Today I'm doing the airport dance.
Around 3:30am, I'm leaving my house and walking to the car, bag in hand. I hear a faint thunk, and then what sounds like a car horn on solid.
Now, I live quite close to a train track, so noises like this are not so abnormal. But it really sounded like a car horn to me, and the constant tone is not something I've heard from a train before. I looked around a bit, listening, but couldn't directionalize it. So I hopped in my car, and headed out for the airport. However I rolled the windows down in case the noise got louder.
Right on cue, it did. At the first intersection I encountered (where I would normally turn left to go to the airport, the sound was clearly coming from my right). So I turned right. Drove about a tenth of a mile slowly and listening, before I saw the source of the horn.
A car, parked neatly on the sidewalk, backward, with passenger front wheel splayed out like a giraffe taking a drink. Also there was debris in the street. I stopped and got out, and the driver was out of the car. I asked if he needed help or if he needed a phone to call someone. He didn't seem drunk to me but was a bit dazed and told me he just needed help turning the horn off.
I noticed the airbag had deployed but really couldn't figure out what he hit. Maybe just the curb? No skid marks or torn up grass that I saw in my quick observation.
I had him pop the hood and the negative battery cable was very tight, but I was able to wrench the positive off with my hand and that stopped the horn (at least my neighbors could get back to sleep!). He then asked if I could help him push the car off the sidewalk and back into the road. I pointed out that his wheel and suspension was borked and we weren't going to push the car anywhere.
I made sure he had a phone with power and then told him I needed to leave for the airport - which was very true, I don't generally build in lots of fudge time to 3am wakeups. As I drove away, I noticed the debris in the road was actually a lamppost/hanging flower basket that had been knocked down. It was very far from where the car was though, like I would struggle to throw a football from one to the other. Odd. I then called 911 to report as I drove away. I'm sure the guy should be evaluated medically and is going to need some other help.
I also couldn't really make sense of the scene. I don't know how he would've got the car to where it was. Maybe there was another car involved and they drove away?
Anyway, the important part:
The car was an Acura TSX with the 200hp k24 and it had a manual trans shifter... Watch for it in an auction near you.
