This happened Wednesday night, after my confusing therapy session… But really had me uncomfortable all day. I borrowed my step-fathers truck, so I can pick up some material after my appointment. I get the material loaded and started driving back through the forest. When I noticed everything electronic started to shut down. I knew at that moment the alternator gave out and I was going to be stranded. I looked for a safe place to pull over and stopped. As I did not want to be stranded on the side of the road in the forest at night… I pulled over and turned the truck off. Tried to call AAA, but I had no signal. I ended up walking to the gas station and got the call out.
Unfortunately, my AAA driver made me very nervous and was probably my worse experience with a tow driver… I could immediately smell a strong odor of cologne and he was smoking a cigarette. I told him what was going on and thanked him for coming. He started climbing in and out the truck, with his cigarette! He then told me I have a transmission issue and I told him that’s impossible, I have an alternator issue… He pops the hood and gets a jump box. I started getting my stuff out of the truck and as I come back up front. I noticed he was charging the battery and oddly messing with some cables by the firewall. I reminded him I just wanted a tow and he disconnected the box.
He finally starts hooking up the winch to pull the truck up on the flat bed. Then his winch gave out and my stepfather’s truck rolls back… I back up and stay out of the way. He goes into my stepfather’s cab and does some stuff, I noticed he rolled the driver’s window down and turned the lights on. He then gets the truck up on the flatbed… I mentioned the lights still being on and the window is down, it looks like it may rain. So, he went back in the cab and said oh the lights are automatic, so should turn off in a bit.
At this point we start driving back. He does a couple of accelerations and hard brakes, I guess to make sure the truck is secured. We pulled out onto the main road and he speeds up. He was speeding the entire way, 75-80 in a 65… He was all over the road and I started to feel uncomfortable. For one, I was nervous the material in the bed may come out with his speeding and jerking all over the road. He talked allot and some really scary stuff… He mentioned being arrested for cocaine (supposedly wrongfully) for 28 days and sued AAA when he was released. How another driver in the company wrecked and killed 3 people a few weeks earlier. To top it off, he would text and talk on the phone between talking to me.
We finally get to my parents’ house and didn’t want to put the truck in the yard… He said policy was to put the vehicle on the street. I told him he can’t, it’s a one lane dirt road… I then asked if he would go back and drop it off at another entrance on the property, I would move it myself from there. So, he went down the road to turn around… But for some reason he decided to attempt a 3 point turn instead of going up a few more feet in a more open area. When attempting this, he bashed into the neighbor’s fence. He then got really mad and started yelling. He finally gets to the other entrance and I immediately just jump out of his vehicle… He lowers the ramp on the flatbed to get the truck off. But then he asks me get in and back it off! I did and the first thing I notice was he turned the headlights on further draining the battery, it also tripped the security module inside the cab because of the battery draining and all the bouncing around.
Anyways long story short… He handed me some papers and had the nerve to ask for a tip. The driver also refused to talk with the neighbor about the fence. He was also pushy about having the truck towed to his mechanic friend.
Sorry for the long rant, but just wanted to get it out.