A Michigan homeowner erupted at a driver after she steered onto his lawn to bypass a flooded street, setting off a profanity-laced confrontation in which she allegedly told him he was “about to die.”
The homeowner, an older Dearborn man who has been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, was outside on Sept. 3 when he saw the woman’s SUV come onto his property as stormwater swallowed the residential roadway, according to FOX 2 Detroit.
The driver, identified only as Lacie, appeared in Ring doorbell footage obtained by the station driving along the sidewalk and across neighbors’ lawns during a severe late-summer storm that brought torrential rain and tornado threats to the area.
As the SUV moved toward his yard, the man yelled for Lacie to return to the street and struck the vehicle’s side window before she stopped and tried to get out.
“Telling her no and she kept coming. She almost hit me,” he told the outlet.
Video showed Lacie apparently using the sidewalk and lawns to get around a large pool of water that had formed in the road before she stopped in front of the home, with part of the SUV on the man’s grass.
“Get off my lawn, F–k you,” the homeowner shouted after Lacie rolled down her window.
“You’re about to die,” the driver responded as the exchange escalated and both continued hurling obscenities.
The man was worried the car would damage his sprinkler system.
He blamed his overreaction on his health that hinders his motor skills.
“I have Parkinson’s disease,” the homeowner told the outlet. “When I get upset, I start shaking, hard to concentrate and communicating with people. I get agitated easily, and it’s all part of the disease, and her driving down the sidewalk like that did not help the situation.
“Because she threatened me and I wanted to get it on record that someone had driven across my property in case I had to file some sort of claim.
Lacie’s tires left ruts in the man’s lawn, but no other damage to his property.
The homeowner tried to dispel online belief that his anger was not racist but was him trying to protect his property.
“I know a lot of the comments on Instagram were racial, and I did not appreciate that,” he said. “Had nothing to do with race.
“It was just two people at the moment who had a misunderstanding. I have no ill will toward this person. I forgive her. No damage was done to my property other than the rut in the grass and that can be fixed,” he added.
Lacie admitted that she told the man he was “about to die” but claimed it was taken out of context and was a warning to him to be careful because of his advanced age.
“Never once threatened his life,” she told FOX 2. “I said that because he said much more than the ‘C-word’ he said he said.
“We were yelling over each other and every time he stopped yelling, those words ‘you’re about to die’ came out. It was not nice at all,” she said. “However, what I meant, you need to calm down, you’re about to die as in you’re old in your age.”
Lacie welcomed a more civil meeting with the man because of his age and health.
“Honestly, he’s elderly, so I would give him that grace,” she said.
Social media users called out Lacie for being in the wrong and using other people’s lawns as a roadway because of a flood.
“Not his fault…. people are rude AF,” one person wrote.
“THAT WOMAN SHOULD HAVE NEVER DRIVEN UP IN THE YARD LIKE THAT!! What the heck is the matter with her?! YOU DO NOT DO THAT! How would she like it if someone did that to her lawn?!” another said.
“Dont you dare apologize! This driver should be glad it was not me dealing with them,” a third said.
