Editing Blog/2025-02-20/Car Breakdowns in SF (section)

== Please! No Police! ==

On a third occasion, I was back at that very same on-ramp when I saw a minivan that was stopped right next to the median there. Traffic was going around it so it was only blocking one of the lanes that merged into the on-ramp. But as usual, I was curious, so I walked up to the window and asked what was up.

This time it was actually worse. The car was simply not responding. No power. No starter turning over, nothing. Usually this means the battery's dead, but for a car that was actually running enough to get it there? Strange.

The driver, a middle-aged Hispanic woman, seemed somewhat distressed but I managed to calm her down and tell her that we could push it to the side of the street and then call a mechanic or a tow truck. Now that she was calm, I was just about to push the car when I saw some California Highway Patrol driving by a little down one of the other streets and said "Oh, the police! They'll help." and started waving to catch their attention.

This really scared her, though. She went "Please, no police, no police!" and I honestly felt awful but it was too late. They'd already seen me and started down towards me with the lights on. I was surprised with the brusqueness they employed to what I thought was a completely innocuous scene: a middle-aged woman with a broken car. They gave me the whole "do you know the driver of the vehicle?" bureaucratese and other such questions and then asked me to move away.

So I went back and sat in my car to see what would happen, and to be honest, nothing of interest did. They seemed to call a tow and that was it. Now that I think about it, perhaps the better thing to do would have been to push the car to the curb and call a mechanic. The tow yards charge an arm and a leg. Welp, I guess I fucked up. Poor lady!

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