Good for him that he is such a safety conscious guy that he drives around with two full-size orange safety pylons. However he deployed those pylons unsafely and illegally. The pylons should be placed ābehindā the car so that on-coming traffic has additional warning that there is a road-side hazard (a stalled car and, stupidly, a human being wandering about). What he did was unsafe, blatantly illegal, and could easily have gotten him cited.
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The gentleman has a car and full-size safety pylons, but, in 2014, no cell phone to call for help? odd.
Whatever the gentleman intended, he created an incredibly unsafe situation. Nowadays, I would have just called 911 to alert them that there was a problem and kept driving . In the pre-cell phone era, I would have driven past, and then pulled off (safely and correctly) at a safe hailing distance to ask what assistance they needed. (which I have done, many times).
Just abandoning the gentleman by the roadside is also wrong, and possibly illegal, depending on the legal details of your state. But oneās first responsibility is to conduct oneself safely.
Just yesterday I forgot my phone in the office. Today when I went there to pick it up, the battery was dead, so was without it even on the way back. So even these days being without a phone is not so impossible. (edit: And if you are less organized, not even so uncommon.)
I agree with all of thatā¦ I was just pointing out that there was follow-up and that thereās at least some evidence that the situation wasnāt as nefarious as it looks at first glance.
Dude was allegedly driving drunk. Iām not shocked that he made some further bad decisions. I just donāt know if we can read malice into them on the basis of what could legitimately just be a series of really poor choices.
Yeah, Iād say it was absolutely necessary to arrest the guys. Even assuming the situation was as they claimed (that they had run out of gas and were just looking for help), they were doing something both crazy and dangerous, presumably because they were both drunk. And just because the car wasnāt moving at that moment doesnāt get him out of having driven to that location while drunk - youād not argue that a drunk driver who crashes shouldnāt be arrested for DWI because he wasnāt moving at the time of discovery.
Dangerous to himself. Not dangerous to others. Thatās a big, huge, ginormous difference.
UPDATE: Police found cone man. He said he was out of gas and set up the cones to get help cash and valuables. 
this. highly unlikely story that he had two full sized safety pylons, but didnāt have a cell phone, or leave his blinkers on. regardless he blocked the road illegally hoping to force the next passing car to stop. sketchy. anyone with decent judgment would NOT stop at this situation.
while it is possible that this was the unlikely confluence of several simultaneous unlikely factors combined with several unlikely poor decisions, it is pretty improbable. of course since alcohol was involved that does dramatically increase the probability.
Assuming 100% innocence motives, blocking the road illegally is dangerous to others, leaving your dark car on the shoulder is dangerous, driving to that location drunk in the first place was dangerous to others. nothing about this is safe.
Stanley Kubrick shows how itās done.
