Disconnect

It's hard to know who to hate more: Towers or yuppie BMW drivers who park illegally. But in the case of this story, everybody wins. It all started when tow truck driver Donald Wilson hooked up 33-year old Queens resident Yan Li's car for parking illegally.

She tried to stop him from taking her car. We're all sympathetic with that, but what Ms. Li did next is a bit strange. When Wilson fired up his truck and started to drive away with her car, Li jumped onto the side of the truck and held on. The New York Times reports:

For the next two miles, the woman, Yan Li, 33, of Forest Hills, Queens, stood on a running board and clung to the driver's side door while Mr. Wilson, 41, drove 20 miles per hour south on Middle Neck Road, the police said.

"He knew he should have stopped, but he didn't," Detective Sgt. Robert Anderson of the Nassau County police said on Wednesday. "The driver should have just stopped, called the police and said, 'She's interrupting my work.' "

As they drove, Ms. Li tried to call 911 on her cellphone, but Mr. Wilson reached out his window and disconnected the call, Sergeant Anderson said.

So Wilson, with one hand on the wheel, reaches out of the cab and "disconnects" the phone call? Did he grab and shut the flip phone? Did he find the 'end' key, or did he just smash it on the ground?

Police finally stopped the truck on the entrance ramp of the Long Island Expressway. Ironic justice: After being charged with wreckless endangerment to a human life, Wilson's truck was towed and impounded by a different wrecker company.