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Monday, May 21, 2012

Meltdown on the Vegas Strip: Man unloads a U Haul in the middle of the street!

So there I was, Sunday morning (well early enough - noon), fresh off of a bachalorette party in Vegas - putting on sun screen in the shade just before emerging out onto the Las Vegas Strip to do some shopping, site seeing and admittedly - people watching! I set my phone on the wall of the walkway in front of the Cabo Wabo, outside the Miracle Mile Mall shops, to search my flight information when the traffic headed north came to a stop at the red light of Las Vegas Blvd. and Bellagio. When light changed all the cars moved except this U Haul truck. Accepting that the break lights were off - indicating the car was off (maybe disabled), cars in either lanes went around it.
It no time at all the driver was out of the vehicle and opening the back door. He slide it open, jumped in and started throwing things out, into the street. Yes, the middle of the street, some into on coming traffic - but luckily not hurting anyone, or hitting any cars.
It was so bizarre, that you search your head for explanation. He's just getting a couple things out. He's upset and throwing out someone elses stuff (but he'll stop and won't throw out everything). He's throwing out a couple sentimental things (surely he is not going to empty the entire contents of this truck). Then you look around for clues (it was a good 5 mins before anyone stopped and asked what he was doing). Is someone in a car following him. Is someone going to come up any second and stop him. Is the person who is missing their stuff going to pull up soon? Is he going to stop? Are the police going to come? And, I am the only who sees this maniac?
(Man unloads U Haul in middle of Las Vegas Blvd.)
It did kinda of look like, and even in the end, people walking by thought it was, an accident - that the door opened and stuff fell out.

(Man unloads U Haul in middle of Las Vegas Blvd.)
Nope, as this episode went on and the pile got bigger and more and more traffic was effected...oh yeah, and the objects got bigger, and more broken...the bigger the crowd got. This about 10 mins into the episode, and before the dinette table and 4 chairs, the end table, the hutch, couch pillows, golf clubs, dresser, two beds (4 mattresses and two head boards) came out and added to the pile. People were starting to gather, but towards the end, just before the cops arrived, there was thousands of people lining the street, roof tops, restaurant patios and in the street median to see this go down. Below is the You Tube video posted by someone else.
http://youtu.be/WS7rn2XTKjU

It seemed like everyone in the crowd had a cell phone or camera on this guy, and I can't find any other photos, accept one on Twitter and one You Tube video. Maybe people of Vegas are used to this kind of stuff, but found it fascinating. Poor guy though. It was clearly not a good day and if your going to have a meltdown - who wants an audience? Anyway, the crowd defiantly like the show. They cheered when he would push something big to the door and push it out. They would gasp when something would make a glass shattering sound, and then (what is defined as the saddest moment of his day) they "ahhhhhh" when he tossed a small tricycle out into the street. Because he was arrested I thought there might be some news story or police report filed that might explain something. But as we stood by and watch this tragedy un"load", my fellow spectators merely speculated at the situation: maybe it's someone elses stuff and they owe him money; maybe he just left his cheating wife; maybe he got kicked out of the house; maybe there was a song on the radio that triggered it; maybe she called him and he just hung up the phone; maybe he lost his house, came to Vegas to win some money and lost it all; maybe (since it was a pretty specific place) his cheating wife is staying at one of the hotels that would have a view of this scene as it unfolded??? The guesses went on and on...and each one was more entertaining than the next. But in the end, I just felt bad for the guy. It was obviously a bad day to say the least, and he was in no mental state of coping with whatever was going on. Clearly, throwing all these belongings into the street, getting arrested and surely paying the price, did not help him out at all!! So, whoever you are, hope things look up soon! And if you have any additional information, photos or videos, please share! Thanks.

3 comments:

  1. I seen the pile and wanted to know what had happened. I still dont know what would possesed someone to do that. Crazy! Thanks for the post!

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  2. An impressive post, I just gave this to a colleague who is doing a little analysis on this topic. And he is very happy and thanking me for finding it. But all thanks to you for writing in such simple words. Big thumb up for this blog post.
    Regards:
    rothco

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    Replies
    1. How nice of you to take the time to write. How did the analysis go? And what exsactly was the topic - "scene makers" or the spectator...would love to see what he wrote, do you have a link?

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