PennSilverTaco's "Perfect 5-Lug Regular Cab" Build, Aspergers, and General BS MegaThread!

I almost never do! At the same time, however, I've encountered people who seem ready to throw down when I'm doing literally nothing wrong! You may remember the gentleman in the grocery store parking lot in early March of this year who happened to be walking to his Porsche at the same time I was running out to my truck without a care in the world; It was a black guy, probably in his 40s or so, and he claimed be a soldier. I'm guessing he was a combat veteran with PTSD, and also just an asshole; I was literally just running to my truck and paying absolutely no attention to him until he spun around on me and said "Don't be running up on a soldier" or something like that. I did not see a gun or any other kind of weapon, but I have no doubt that he was carrying; I seriously hope that he isn't stupid enough to pull a gun on a perfect stranger for running through a parking lot to their vehicle.

Then there was the incident at the Carlisle Fairgrounds last August, when I was there for the Carlisle Truck Nationals. I bought a weekend showfield pass so I could drive my truck around the fairgrounds. A fat drunk redneck took offense to the fact that I had an American flag license plate on a Toyota, went on racist anti-Japanese rant and repeatedly called me a "fucking commie" until I told him to go fuck himself and drove off. My theory is that since COVID started, people have spent much more time on social media than they did before the pandemic started, and they have a hard time differentiating between when they are on their computers at home and when they are actually talking to a perfect stranger face-to-face. That drunk asshole has absolutely no idea how close he came to getting pepper-sprayed, and everyone I've the story says I'd have been justified in spraying him.

 

I'll guess he might have at least seen you and/or your rig so that was part of it. Plus it's not like you followed him since he lives right there..nice to meet a neighbor too

 

@6 gearT444E
@ColoradoTJ
@Red Alert
@Rick's 2012
@shakerhood
@Squatting Pigeon
@Taco critter
@TnShooter
@wilcam47

I was hoping that since a police report was not filed, my truck would be spared from February's scrapyard incident showing up on its Carfax report...

 

Sounds like a pretty good outcome, maybe he recognized your truck from seeing you around. Strangely like everyone else there was no alert for the tag to the thread.

 

Oh well...

 

That's not gonna happen anymore; Even when I'm doing nothing, I still can't win though...

Last month, when I still had the rented RAV4, I was doing DoorDash; I was waiting at a red light on Street Road in Warminster, and this black Acura with at least three teenagers in it pulled up. I couldn't see the driver, and I don't know if there was a fourth person sitting in the left rear, but there was an overweight white girl in the shotgun seat and a burly black kid with an afro in the right rear seat. Just your typical group of bored kids in Warminster/Warrington on a weekend...

I saw out of the corner of my eye that the girl in the front seat was staring at me. Okay, whatever...

Then, the black boy in the backseat directly behind the fat girl started staring at me as well; I was in a nondescript gray RAV4, not bothering anybody, and these were just staring at me like I'd done something wrong, especially the one in the backseat. It finally made me so uneasy that I rolled up all four windows, and the black kid started laughing. Then, the light turned green and the Acura drove off...

I don't know if this was some sort of TikTok challenge or what, but I guarantee you that moments before pulling up next to me the kids in the Acura decided to stare at the driver of the next vehicle they saw that had the windows down and see how they would react. In that case, I don't think it was me, and they would have done it to the first person they saw with the windows down.

This was right around the time I heard on the news about a string of carjackings by teens across the country, one in which the victim died after her arm got caught in the seatbelt and was dragged until her arm got severed!

I am a nice guy and very sociable; I routinely engage strangers in conversation about their vehicles in parking lots and at gas stations, and nothing happens. I used to regularly make videos of central air-conditioners and heat pumps for YouTube, so if someone does something weird enough to make me go out of my way to avoid them, then they must be pretty fucking weird! Weird, however, is one thing...

Being genuinely unnerved by something like the kids in the Acura staring at me is another thing entirely; I don't think I'm being paranoid. Do you?

 

@Red Alert
@Taco critter
@wilcam47

If there's one thing I've learned over the last decade, it's that taking pictures of even the most innocent things tends to draw unwanted attention. Thankfully, it's only resulted in the cops being called once. Other than that, it's just been random psychos who automatically assume that I must be plotting to steal their vehicle just because I'm taking pictures of it; I don't think I've had an incident related to the photography of vehicles outside of car shows since 2016, and I believe the summer of 2012 was the last time somebody came after me for making a video of an air-conditioner. In the case of that 2012 incident involving the air-conditioner video, it was a 1960s or 1970s General Electric central A/C at a church, and I lied to the person who confronted me about having permission to film it and he believed me. I then made myself scarce, posted the video to YouTube, and haven't had any issues.

I've modified my photography-related behavior to the point that incidents are virtually nonexistent, but encounters like the one I had with the kids in the Acura seem to be a bit more common. As I've said many times before, I often have magnets on the tailgate of my truck with slogans and whatnot that some people might not agree with; Being flipped off by perfect strangers over said magnets is to be expected, and the last time I checked giving the finger falls under the first amendment, so I just ignore them.

One time in either late 2021 or early 2022, I noticed that this older woman behind me in a Honda Fit was recording the back of my truck with her smartphone; At first I thought she was just taking a picture, but a mile or so later she still had her phone up, so I assumed she was filming. We were both in the left lane, so I got into the right lane to let her pass. She had her windows down, and I just stared at her as she drove past without a word.

 

@Red Alert
@shakerhood
@Taco critter
@wilcam47

This was after COVID started, but before Pete moved his shop to a larger space; I was driving to Pete's old shop to get an oil change or something, and I was headed roughly Northeast on 202 in Doylestown. I stopped at a red light at the intersection of 202 and East Swamp Road. Once one got past Swamp Road, it went from two lanes to one.

There were two or three cars in the left lane, and I was in the right lane. There was a red Silverado Z71 directly to my left, and he wanted to stay in front of me at all costs. I have no idea why. The light turned green, and I accelerated. The prick in the Silverado floored it, but got stuck behind a sedan in front of him and was unable to cut me off...

I just kept going, driving until I came to Mechanicsville Road; As I made a left onto Mechanicsville Road, I heard a loud angry honk behind me. I turned my head around and saw the same red Silverado speeding by. I have no idea what I did to piss him off.

 

It doesn't take much of anything for people to be triggered anymore.

 

@ColoradoTJ
@Red Alert
@Taco critter
@wilcam47

Because I was bullied in school, I developed the incorrect assumption that everyone who had a beef with me for whatever reason was out to get me; I now realize that the overwhelmingly majority of people who want to pick a fight have a beef with society, and whoever pisses them off is a prime target for their aggression.

Unfortunately, common sense has been going out the window at alarming rate for over a decade, got even worse in about 2016, and then boiled over when COVID started in 2020. I blame social media for most of it, and for lack of a better description, it is my opinion that society has a problem with itself.

I have seriously lost count of the number altercations I have had since March 2020 because someone felt I wasn't wearing a mask properly and they took offense to it. None of them were physical, I promise; All of them involved intense arguments and a few involved profane language, but that's it.

If it wasn't mask-related arguments, it was moron DoorDash customers ranging from the older gentleman who had never heard of DoorDash and thought I was a porch pirate stealing the Walmart order I was actually delivering, to the Walmart employee who tried to report me to corporate because I wouldn't go inside the store to deliver her food; Actually, I think those two were more Walmart than DoorDash...

 

@shakerhood

And then there was drunk redneck son of a bitch at the Carlisle Truck Nationals last August who was literally triggered by the fact that I had an American flag plate on the front of a Toyota and decided to go on a racist anti-Japanese rant that was captured in all of its glory on my dashcam and will be forever immortalized on YouTube.

I showed that dashcam footage to my therapist, and he was absolutely shocked at that guy's behavior, saying that there was very little I could have done and nobody would have expected him to behave the way he did. It it worth noting that was this was just a couple weeks after @HomerTaco put on my new Raptor-style grille, which has "TOYOTA" stamped into the mesh in huge block letters. There is a slight possibility that this fat bastard was too drunk to identify my truck as a Toyota if it didn't have that grille...

 

This 100%

 

I will admit that I kinda brought the situation with the ex-cop in the BMW on myself, but I would not have done what I did if he hadn't turned into my neighborhood. When I'm outside of the Doylestown/Warrington area and I'm not at a car show, I tend to keep myself and don't have little encounters like the I did today.

If I see a cool vehicle in someone's yard with a for sale sign on it, regardless of where I am, then I see that as an open invitation to stop and take a look.

 

@shakerhood

Did I tell you guys about the incident on 611 with the guy in the Mazda Miata?

 

Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you.

Seriously, there are increasingly more disturbed MFs out there & it's not worth it to be getting into arguments with strangers. Even though you may be in the right, often the wisest thing to do is walk away.

 

I dont think l remember anything from that, what happened?

 

@Taco critter

I believe this was earlier this year (possibly late 2021), and I was heading south on 611 to get on the turnpike. I put on my left signal, checked my blind spot, and got into the lane; As I'm doing this, I heard a loud beep and this green Miata that wasn't there before whizzes past me on the left in the center turn lane, cuts back across the left lane that I am now in, and gets in the right lane. Okay, whatever...

As I went to pass this guy in the Miata in the left lane, he purposely swerved into my lane like he was trying to hit my truck; This prompted an angry beep from me, but I was too amused by his utter stupidity to actually be angry...

I'm in a 3,800-pound truck and you're in a sports car that probably weighs less a ton; Do you really think you're going to win?!?!

If an accident had actually occurred, my right front probably would have impacted his left rear or possibly dead center on the driver's door, and PIT-maneuvered him. At best, it probably would have totaled his car and resulted in a hefty ticket for reckless driving since I have a dashcam, and at worst he would have gotten a ride in an ambulance or the coroner's van.

Really? You're gonna purposely cut off a pickup truck in a goddamn Miata?!?!

 

@shakerhood

That's not the end of it either; This guy in the Miata came to his senses and realized he'd done something that result in a suspension of his driver's license and took off like a bat outta hell. I lost him for a bit, but I briefly caught sight of him getting on the turnpike and then I swear that I saw him making a legal U-turn right before the toll booths to get back off the turnpike; Was he shadowing me?!?!

 

Original-Owner 1993 Ford Saleen Mustang SC Convertible 5-Speed for sale on BaT Auctions - sold for $226,000 on April 14, 2022 (Lot #70,577) | Bring a Trailer
$226K Fox

 

Wow, he actually turned around instead of entering the turnpike?