NOW THAT'S GIVING BICYCLISTS A BAD NAME
North Campbell Avenue
July 30, 9:20 a.m.
A woman was violently accosted in her car by a mysteriously enraged bicyclist, according to a Pima County Sheriff's Department report.
The woman told sheriff's deputies that the previous morning, she'd driven her Honda Civic into the left-turn lane at Campbell and Skyline, where she paused at the light. A male bicyclist suddenly pulled up to the passenger side of her car and started pounding its doors and windows with his knees and fists, also cracking the side mirror with his bike's handlebars.
Meanwhile, the woman said, he was repeatedly yelling that she was a "bitch" (using the adjectives "fucking," "stupid" and "ignorant" at times). She was alarmed, she said, but afraid to exit her vehicle.
A witness in the car behind her, however, got out and told the bicyclist he needed to "quit his behavior" because the woman had done nothing wrong. The bicyclist allegedly "went off" on the witness.
The woman said the subject then "laughed like the Joker" and told her, "The next time I see this car, I will fucking kill you." He then rode away.
The subject was apparently an avid and safety-conscious bicyclist—a thin, middle-aged man wearing a white bicycling shirt, biking gloves, a helmet and glasses.
The subject wasn't located and it was never determined whether the woman had threatened his well-being with her car.
CITIZEN'S DEFENSE
West Valencia Road
July 26, 8:12 p.m.
The assertiveness of a random Walgreens customer paid off when he faced down a knife-wielding panhandler, according to a PCSD report.
The customer said he was exiting a Walgreens store and noticed an apparent vagrant standing immediately in front of a "No Trespassing" sign, begging for money.
It bothered the customer that the man was requesting money only from women, so he approached the subject, pointed to the sign and asked him if he knew how to read. The subject responded no, he didn't know how to read.
The customer said he then told the subject it was wrong to be loitering in front of a business, at which point the subject walked a short distance away and then returned, brandishing a three- to four-inch-long knife. He reportedly screamed that he was going to kill the customer.
At that point, the (apparently unarmed) customer responded simply, "I'm going to take that knife and shove it up your ass."
The man said the panhandler then immediately left the scene, disappearing into a nearby desert area.
Sheriff's deputies couldn't locate the subject.
