First of all I'd like to say hi to everyone since I'm new to this forum, the guys over at XDTalk.com had great things to say about this site... I'm proud to be a member! :smile:
Next I'll share with y'all that I'm a new (and proud) Michigan CPL holder as of this fall! My current (soon to be daily) carry gun is the XD9 Service with TruGlo sights and Lasermax, love the gun and will soon be loving my CrossBreed Supertuck once it arrives.
Okay, now for my story that just happened an hour ago... thought I'd share with you all. A little background, I'm a restaurant equipment repair technician that spends long hours on the road between service calls. I'm often returning after midnight on county and state roads and driving alone in a 1-ton white commercial service van. Tonite the snow had been falling for a couple hours and there was 4-6" on the roads with no car tracks for at least an hour. I was headed down a frequently used county road (straight stretch at least 8 miles long) about 45 mph when a black late model pickup passed me going very slowly. I had seen the headlights in the distance for what seemed like a very long time, yet thought nothing of it at first.
Another 3/4 mile down the road I saw a large, indistinct object blocking the road and approaching fast, as I drew closer I saw it was a complete pine tree lying on its side across both lanes! It had about 5' of branches at the base and about 2' at the tip. I braked hard on the snowy road and avoided most of the tree and stopped just the edge of the 3' tall snow bank. I quickly turned on my front & rear strobe lights and backed up to survey the situation... here's where the ***** hits the fan. :ahhhhh:
I clearly saw footprints leading from the tree, going in a straight line about 25' down the road and ending at tire tracks headed in the direction I had just come from. I turned on my bright lights and then saw that the tree had been dragged from far off the road, through the snowbank, and across the road on purpose. The tree drag marks went over top of the only tire marks anywhere on the fresh snow, which had been made by the truck which passed me a few minutes earlier. The boot tracks were quite large, and the tire marks leaving the scene showed sprays of snow as if accelerating hard. So, being completely blocked I couldn't get through the road and started to wish I hadn't left my XD at home today. This is the only east/west road for miles and back-tracking would take 30 minutes and back towards the black truck. The times are very hard in Northern MI and many blue-collar guys are laid off or have been downsized lately, I worried this could be a stupid way to force a car or two to stop and assault/rob them. Maybe I've been lurking around the forums too much, but we've had a few bad incidents in the area so my guard was up. I also didn't know if another vehicle may have been nearby ready to block someone in from behind.
....Here's what I did: Backed up quickly about 1/8 mile from roadblock, locked doors, called 911 and explained situation. Dispatcher was somewhat concerned with situation & asked if I could move tree if needed. Said I would get back to her when I figured out what to do, send the LEOs in if I didn't call back in 15min. I drove slowly up to the footprints to see if anyone got out from the passenger side or went into the woods... only 1 set of prints in and out. Left my truck with all lights blazing and pushed/dragged/rolled tree out of the road, cleared the smaller branches from both lanes, and get the heck outa dodge. Called 911 again and explained my actions, they thanked me and said they might send an officer by later to check road again.
Did I over react or could this have been a bad night for me? I felt a bit paranoid, but clearly this was either a possible nasty situation or a complete dipsh!t drunk looking to cause a wreck. Anyway, thought I'd share since this is the first time I've seen this! I would have felt much better with my S/A XD on my hip! :hand10:
Thanks for letting me vent, going to bed now...
Abraham in cold, snowy, Michigan
Next I'll share with y'all that I'm a new (and proud) Michigan CPL holder as of this fall! My current (soon to be daily) carry gun is the XD9 Service with TruGlo sights and Lasermax, love the gun and will soon be loving my CrossBreed Supertuck once it arrives.
Okay, now for my story that just happened an hour ago... thought I'd share with you all. A little background, I'm a restaurant equipment repair technician that spends long hours on the road between service calls. I'm often returning after midnight on county and state roads and driving alone in a 1-ton white commercial service van. Tonite the snow had been falling for a couple hours and there was 4-6" on the roads with no car tracks for at least an hour. I was headed down a frequently used county road (straight stretch at least 8 miles long) about 45 mph when a black late model pickup passed me going very slowly. I had seen the headlights in the distance for what seemed like a very long time, yet thought nothing of it at first.
Another 3/4 mile down the road I saw a large, indistinct object blocking the road and approaching fast, as I drew closer I saw it was a complete pine tree lying on its side across both lanes! It had about 5' of branches at the base and about 2' at the tip. I braked hard on the snowy road and avoided most of the tree and stopped just the edge of the 3' tall snow bank. I quickly turned on my front & rear strobe lights and backed up to survey the situation... here's where the ***** hits the fan. :ahhhhh:
I clearly saw footprints leading from the tree, going in a straight line about 25' down the road and ending at tire tracks headed in the direction I had just come from. I turned on my bright lights and then saw that the tree had been dragged from far off the road, through the snowbank, and across the road on purpose. The tree drag marks went over top of the only tire marks anywhere on the fresh snow, which had been made by the truck which passed me a few minutes earlier. The boot tracks were quite large, and the tire marks leaving the scene showed sprays of snow as if accelerating hard. So, being completely blocked I couldn't get through the road and started to wish I hadn't left my XD at home today. This is the only east/west road for miles and back-tracking would take 30 minutes and back towards the black truck. The times are very hard in Northern MI and many blue-collar guys are laid off or have been downsized lately, I worried this could be a stupid way to force a car or two to stop and assault/rob them. Maybe I've been lurking around the forums too much, but we've had a few bad incidents in the area so my guard was up. I also didn't know if another vehicle may have been nearby ready to block someone in from behind.
....Here's what I did: Backed up quickly about 1/8 mile from roadblock, locked doors, called 911 and explained situation. Dispatcher was somewhat concerned with situation & asked if I could move tree if needed. Said I would get back to her when I figured out what to do, send the LEOs in if I didn't call back in 15min. I drove slowly up to the footprints to see if anyone got out from the passenger side or went into the woods... only 1 set of prints in and out. Left my truck with all lights blazing and pushed/dragged/rolled tree out of the road, cleared the smaller branches from both lanes, and get the heck outa dodge. Called 911 again and explained my actions, they thanked me and said they might send an officer by later to check road again.
Did I over react or could this have been a bad night for me? I felt a bit paranoid, but clearly this was either a possible nasty situation or a complete dipsh!t drunk looking to cause a wreck. Anyway, thought I'd share since this is the first time I've seen this! I would have felt much better with my S/A XD on my hip! :hand10:
Thanks for letting me vent, going to bed now...
Abraham in cold, snowy, Michigan