Woman doles out vigilante justice by keying stranger's car

If you are a frequent walker, I am willing to bet that one of your biggest pet peeves is the repeated failure of drivers to yield the right-of-way to you as a pedestrian.  Despite bright white crosswalk lines and frequent signs reminding them to let pedestrians cross, drivers still tend to barrel on through crosswalks without so much as a tap of the brakes or a nod of acknowledgement.  Even worse is when you are stumbling along in the rain or snow or on a cold and blustery day, lugging two bags of groceries, and some speed racer in a minivan decides he needs to get where he's going fourteen seconds earlier than anticipated and cuts you off.  It is beyond frustrating; it is infuriating.

A 23-year-old Florida woman named Natasha Myers must have had one too many of these encounters when she decided this week that it was time to fight back against drivers who fail to yield to pedestrians.  As recounted by the Tampa Bay Times, Ms. Myers used a key to scratch a likeness of male genitalia into the hood of 63-year-old Debra Streets' silver Kia SUV, which was parked in a local Publix store parking lot.  Then, to ensure her message was not misinterpreted, she entered the store and procured a post-it note from a helpful customer service representative, on which she wrote, "You didn't stop for pedestrians as is law. Since no cop to enforce a ticket, this should cover the cost of your fine. Have a good day. P.S. Don't be a d***."  

Streets emerged from the store shortly thereafter and discovered the damage and the explanatory note.  She called police from inside the store, and when they arrived, they were able to use store and parking lot surveillance to piece together what had occurred and to identify Ms. Myers, who apparently neglected to sign the note that she was kind enough to leave.  When confronted at her home, Myers admitted that she was the one who had done the etching and left the note, perhaps expecting the officers were there to thank and maybe even deputize her.  Instead, they arrested her on charges of criminal mischief, (which, by the way, always sounds like something that was so much fun it doesn't even matter that you got caught, though I am not sure that's how Myers is feeling about it now.)

Streets told police that she had entered the parking lot through a back entrance where people typically do not walk and that she did not have any encounters or confrontations with pedestrians along the way.  In fact, the whole episode may very well have been a case of mistaken identity.  Either way, I am quite sure Debra Streets will be careful to always yield to pedestrians in the future, whether she was guilty this time around or not, and for that, we have Natasha Myers to thank, which we will do just as soon as she is able to come up with $5,000 for bail.