A Dearborn, Michigan, homeowner confronted a driver who drove her SUV onto his property to circumvent a flooded street during a late-summer storm on September 3. The exchange, captured on Ring doorbell camera footage, escalated into a verbal altercation between the homeowner, an elderly man diagnosed with Parkinson's, and the driver, identified only as Lacie.
The homeowner stated that he saw the woman drive along the sidewalk and across his lawn and those of his neighbors to avoid the standing water on the residential road. He shouted at the driver to return to the street and smacked her car's window before she stopped.
"Telling her no and she kept coming. She almost hit me," the homeowner told FOX 2 Detroit. He then yelled at the driver to "Get off my lawn, F–k you." The driver, responding through her rolled-down window, told the homeowner, "You’re about to die."
The homeowner expressed concern about potential damage to his sprinkler system. He attributed his agitated reaction to his Parkinson's disease, explaining that the condition affects his motor skills and makes him prone to agitation. "I have Parkinson’s disease. When I get upset, I start shaking, hard to concentrate and communicating with people. I get agitated easily, and it’s all part of the disease, and her driving down the sidewalk like that did not help the situation," he said. He also wanted to document the incident in case he needed to file a claim.
Lacie admitted to telling the homeowner he was "about to die" but claimed it was taken out of context. She stated it was intended as a warning to the homeowner to be careful due to his age. "Never once threatened his life," she said. "I said that because he said much more than the ‘C-word’ he said he said. We were yelling over each other and every time he stopped yelling, those words ‘you’re about to die’ came out. It was not nice at all. However, what I meant, you need to calm down, you’re about to die as in you’re old in your age."
While Lacie's tires left ruts in the homeowner's lawn, no other property damage was reported. The homeowner emphasized that his anger was not racially motivated, as some social media comments suggested, but a reaction to the driver's actions. "I know a lot of the comments on Instagram were racial, and I did not appreciate that. Had nothing to do with race. It was just two people at the moment who had a misunderstanding. I have no ill will toward this person. I forgive her. No damage was done to my property other than the rut in the grass and that can be fixed," he stated.
Social media users criticized the driver's decision to use private lawns as a route during the storm. Lacie suggested a more civil meeting with the homeowner, acknowledging his age and health. "Honestly, he’s elderly, so I would give him that grace," she said.