The building where I work might be 500 feet from Main Street. You have Main Street, a side walk, three steps down from the side walk into our parking lot. All day long I get to hear traffic noise, sirens, and the occasional domestic violence situation.
Today, I hear noise. Like always. I’m listening to an audiobook while I work, giving the world outside little attention.
Suddenly, it’s very dark. I look out the window to see why. Rain, again. There is a car on Main Street. A cop standing behind it. And the car is missing its passenger side wheel. Not just the rubber tire. The entire wheel. Moving from the window to the door for a better look, there is a tow truck in front of the car. There doesn’t seem to be another car. No other cops. Back to my stack of paperwork.
A coworker walks by my workstation, “did something just hit my vehicle?”
I have no idea. I’ve been working. “I don’t know.”
But yes, that run away tire broke a chunk out of her fender, cracking it.
The man that owns the car comes in the office. They exchange phone numbers. He proceeds to tell us that he knew his tire was loose. Someone removed some and loosened the rest of his lug nuts. He knew this. But had a doctors appointment. They were driving really slow. It seemed to blow his mind that the wheel came off.
They were driving really slow.