No two vehicles are perhaps more different than a Prius and a diesel truck. So, it comes as no surprise that the owners of each might have some differences of opinion on things. But, when one Prius owner saw what a couple was doing in a diesel truck in a parking lot, she freaked out — and it was all caught on video.
Although details about the situation are few, the video provides enough information for us to have a good idea of what’s going on. From the moment the clip starts, it’s obvious that a woman has taken issue with a diesel truck that’s sharing the parking lot with her. Immediately, she tears into the couple in the pickup, going on an insult-loaded rant and completely disregarding the presence of their young children.
After the angered woman storms over, we soon realize that the dark Prius in the background belongs to her, and her frustration is made clear by the many 4-lettered words she’s throwing around in front of kids. “I came over here because it was quiet,” we hear the Prius owner explain, referring to the area of the parking lot where she is parked.
“There was nobody here, and you come up here with your gas-guzzling piece of sh*t and the exhaust is spewing everywhere!” she exclaims at the family before getting cut off by the mother, who warns her not to curse in front of her daughter. That’s when things go from bad to worse.
“Shut the f*ck up,” she yells at the mom who exclaims, “Get out!” in response as tensions continue to rise. For a moment, viewers anticipate things getting violent, and we aren’t alone as even the man behind the camera seems to warn his wife Cheryl with a simple, “Don’t,” as Ms. Prius also chimes in, saying, “Don’t even touch me.” Then, comes the irony.
After getting in the couple’s face, yelling at them and using foul language, she says, “I’m just asking you to be pleasant and courteous, and you guys aren’t willing to.” With those remarks, so many cliches come to mind, like the pot calling the kettle black or practicing what you preach.
At this point, we learn that the diesel truck owner tried to appease the Prius-driving woman, but his solution wasn’t good enough. “I backed up,” he alleges, but she’s still furious, pointing out his exhaust pipe and that the wind is blowing in the direction of her car, which we see with the windows down. Then, she demands to know why the truck is running.
“Because my daughter is in here!” the dad says before being cut off by the woman who makes it clear that she thinks he should turn off the truck and roll down his windows instead of running the truck in order to have the air conditioning on for his child.
As noted by the captions in the video, his daughter was sleeping and she has allergies. The child’s needs do little to calm the woman who then bemoans the pollution produced by the truck and continues her rampage in front of innocent kids, resorting to name-calling as she tells the man he’s “mindless” and “ignorant.”
After questioning his “need” for such a vehicle by inquiring about his career, Ms. Prius goes on to call the man irresponsible and inconsiderate, even though he explains that, although he has an office job, he also has horses, defending his need for a truck. Then, she points to his kids and says, “You got two kids, and you’re going to train them to be the same way.”
That’s when mama bear’s claws come out. Since the pushy Prius owner established that name-calling was acceptable, the mom, who was on the phone, had a few choice words of her own to describe the woman as she started to walk away. Insisting on the last word, the eco-friendly car driver turned back to the family to spout off again. But, this time is so much worse for obvious reasons.
Getting entirely too close to the woman and her child while speaking in an aggressive tone and waving her arms around, the Prius owner is lucky that exhaust fumes were the only thing in her face that day since she presented herself as a threat.
It’s clear the dad was concerned as he hollered his wife’s name in a tone of uncertainty when he saw the crazed woman circling back around to have words with the mom, who was standing at the truck in a protective mode, guarding her kids against the unhinged woman.
Although this guy did a great job at staying calm, you can’t argue and expect to make any progress with an irrational person. It’s impossible to have an honest dialogue with people who conduct themselves like tantrum-having children. But, his restraint was praiseworthy, and even other Prius owners applauded it when it made its way to a Prius chat forum, where the Prius-driving woman was highly criticized for her behavior.
Sometimes, you have to accept the fact that there’s a time to stand your ground, and then, there’s wasting your time. There were plenty of empty spaces, so the senseless confrontation could have been avoided. Let’s face it, this dispute was just an argument for the sake of an argument. But, they gave the rest of us a great example of people behaving badly and how to remain calm when dealing with them.
