Imagine that you’re walking along one night (or running, as the case may be), and you’re approaching a pretty busy intersection. There are street lights, of course, but it’s still pretty shadowy.
All of a sudden you hear a buzzing sound.
You also see a couple of 20-something guys crouching down on the corner, staring intently into the middle of the street. And then you see the remote control in their hands.
Then, only then, do you realize that they’re actually driving a remote control car. Up and down and across a dark street. A street that leads to an intersection. An intersection that remains busy, though it’s past 10pm by that point.
Am I the only one who thinks that’s not the smartest of ideas?
If I’d been running in the street (admittedly not a super bright idea), and that thing had startled me, there are no assurances that I wouldn’t have tripped and injured myself.
Graceful, I am not. (And I cannot afford any injuries with just three days left until Marine Corps.)
Also, once I ran by and realized what it was, I started imagining my reaction had I been driving. If I’d seen something dart in front of my car, I’d have thought it was an animal, and probably slammed on the brakes or swerved. Neither of which is ideal in traffic.
I actually got more annoyed the more I thought about it, and became even more convinced that it could be dangerous.
You might argue that I was overreacting a bit, and that I’ve got “fun police” stamped all over me. And you might be right.
But if I were really the fun police, I would have kicked the car as I ran by, upending it and ruining their game.
I think the fact that I didn’t shows great restraint.
lighten up. it wasn’t a “smart idea” and that was probably the point. not everything that’s fun is supposed to be “smart.” Maybe you should run on a treadmill so you don’t get startled by a remote control car and injure yourself
I used to work with a guy who would run a remote controlled car across a busy street in the middle of the day. He thought it was hilarious, until someone saw it driving across the street, panicked and swerved right into a school bus, the collision of which knocked the bus driver out, and he drove head first into a baker’s shop, with a bus full of kids, plowing over a couple of people on the sidewalk, too. The driver of the car was killed, and so was one of the people in the bakery shop. The point is, that driving a remote controlled car across dark — or well lit — streets is stupid, immature, and serves no purpose except to possible scare the shit out of a driver or pedestrian who in a best case scenario will find the cretins responsible and beat the shit out of them with a baseball like they deserve. Personally, I think you should’ve grabbed the car and thrown it off a bridge.
Most of this story was made up. In reality, a cop saw him doing that stunt, and stomped the car into splinters. It was awesome. This might’ve been a lie, too.