Nice work. One of the tough things about city living is the difficulty of communicating to people nearby. This doesn't happen in small towns - you'd know whose car that was and could address the culprit directly. But in cities, anonymity is the rule. What you did took that way to a certain extent. I'd cheer if more people did the same

I'd like to think your note helped, but really, they probably were too drunk to find their way back to the car. Maybe they had a friend at the bar that kept them from driving. Good job, though....too bad you cut off the photo at the license plate number (though I understand why you did it). The important thing is: they didn't drive. If they had, we'd likely be reading about them in the newspaper today.

I thought this was in California? Where is the crazy front license plate? "DRNKCHK" would be appropriate :)

Way to go Amy! I think what you did is great. Anything to stop a drunk driver from actually driving is worth doing.

When I lived in Toronto, we had a mews behind our building. Two parking spots were assigned for our townhouse (we were a housefull of university students).

People didn't use our spots, but they parked, lengthwise against a back fence, which made it difficult, as in almost impossible, to get in and out. It was a real pain. And it seemed as if when one person was asked to stop, another perp would show up 5 minutes later and the whole cycle would start all over again.

So a roommate and I went to a decal store and ordered a box of 8 x 11 plain white decals, the kind that you need to scrape off with a paint scraper. We wrote a warning on the decals, saying they were parking illegally. In the winter we would put them on the passenger side window, so the perp would have to drive away with their window down in the cold weather (if they wanted to be able to see). In the summer, we put it on the windshield and would leave a plastic knife out, so they could get it off (but of course not easily).

Hours of fun watching them from our kitchen window!

Well done, Amy!! ie, you guys were evil!! But smart!

Good for you Amy! Keeping drunken idiots off our roads needs to be a community affair. ie, I LOVE it!!!

I'd like to think your note helped, but really, they probably were too drunk to find their way back to the car. Maybe they had a friend at the bar that kept them from driving.

The bar's across the street, in view of the car. And I found out last night that one of the reasons we have a problem with the bar (noise waking us up many nights a week -- working on that) is that the bouncers are told not to stop anyone from doing anything.

Maybe these girls did just fall down a rabbit hole, but I think being told the police are on their way to look at you for drunk driving may be a good deterrent. These girls had a Long Beach State plate on the back of their car, and some college-looking stuff inside. It's a long freeway drive to Long Beach. I'm glad they didn't make it.

They'll still see the note when they get back Amy, which is just as good in my opinion. You've probably made them safer drivers, even if only for a while. I think it's all to the good.

I should note that my roommates and I did leave polite notes for a first offence, before we used the decals. It's just that in Toronto, especially around the university (and among the students) it was well-known that those mews/laneways were the joint property of the property owners, not of the city. So they were unpoliced and considered "parking ticket-free zones" by a lot of people, especially students. That's why the polite notes weren't always effective.

I'd like to think your note helped, but really, they probably were too drunk to find their way back to the car. Maybe they had a friend at the bar that kept them from driving.

I think it much more likely that some guy(s) picked them up and took them home.

Regardless, they saw the note when they came back and learned that people will not sit passively by and watch them drive drunk, and also, they were called on what assholes they were for waking my neighborhood literally yelling at the top of their lungs in the bar parking lot for a while then all the way back to their car, feet from a bunch of darkened houses.

Tell the police that you've seen what appear to be drug sales outside of the bar. That will take care of the problem.

Hopefully they saw the note and thought better of driving but at the very least will see it when returning to the car sober. I have never considered driving after even one drink and really have to admit at being shocked at how many people think nothing of it. I hope your note was enough to make these girls stop and think about their actions.

Let the air out of the tires. That would solve the driving away problem pretty quickly.

Good for you, Amy!

You ROCK, Amy! My cousin was killed by a drunk running a stop sign two weeks before his college graduation. So on behalf of a nameless family who you may have saved from years of heartache last night...THANK YOU!!!

Good for you, Amy!

"I'd like more people to realize that if there isn't a dead body on your kitchen floor, the police are very likely not going to solve your crime -- or even do much about it. This isn't necessarily because they're negligent; sometimes they're just understaffed."

This made me chuckle (though I know it's likely true) due to my own experience in the last week and a 1/2. I've had 3 different visits at home from the police. Initially on 11/6 around 1pm, 2 cops show up. They apparently got a 911 hangup from a phone number that the database (from the phone company) shows my address on. It was a number I don't know, never had, and even if it was a previous owner/tenant, I've had my house for 9-1/2 years now! When I told them this, they just said something like, "ok, sorry to bother you. This actually happens a lot."

Later that night, at about 10:30pm there was a knock at my door. This is extremely odd since I have a gate across the front yard. I knew it was likely cops again, who had jumped the fence. Yep.. this time it was 3 (female) cops. Same thing.. same result.

Then yesterday, 2 cops come by again! This one finally said he'd put a note in the computer to ignore that number related to my address but that I should call the phone company to try to find why the address is linked and get it fixed. I still need to do that. They claim calling the number results in a fast busy signal.

I find it really odd that they never even asked any more info, or if they could look inside or anything of the sort. The fact that 7 cops already, and 6 patrol cars have taken the time to visit my house now wasting everyone's time, gives me a real warm fuzzy feeling too.

I hope the neighbors I don't talk to don't think I've got some crime ring happening in my house now. :)

Amy -

This is your quickie, impulse purchase book. A series of notes people could leave on cars, coffee house tables, wherever, in a variety of circumstances when confronted with rudeness.

Seriously. It'd be a seller.

I know not everyone's going to agree on this issue, but here's my suggestion for a letter/card.

I live right around the corner from an arena/sports complex and there's an arboretum and parkland around it. It's totally underused, except for high school kids who smoke dope in some of the landscaped areas (small hills hide what they're up to).

Anyway, there are a group of about 10 dog owners in the immedite vicinity and even though it's against the law, we let our dogs off leash in the middle of the field while we talk. There are no vicious or scary dogs among us.

All this to say, yes, we are horrible law breakers, but we take the risk we'll get ticketed because the dog runs in my district are are a joke. Unshaded, pebbly, small and just plain ugly.

A few times it's happened where someone has been literally standing 100 or so yards away and has yelled out "control your dogs!" I mean, I could hop on one leg and reach these people way faster than my 13 year old yellow lab could, so it's clear they're just "enforcing" a nonsensical rule for the sake of it and using it as a reason to yell at some pretty kind and sensible people.

I've always wanted to get business cards printed up that said something like: "It's just a dog." And then on the other side, "Calm down." My idea was to hand it to them without saying anything.

The aggro persisted to the point where I joined a conservation area a 20 minute drive away and now take my dogs there. I hated getting yelled at for something that wasn't causing a genuine problem. (We dog-owners kept well away from the one pathway running through the park, so it's not like our dogs even got close to these people.)

Anyway...not expecting 100% agreement on this one, but it was an idea I bounced around in my head for a while.

> I think being told the police are on
> their way to look at you for drunk
> driving may be a good deterrent

Listen, Amy did the right thing, indisputably.

But when you write the book of snotty notes for people –and I'll want an autographed, notarized copy– try to remember that we can't claim as courageous any social discipline for which muscle is supplied by exterior constabulary power....

Remember the pathetic Army general who wept when a boy made a pass at her? It's like that. Real courage isn't the thing you do when you know the Calvary is just on the other side of the hill.

One of the drawbacks of he whole "we women can do anything that men can do" is it seems to have added the idea that it's OK for women to get stupidly drunk in a public area without even someone sober around to try to keep them safe. Which isn't a good idea for either gender, and is probably more dangerous for women. I'm female myself, and I wouldn't do something like that.

It's like going for a walk at night in a deserted area - it might not be right that this is dangerous and more dangerous for women, but it's true.

Good for you, Amy!

I wonder if that bar would be more careful how much they served if the owners had a few talks from lawyers about lawsuits.

Ooh. Calvary is not cavalry, you know. Just policing the community, y'know.

"I wonder if that bar would be more careful how much they served if the owners had a few talks from lawyers about lawsuits."

I bartended in college. I was never under the slightest doubt that me overserving could land ME in jail. Which is tough, because the guys you get really drunk tip better. TABC is a pain, but you never get watered down liquor in texas, and the bartenders DO know the law, so they get 2 things right.

> Ooh. Calvary is not cavalry,

Speelcheck is for cowardz

Right... Unless you've just been asking for a bitchslap, in which case you're screwed.

Amy you could put flyers on the car windshields warning drivers that there is an active neighbourhood watch that is keeping an eye out for any driver who looks drunk. (And reporting them and the licence plate of the car.)

I mean, it seems like you're doing that anyway because you're being woken up by these people, so it's not a stretch to say it's happening. Maybe that'll interfere with the "cool" of the bar's image a bit.

"Real courage isn't the thing you do when you know the Calvary is just on the other side of the hill."

Ahh, but this isn't just a spelling thing. Calvary is the scene of the crucifixion. A hill, yet. Cavalry is the rescuing Army unit on horseback.

So both can be the momentary inspiration for the cited general officer's temporary bravado. Crid is clever enough to have selected either example, yet be sabotaged by inadvertency (not a word, I made it up). I guessed which he meant, but it's not a lock.

EXACTLY!

I *meant* to do that!

Nuance!

How pathetic is an establishment that has 300-pound, surly hulks just standing around because the bar owners want the place to be "cool?" If I owned the place, my former linebackers would be kicking the butts of the unruly from noon til closing time, baby!

You're not alone...

I wrote a smilar note and left it on a neighbors car after getting one too many scrapes and scratches on mine from his bumbling attempts to parallel park. (I said he parked like an asshole) He called the cops on me and tried to have me arrested for swearing at him. When the cops arrived at my door(they were doing a door to door search for the 'perp') I did what any redblooded Amercan would do in that ludicrous situation. I lied thru my teeth and swore it must have been a kids prank :p Seriously, after all the stories of botched no-knock raids and people arrested for videotaping or recording traffic stops, I wasn't taking any chances!