A really stupid thing I did.

Yesterday, I picked up my 550 at my dealer. After settling the bill, I went to the car and started it. The car was cold. I realize I needed to go to the bathroom and figured the engine would warm up while I was gone. Of course, the mechanic who drove the car to the customer parking lot put the parking brake on. No problem. I left the car with the engine running and went to the dealer’s restroom.

When I came out, I saw my car slowly rolling toward the curb. Yipes! I ran to it and tried to stop it. Say, this car is not a lightweight. The owner of the dealership was walking by and helped me. We did stop it. Now am I stupid or what?

 

Oh lol thats not to bad as long as there was no damage the worst could be it rolling off a driveway and gettin hit or hitting someone elses car.

 

$h!t happens. At least no one and nothing was hurt

 

Just careless... Next time better check the parking brake tension. My brother was not as lucky as you have been. He made almost the same mistake bur, when back from the restroom, he found that the car had passed through the closed gate limiting his property...

Ciao

Eugenio

 

I live on a hill. Came home to find a car sitting in my neighbour's living room one day!

 

good thing there was no 62 GTO nearby !

 

Wow, now that was a close call. I am happy to see you did not hurt anything, but your pride

Now imagine someone getting run over by his own car as he was trying to stop his from rolling away. I heard that story about a month ago

 

A couple of months ago my '03 Pontiac Grand am was parked outside of a corner store by my house on a very steep slope facing the brick building. I was in the store when a man ran in and yelled "A SILVER CAR IS GOING TO HIT THE WALL!" I thought WTF are you talking about. Then he said "it's lurching forward!" Of course I run out to save some lady's car from getting bashed when I see MY car creeping towards the wall. I fumble for the keys, get in and yank on the e-brake. Ever since then the e-brake is on when ever my butt isn't in the seat.

 

Many years ago I had just got home and heard the phone ringing, ran in to get the phone and while on the phone watched my car roll past the living room window down the drive way ... oops.

Luckily it hit a wheel barrow which stopped it before it hit a huge tree. The wheel barrow did not really get hurt and neither did the car

Italian hand brakes ... lets just say they a useless!
Pete

 

Bart..That could have been bad! I have a story that can beat that to tears, but I am not sure I want to share it here!..I mean, beyond STUPID!

 

I went to the store in my wifes car one very snowy day it was so cold I left the car running....

When I came out it was gone, I was not unhappy that it was stolen, wait a minute. I noticed the tracks in the fresh snow and started to follow.

The car was not stolen, I guess i had put it in reverse when I stopped. The snow was so deep it kept the car from moving but I guess after it sat a while it started to move! It drove itself around the parking lot, out in the street, back into the parking lot then behind the building in reverse, missing every car and pole and backed its self against a curb.

I looked around, saw no witneses, jumped and drove home!

I never liked that car!

 

I'm glad everything is ok, be careful.

 

When i was a delivery drive for Pizza Hut years back i was at a customers house. I get out of my car walk to the door, ring the door bell, and wait for them to answer. As im waiting i hear leaves crunching, i think wtf? and i look and my 1986 toyota MR2 is rolling down the street, i set the pizza down on the porch and run after my car. i managed to stop the car, it had only rolled a few houses down.

 

Wow Bartudo, you got lucky dude. I bet you don't make that mistake again.

Chris, that is just crazy. The only explination has to be that your guardian angle jumped in the car and drove it. LOL!

 

have to disagree with the generally very informed amenasce, if my 550 is going down a hill, i want a 62 GTO, a 275, a 365, and whatever else i can get that they dont make anymore going with it, i wanna take everyone with me!!!!

 

Geeze Bart, you must be in shape. Man, grabbing a 550 as it leaves the station. Muscle Beach watch out!

DrTax

 

When I was 18, I parked my STILL RUNNING car outside the sub shop to run in and pick up my lunch. The parking lot was very steep. When I came out, I saw a car JUST like mine 300 feet away, at the bottom of the hill parked in the intersection with a cop car with it's lights flashing. After I stood and stared for a minute wondering what was going on down there, I came to the terrible realization that the car WAS mine!

Now, to add insult to injury, when I got down to the bottom of the hill, the cop gave me a ticket for "parking in the right of way"...AND...my car was locked. Yup, that's right. My still running car was in the middle of the road, locked with the engine running. The cop helped me push it off to the side of the road and left. Man, did I feel stupid!!!

Russ

 

WOW, those are some good ones...

Last year I participated in a MB AMG Challenge day. For one of the courses we were split into two teams and the team with the least total time won. You were giving penalty seconds for not using your seat belt, knocking over cones or for not coming to a stop within a marked rectangle. A lot of people lost a lot of time getting in and out of the car but I felt confident since I'm used to it from my cop days and the car used was a CLK55, just like my own.

When it was my turn, I jumped in, buckled up with my left hand and took off simultaneous, letting the door close from the acceleration. I ripped through the course and just before the finish line I cracked the door open. I drove into the marked rectangle, slammed on the brakes, causing the door to fly open, which I held open with my left foot and released my seat belt simultaneous. I knew I was very fast because my team was jumping up & down. I jump out of the car, ready to clap the next person when I realized that I had forgotten to put the car in PARK.
I turn around and jump back in but the car had already rolled out of the box.

IN FRONT OF 50 PEOPLE AND THE INSTRUCTORS . . . I FELT SOOO LITTLE . .

However, I was picked to go twice since my team was short one person & at the end of the day I got a trophy for the most creative driving ! ! ! How embarrassing . . .

BTW. Once in a blue moon this would be happening on a hotshot or at the termination of a pursuit because of the worn out column shifters on our black & whites.... Also very embarrassing.

 

No Bart, You`re not stupid. Momentary laps of discretion that`s all. Happens all the time. I myself am guilty of this type of thing.
Drive it hard.
Jeff

 

Years ago I had an old jeep CJ5, me and my wife
were moving in our new home that was on a VERY
steep lot with lots of trees.
I had parked the jeep at the top of the driveway
in the street. At the bottom of the driveway sat
our Corvette and Audi.
You could look out our bedroom window and see the
top of the driveway and street which was very private.
All of a sudden my wife says the jeep is driving away!!
I run to the bedroom window and look out and sure enough
the CJ was moving toward the top of the driveway to head
DOWN., There was no one in the car!!
Well it seems the starter wire shorted out and the starter
was engaged with the car in gear so the starter was moving
the car(thankfully it did not start). Well I ran outside not having
a clue as to what I was going to do if it started down the driveway
Thankfully it came about 10 feet down and veered off and down
the hill and hit a tree and stopped. The only damage was a
fried starter and a very low battery.
Thankfully it did not hit the other two cars, that would have
been a tough one to tell the insurance co.
My wife and I had a good laugh about it as she thought only
British cars would do this.

 

I did that once. When I came back to me car I had no clue how it had moved into the center of the parking lot two inches away from a VW Bug. I had been gone for about 5 mins and when I came back there was this guy standing next to my car and he told me how it had just rolled back and almost hit the other car. He called the cops before I came back and when the cop got there he didn't know what to do because there had been no accident; he just took my info and left. Now I always leave my car in gear whenever I park.

 

So Bart, what was it then? Simply a parking brake malfunction?

 

Doh! Glad everything's ok.

 

hehe the runaway car story. i have one of those. i was a little kid, so around 5 i guess, when my dad took me to work with him one day. well we were coming back from the golf course to stop by at home so he could get something. he left me in the car sitting in the driveway while he went inside. during that time i decided to go ahead and play with the parking brake. well i ended up releasing it and the car started rolling back into the street. luckily my dad saw it rolling back from a window and got to the car intime. of course i had no idea what was happening, but that was the last time i was left in the car alone.

 

My father was changing the brakes on his Camero about 10 years ago and I was "helping" him. We lived on a very steep hill with a 90 degree turn at the bottom. I stood the wheel upright and let it go as soon as it was going faster than I could run I shouted "DAD!" and he took off after it. He took off like a shot and tackled it on a lawn in front of an Acura. As soon as I saw that he had it, I took off!