If you drove your vehicle into -- no, up and over -- another vehicle in a parking lot, would you care enough to leave a note? Some might be more inclined to pound their chest like a gorilla for this feat of monster-truckism, but we'd hope any reader of AOL Autos would simply stop and wait for the owners of the other vehicles to arrive.
A Canadian woman followed none such instructions, allowing her "park and run" to carry on and hopefully fade away like the sands of time. But after the video of her legendary parking mishap went live on YouTube, she quickly found herself the subject of an internet goose chase.
What Tripta Wrought
If Thornhill, Ontario held a contest for driving skills, you can bet Tripta Kaushal would not qualify. Witness:
The 62-year old resident of Richmond Hills, Ontario (a suburb of Toronto) entered the parking lot of Extreme Fitness on October 22 and casually arced her vehicle into a parking spot. But, as the video shows, she didn't stop there. Her BMW X5 went up and over the curb and onto two vehicles in the opposite row.
Backing up and into her own space, we half expected her to simply jump out in a Sergio Tacchini jumpsuit and stroll into the gym. Instead, she pulled out and drove away. It should be noted that the BMW she was driving showed little, if any damage.
Perhaps Mrs. Kaushal would have gotten away with it, but she made a few critical mistakes, not the least of which was the heinous piece of driving. In addition to fleeing the scene of the crime, she -- rather brazenly -- continued to visit the health club in the days following the incident.
An owner of one of the vehicles was an employee at the health club. With access to the parking lot security cameras, the footage went up to YouTube where it quickly blazed a path around the internet.
One site spoofed the CSI television program and asked its readers to zoom in to see if they could identify the license plate. But, as one would expect from a surveillance camera, the footage is grainy. And although the vehicle appears fully in the frame, exposing its front and rear license plates, they could not be made out. The driver was nowhere to be found, but the internet was watching. Soon the video had over 800,000 views.
Tripta Returns
This Wednesday, an amazing event happened. Inside the club, where Mrs. Kaushal was likely on the mountain elevation section of her elliptical workout, somewhere near the front desk, a different scene unfolded.
The owner of one of the damaged vehicles, Todd Jamison, peered out of the health club windows and saw the very same vehicle he had had been watching over and over again on the surveillance video.
It was the culprit!
Soon the authorities were called and Tripta Kaushal gave up the chase. She will appear in court on December 2.
