Woman avoids large rock thrown at her car on Portland off ramp
By Connor McCarthy
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PORTLAND, Oregon (KPTV) — A Vancouver woman said she’s lucky to be alive after a homeless man threw a rock from on off ramp on I-205, slamming into her windshield.
Naomi Dobrean said it happened Thursday afternoon as she was getting off the freeway near Northeast Glisan Street and Stark Street. In a video from a bystander, Dobrean is seen driving on the off ramp, sees the man, tries to move out of his way, but he throws the rock the size of her head at her car.
“It was just kind of panic because that noise out of nowhere, not expecting that to happen… made me kind of just stop the car,” she said.
Dobrean said this is the second time in five years someone on the side of the freeway has thrown a rock at her car. She said this time the rock was bigger and is grateful no one was in the car with her.
“Same thing, I was driving down (I-205) South and someone on the side of the road threw a giant rock at the side of my car,” Dobrean said. “It wasn’t this big. This one was as big as his head.”
Dobrean filed a police report with the Portland Police Bureau, but she said it took officers more than a day to reach out to her after calling 911.
“It’s really scary,” Dobrean said. “It’s like, ‘What would it take for them to actually come out?’ Did the rock have to be even bigger? Should I have been injured?’ It really makes you feel like this situation wasn’t big enough for them to come out and even talk to me.”
PPB said the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the case because TriMet police received reports of a man throwing rocks at MAX trains.
For Dobrean, she said she hopes police find the man, because another driver could be his next victim.
“I could not imagine if that was my mom, or if that was someone else that I knew, someone elderly,” she said. “That’s what terrifies me – is that it could happen again.”
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