A Tiresome Story

Fair warning: This is one of those "Just because it happened to you does not make it interesting" posts (to quote one of my favorite lines from the "screwball tragedy" Search and Destroy).

Yesterday, after taking care of some business at the bank, I was stopped at a red light on the street leading out of the bank. While waiting at the light, I glanced at my rear-view mirror and saw a man standing right behind my car, just as he walked away. I thought it was odd, but didn't think too much of it...until I got home and saw that my right rear tire was flat. My mind immediately raced back to the man at the bank, eventually working out a wildly implausible scenario: Guy waits outside bank until cars are stopped, punctures tire. If driver gets out or opens window to yell, it's robbery time! Of course, after a moment's thought, I realized how monumentally stupid this scheme would be. It was broad daylight and there were cars behind me, which equals witnesses. Plus, even if a crook waits outside a bank for marks, that doesn't mean they'll have any cash on them (as I didn't). Factor in all the various risk-vs.-reward aspects, and it all adds up to a really unprofitable exercise.

A more likely scenario: My tire was already flat (or going flat) and the guy was just looking at it, just out of curiosity, I guess. (A co-worker helped me put on the spare tire today, and we didn't see any puncture or visible damage, which would support the latter theory.)

Luckily, I'm off tomorrow, which gives me an opportunity to stop by Firestone. (Ehh, it's time for my oil change anyway.) Unfortunately, since I'll be doing as little driving as possible on the spare, this incident put the kibosh on my plans to see The Doug Dank Project tonight, and I was really looking forward to hearing Dave Bruckner's stories.