When I almost got "repo'd"

No, I was never late on rental car fees or anything of the sort. But I almost got towed one day. Here's the scoop:

Setting - spring 2006. I had just taken part in a miniature Iaido seminar, taught by my former karate instructor, Sensei Suarez, who was in from Kentucky, and we were both visiting mutual friends at the Nashville Aikikai. A small group of us went to a late lunch following the session. The place was a Mexican restaurant in downtown Nashville.

When we arrived, the parking lot was full. So I parked in an adjacent parking lot. It was empty. That should have been my first sign. Speaking of signs, there were not any "no parking" signs visible to me, or the members of my party (I drove the owners of the Nashville Aikikai, Sensei Suarez, and Mrs. Usagi altogether).

We went in and had a leisurely meal, recounting martial arts stories of old. Toward the end of the meal, the owner of the restaurant calmly approached us and asked if the Jeep across the street was ours. Yes, it was. She advised that a tow truck was after it.

Several things went though my mind, not the least of which was that we did not have transportation back home without the Jeep!

I ran out the door, and saw the tow truck backing up toward the Jeep. I yelled, but the truck did not stop (even though the driver clearly had the window down). I placed myself between the tow truck and my Jeep. I thought I'd likely have to pay some sort of tow fee, but stopping them in advance might save me from having to walk to their place.

At this point, the driver moved the truck right at me!

I moved quickly. The metal device from the tow truck slammed into my leg, spinning me almost a full 360 degrees, leaving a deep scrape and an unpleasant bruise. I ignored the pain, and ran for the door of the Jeep. I got in, turned it on, and put it in drive (the tow truck was approaching the Jeep from the rear).

I ran over the concrete parking bumpers.

Mrs. Usagi said that when I was hit by the tow truck, the crowd which had gathered to watch let out a collective "OH" in disappointment. They just knew the car was towed.

But when I cleared the concrete parking bumpers, the same crowd let out a cheer!

I drove to the parking lot of the Mexican restaurant, and parked at an angle, in case the psycho behind the wheel of the tow truck tried any funny stuff.

He did.

He came into the parking lot of the Mexican restaurant, and tried to block me in. He called out from his window something about me having committed "Grand Theft Auto." Kinda hard to do when the title is in my name, and I have the keys, huh?

At this point, I advised him that I was having none of it, and that he should leave. For a moment, he and his little friend looked as if they wanted to get out of their truck and start a physical altercation.

Not wise - I was surrounded be a small mob of black belts in the Martial Arts!

Not to mention, I could easily have taken the both of them - due to extreme differences in size, and training levels. Sensei Suarez commented later he sort of wished they had tried something. His thinking was that if they got put in their place, they would think twice about ever doing stupid stuff again.

Finally, the tow truck driver caved in to common sense, and stayed in his truck. The owner of the restaurant was "advising" him to leave her property before she called the police. She was angry with the tow trucks that often towed the cars of her patrons, hurting her business.

One of the group of martial artists is also an attorney. He looked at me and asked quickly if I would retain him. I said yes, and he asked the same of the Restaurant owner. She also said yes. He turned to the tow truck driver and got really intense, and "advised" them that as an attorney who was playing witness to the whole thing, they were in violation of several laws (which he named off).

Between the attorney, and the Restaurant owner starting to phone the police, the tow truck men decided they'd had enough fun for one afternoon and left.

A calm end to a wild 10 minutes!