Pecan pie thrown during road rage incident

A man from Boulder, Colorado, says he called police after a vehicle followed him home and the occupant threw a dessert at him in his apartment parking lot. Adam Raley called police on Tuesday night at about 7:15 to say he had been followed home by an aggressive driver after he may have pulled out in front of that person near the Safeway store in Boulder. Raley admitted to police he has a tendency to 'drive aggressively' and may have cut off a late model Nissan Murano. Raley told police the driver of a small blue vehicle followed him home and into his parking lot before tossing a baked good at his sedan. He believed the driver of that vehicle may have taken offence to his aggressive manoeuvre. According to Raley, an elderly white male, bald, with facial hair, got out and was "scowling."



Raley told police he addressed the male, saying, "Can I help you?" to which the man responded by throwing, what he later discovered was a pecan pie, at his car. The dessert struck the rear window and trunk of Raley's Toyota Corolla. In response, Raley said he picked up what was left of the pie and "threw it back at the male's car". According to police reports, Raley told Boulder officers the man then got back in his car and accelerated towards him, trying to run him over. In what Raley described as an "intense and scary" altercation, he told police he began running to his apartment when the other male got out of his car again and yelled, "Come here, get back here!"

Raley told police the other man then came up to his car and started hitting his tail light with some kind of object, perhaps a short baton.Memorising the man's licence plate, Raley told officers he called that out to the man, who then drove off. Raley was not injured. A witness who saw the incident told police he was convinced the suspect was going to try and run over Raley, describing him as "deranged" and "out of control." Boulder Police tracked down the owner of the suspect vehicle as Boulder resident Gary Strand. When police officers approached Strand at his home, he eventually told them he followed Raley's white Toyota Corolla after he saw it speeding and cutting off other cars. Strand told police he had seen the same Toyota Corolla do similar manoeuvres "another time," and that the male had "flipped him off a couple of times."



Strand, 62,  admitted he threw a pie at the Corolla after following it to the parking lot Raley had described to police earlier. Strand said he left abruptly after the other man, Raley, threw the dessert back at his car. When police asked him about the damaged tail light, Strand denied doing any damage. But, police found a metal flashlight in his pocket which they believed was the same object used to damage Raley's taillight. As police transported Strand to the jail, he began wheezing and "trying to hyperventilate," according to police reports. An ambulance was called, Strand refused medical attention, and he was eventually transported to the Boulder County Jail where he fell asleep. Strand will not face DUI charges since officers could not determine how drunk he was, even though one officer reported smelling alcohol on his breath shortly before his arrest. He does, however, face charges related to felony menacing for the tossing of the pecan pie.