‘I’ve never seen someone struggle to that extent’ — Office workers recall brush with ‘Calgary’s worst driver
Shawn Baldwin watched curiously as the woman who’d only just left his Officejobs business attempted to squeeze her silver BMW out of the stall next to his.
She’d already tried to back straight up and hit a red car in the process. She then veered right and was now wedged between Baldwin’s car and a van belonging to officer worker Debbie Simpson.
“I walked out the door and I saw her there and she was stuck . . . I figured I’m leaving, so this is going to solve her problem,” recalled Baldwin, whose company helps set people up with office employment.
He pulled out of his spot with ease and left the parking lot. It wasn’t until he was at home later watching the news with his wife that he saw a video that has now generated millions of hits and been picked up by news outlets around the world.
One Calgary police constable took to Twitter Friday, as the video generated much reaction, to declare the woman “Calgary’s worst driver.”
Instead of backing up into the vacant space left by Baldwin’s ride, the BMW driver pulled forward and to the right, becoming stuck between Simpson’s van and the red car she’d already struck.
Next, the owner of the red car came out to assist, unaware that his vehicle had been hit. He began giving signals to the BMW driver as the duration of her parking-lot ordeal crept across the four-minute mark.
Simpson had been watching incredulously while on the phone in her office, which looks out on the parking lot. Eventually, she went outside for a closer look.
“I thought (the driver was) going to hit me a couple of times,” she said. “I’ve never seen someone struggle to that extent.”
Baldwin did say he feels sorry for the woman, especially as the video of her driving skills has become the subject of countless jokes online. One version of the video had nearly 2.5 million views Monday afternoon.
Baldwin said he believes the parking stalls situated horizontally behind where the woman’s car was parked shouldn’t be there and that, when the lot is full, the only option often is to back completely out. The lot has just one entrance/exit.
Even still, he admitted to having a good laugh over the whole matter, comparing it to a scene in an Austin Powers movie where the so-called “International man of mystery” spends more than a minute trying to make what should only be a three-point turn in a luggage cart.
“That’s exactly what this was like . . . it was hysterical,” he said.
Simpson said the owner of the red car, whose name she didn’t know, realized seconds after the BMW left that his vehicle had been hit.
“He hopped into his car and went chasing after her,” she said. “He apparently found her a little ways later inspecting her own car.”
Police said Monday the driver had been slapped with a $115 ticket for unsafe backing.
The video was captured by DeltaTech, a video surveillance company located next to the real-estate office where Simpson works.
A representative said Monday that the footage was supplied to the driver of the red car and deflected claims from some spectators online that the company had staged the scenario to generate publicity.