Encounter with military impostor on yesterday's ride, plus ride videos

[luv2climb]

I want to thank BikeForums member spingineer and his excellent Low Key Hill Climb sufferfest video for the extra motivation on yesterday's climbs. Unfortunately, what happened after the ride put a damper on the post-ride euphoria, and creeped me out!

I climbed Bucks Bar Road and Grizzly Flat Road in El Dorado County. While looking at the map for this ride the other day, I noticed a Moody Road off of Grizzly Flat Road. I wanted to see if it compared to the Moody Road in the Bay Area (that I've never climbed) that spingineer posted a sufferfest video of back in July.

At 4/10ths of a mile long, it's not quite as long as the one in Palo Alto, but it definitely matches it in steepness, at least until the last part of the climb where it levels off to single-digit grades instead of the 11%-15% stuff earlier in the climb.

At the beginning of the descent I encountered yet another loose dog. This time I found that slowing down to walking speed until past the dog's territory avoided a chase situation.

Here's the creepy part. After my ride, I stopped recording on the helmet cam, but didn't turn off the power. I stopped at the store on the corner of Bucks Bar and Pleasant Valley Roads for a snack. A heavyset older male and a teenaged boy left the store as I pulled up. They got in a dark metallic green SUV. They didn't leave right away, and I noticed the boy eyeing me as I removed the Kodak Playsport from the handlebars. They made me nervous, so I brought the bike in the store with me.

While I was picking out a snack, I heard someone say "Excuse me ma'am, can I talk to you a minute?" It was the boy from the SUV. He asked if that was a camera I had on my helmet. When I said yes he asked if it was recording. I said no. Then he said that if it had been recording he would have to get my name, address, and phone number because he's in the military and "not supposed to be documented". I told him he was full of it and that there was no way in hell I would ever give my information to a stranger with no credentials who claimed to be military or law enforcement. I reminded him that anyone can claim to be anything and it doesn't mean sht.

I also reminded him that there is no expectation of privacy in public, so if anyone did record him no laws were broken. He claimed that a buddy of his was killed in Afghanistan because he was recorded here in the US.

I had to repeat the no expectation of privacy line several times during this bizarre conversation, and I noticed him getting red in the face and more agitated. He told me I needed to be careful with my helmet cam and that some people may "get enraged" if they are recorded. I told him that anyone who attacks me for having a camera on my helmet will go straight to jail, as I will contact law enforcement asap.

He finally gave up and said "God bless" before leaving.

On the drive back down Pleasant Valley Road I spotted an El Dorado County Sheriff's deputy sitting in his SUV in an empty parking lot, so I pulled in and told him what happened. He asked if there was anything missing off my truck. I said no. He thought they may have been trying to distract me while they stole something.

I asked him if real military personnel would say the kind of stuff that kid did. He said no.

Here's the Garmin data for yesterday's ride: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/120338745#

Here's the video of the ride southbound on Bucks Bar Road and eastbound on Grizzly Flat Road.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3dJ2s6iUmc

Here's the video for Moody Road. This one is the climb and descent.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87ZFHin_NMo

I found a couple of tools during the ride. The third tool was the wannabe whacker military impostor. :p
http://i149.photobucket.com/albums/s66/hardmf1/toolsfoundon10-9-11ride.jpg

First descent on Bucks Bar Road.
http://i149.photobucket.com/albums/s66/hardmf1/BucksBarRoadsouthbound10gradesign.jpg

Second descent (on the way back). By this point the traffic was starting to get on my nerves, so I lost the motivation to push hard on the final climb and just took my time at 3-4 mph.
http://i149.photobucket.com/albums/s66/hardmf1/BucksBarRoadnorthbound8gradesign.jpg

Moody Road
http://i149.photobucket.com/albums/s66/hardmf1/MoodyRoadinElDoradoCounty.jpg

[Irulan]

wow how totally creepy. I'm glad you were able to report to LE.

[Trek420]

Totally creepy. So does he go on the same rant in the store "smile, you're being recorded", at red light cameras .... I wonder if I would have had the wits to say when he asked if I'm recording now "well, it's off right now but everything's already been mobile downloaded/backed up to home" :p

[luv2climb]

Totally creepy. So does he go on the same rant in the store "smile, you're being recorded", at red light cameras .... I wonder if I would have had the wits to say when he asked if I'm recording now "well, it's off right now but everything's already been mobile downloaded/backed up to home" :p
During the conversation, the thought crossed my mind to turn the camera on and watch the show! :p A friend of mine told me that when he asked if the camera was recording I should have told him "yes, here let me turn it off", and instead turn it on. :D

[Koronin]

Should have asked him for his ID card, and told him until he could produce a military ID that the conversation was over.

[luv2climb]

Should have asked him for his ID card, and told him until he could produce a military ID that the conversation was over.
Good idea. Even if he did produce ID, I still wouldn't have given him my personal information though. If police impersonators can flash a fake badge and/or ID, than so can military impostors.

People like this kid are an insult to real military personnel who have paid their dues.

[Koronin]

I agree, but I'd ask just throw the kid off. I'd also probably (if I remembered) ask for his name, rank, base and commander's name so I could contact the commander. (This idea comes from living in a military town now, would never have thought of it before). Oh and no I still wouldn't give personal information either. I'd actually love to see them try pulling that hear and end up trying it with one of the Marines. That would be interesting. There are actually several Marines who ride road and mountain bikes a lot. And there are some trails on base, that we need to check out at some point. (We aren't military, but hubby is civil service which is what gives us access to the base.)

[luv2climb]

I'd love to see that too! I'd also like to see him try that with an off-duty cop. I have read news stories where police impersonators pulled over real cops and got busted.

[Koronin]

That would be good also.

[azfiddle]

That does sound very creepy! Did you get the license plate number and provide it to the deputy?

[luv2climb]

I wish I could have, but the kid and the older guy driving the SUV beat a hasty retreat once it became clear that I wasn't falling for the kid's BS.

[indysteel]

He claimed that a buddy of his was killed in Afghanistan because he was recorded here in the US.

Not to sound flip, but my guess is that his buddy was killed in Afghanistan, not because he was recorded here in the US, but because WE'RE IN THE MIDDLE OF A WAR THERE!

Your encounter with this was, indeed, creepy. On RBR's forum recently, there was a thread about a member's weird neighbors. They have camaras on their house and seem to be eavesdropping on conversations. That, along with some other things, led the RBR member to conclude that they were cooking meth. It makes me wonder if the guy you ran into was up to something on what he assumed was your route and was paranoid about whether you had videotaped it. I find it hard to believe that he was, indeed, military. What he told you just doesn't make any sense. Glad you got back to your vehicle without incident.

[jyyanks]

I wonder if they were involved in some type of illegal activity and were afraid you had them on camera. They probably asked for your info to try to threaten you to hand over the video. Real military personnel would not talk to civilians like that. You can tell a real soldier from a fake just by their mannerism. This guy was a fake who was obviously nervous about being recorded. So scary!

[luv2climb]

Not to sound flip, but my guess is that his buddy was killed in Afghanistan, not because he was recorded here in the US, but because WE'RE IN THE MIDDLE OF A WAR THERE!
+1. He was trying to guilt-trip me bigtime. Too bad for him that I didn't fall for it. Whether he was telling the truth about that or not, it is just plain wrong to use someone's death to attempt to take advantage of someone else.

Your encounter with this was, indeed, creepy. On RBR's forum recently, there was a thread about a member's weird neighbors. They have camaras on their house and seem to be eavesdropping on conversations. That, along with some other things, led the RBR member to conclude that they were cooking meth. It makes me wonder if the guy you ran into was up to something on what he assumed was your route and was paranoid about whether you had videotaped it. I find it hard to believe that he was, indeed, military. What he told you just doesn't make any sense. Glad you got back to your vehicle without incident.
I was thinking along the same lines, which is why I will be climbing hills in Placer County this weekend if weather allows it. I don't plan on riding in that area again. The traffic sucked anyway. You don't see as much of it in my videos because I edit out a lot of the annoying loud motor traffic.

Every word the guy said was crap. He needs to get a life.

:cool:
+1. Having delusions of power is just sad. He's no better than a wannabe cop.

I wonder if they were involved in some type of illegal activity and were afraid you had them on camera. They probably asked for your info to try to tgreaten you to hand over the video. Real military personnel would not talk to civilians like that. You can tell a real soldier from a fake just by their mannerism. This guy was a fake who was obviously nervous about being recorded. So scary!
I thought about that. There was no way in hell I was going to give up my ride footage, especially with all that beautiful scenery!

I'm glad this incident happened in the store where there was at least one witness (the clerk).

[smilingcat]

I wonder if there are any marijuana plantation nearby. More likely than a meth lab. Meth lab, you can smell the alcohol. Problems of hiking in northern Cal. You don't know what you will run into.

[luv2climb]

Read some of the responses in the thread (http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php/774319-Encounter-with-military-impostor-on-yesterday-s-ride-plus-ride-videos) I posted over on BikeForums. Census workers and Mayors have been shot or hung when they stumbled across pot farms and meth labs. Also read the description given of all the measures these scum take to secure their illegal labs. :eek:

Needless to say, if I ever get a proper mountain bike, I will be sticking to the established, popular mtb trails like I did back in my mtb days. I never had a problem back then.

[Sky King]

Yuck, wacko's always creep me out. I was discussing with the DH. As we tour and he tours alone, often. His response was to proceed with caution, getting into a "discussion" can sometimes put you in more danger. Thankfully you were in a public place and had a vehicle to get into. If the incident had occurred while touring (as ours did in Port Townsend) it would be better to just say, I am not recording, sorry to cause you concern and walk away. We too, reported the issue to the police and immediately left the area. Glad they didn't harass you further! PS - sounds like a great hill climb, good for you

[luv2climb]

Yuck, wacko's always creep me out. I was discussing with the DH. As we tour and he tours alone, often. His response was to proceed with caution, getting into a "discussion" can sometimes put you in more danger. Thankfully you were in a public place and had a vehicle to get into. If the incident had occurred while touring (as ours did in Port Townsend) it would be better to just say, I am not recording, sorry to cause you concern and walk away. We too, reported the issue to the police and immediately left the area. Glad they didn't harass you further! PS - sounds like a great hill climb, good for you
If something like this happens again I'm taking your advice, as you can't reason with a wackjob. I think if I had been on the road where the only witnesses are passing cars I would have sprinted away from him, as the possibility of kidnapping and rape would be much higher.