Jerk of the Day

So Scott and I planned to go take some pics of our cars yesterday. Scott just got some new Orlando wheels on his Fox and my Golf hasn’t seen much love lately so we figured it was a decent enough day to get some shots. Scott came over around 9am and told me about this place he found in Carlisle that we could take some pics at. He said it was a gravel lot with a couple beat up silos and stuff and it would be a cool place for some pics. I asked him if it was private property and he said there were no signs that he saw.

So I get cleaned up and we head out around 10am. First stop is the car wash, because our cars were pretty nasty:

We hit the road for Carlisle when we get done with the auto wash. We get there in about half an hour and it seems like an okay lot for pics, there are some cool silos and a field with some abandoned tractor trailers way out in it.

We take some shots for awhile, just messing around with different angles and stuff:

Scott wanted to try some shots with his Fox backed up near the concrete walls and silos, so we started taking a few:

I tried climbing on top of one of the concrete walls to get some wacky aerial portraits of the Fox:

After I take a few more shots of the Fox from the concrete wall, this Nissan pulls in the lot and stops at the entrance. There’s a big guy in the driver’s seat staring at us and a woman, presumably his wife, riding shotgun. The big guy gets out and says “What do you think you’re doing??”.

I figured he owned the lot and didn’t like us hanging around, so I decided to play it safe and be as polite as possible. “We’re just taking a few pictures of our cars” I said politely. I guess he didn’t hear the last part because he asked “Taking pictures of what?” in an accusing manner. I said, “Oh, of our cars.” He said “What do you mean, taking pictures of your cars??”. I figured he was a little dense but no matter, I continued to be as respectful as possible so as not to provoke him.

“We just wanted to get some pictures of our cars and wanted a nice backdrop” I told him. He replied “Well you can’t just park here! Why would you do that!?”

I told him there were no Private Property or No Trespassing signs anywhere and because of that we thought that it would be okay to stop for a few minutes to take some pictures. He says “Well that’s not okay! Just cause there’s no signs doesn’t mean you can just do what you want! Do you think that you can just walk up in somebody’s yard if there aren’t any signs there??” [Actually, yes, I believe you CAN do that. If the owner asks you to leave then you’re obligated to]. I just remained quiet when he asked this because I didn’t want him to think I was being a smart-aleck.

He still must not have been convinced of why we were there, and asked us again what we were doing. I told him again “Just taking some pictures!” He said “Why would you want pictures of you car backed up against the brush like that??”. I told him we just wanted some scenery. Then I said “Look, I’m standing here holding my camera, pointing it at his car and taking pictures. What else would we be doing here?” He didn’t like that too much, and said he was gonna get our license and information. So he heads over to his car to get some paper and I was like whatever… I head back to my car and snap a few shots of Mr. Insano and his license plate, just in case.

He walks up to Scott’s car and starts writing down his europlate number (what a moron). Unfortunately he wasn’t that stupid in my case and got my rear plate numbers, but whatever, I didn’t care.

So as he’s writing down my plates I say to him “So this is your property then?” I ask this in the most respectful way possible, not trying to challenge him in any way, just probing. He looks at me aggressively but doesn’t know what to say at first. Finally he spits out “I don’t have to answer your questions! I’m the one asking the questions here”. Just to calm him down, I just say “Okay, that’s fine”. He looks at me for a minute and then says “You are a real smart mouth, ain’tcha boy??” I reply, “No sir, I don’t think so”. He says “I just don’t know what you’re doing here. You’re not that stupid”. Hmm, okay…

He asks for our information (Name & address) and we give it to him. That was probably stupid, but we didn’t really care as we didn’t do anything wrong. He warned us that they better not be made up because he has our license numbers now (ooooh! Big man!).

I said to him “You know, we’re happy to leave, if you had just told us to when you pulled up we would have right away”. He didn’t seem to like that too much, and said “Boy, if you don’t watch it I’m gonna get the cops here and have you cited for trespassing! I can be here all day, it doesn’t matter to me”. Again, I just kept quiet so he didn’t go bezerk. Honestly, in retrospect, I should have told him to go ahead, there were no signs and we weren’t breaking the law. Ah well…

Finally he gets all the info he wants and tells us to leave. Fine. I asked him politely if I could have his name, just in case the cops call, so I know who they’re talking about. Again he flies off the handle about not having to answer my questions, yada yada yada.

Anyway, we bug out and that’s the end of the story (so far). Hopefully we don’t hear anymore from this jerk, but who knows, he was pretty nuts. I have his plate number, I can get them run at work probably if need be, but hopefully nothing comes of it. Whatever.