Caught On Camera: Valley Village Woman Says Man Threatened Her With Bat For Driving Too Slow

VALLEY VILLAGE (CBSLA.com) — A woman driving in Valley Village said she was shocked after a young driver got out of his car and threatened her with a bat for driving too slow.

Judi Stein said she was even more stunned when he stopped to snap a selfie with his phone, so she took the opportunity to take a photo of him, a female passenger and the license plate of the Dodge he was driving.

The Valley Village resident posted the photos on Facebook for help in identifying the road-rage suspects.

Stein said it all started when she was driving near the intersection of Wilkinson Avenue and Magnolia Boulevard.

She was stopped behind another vehicle when the driver behind her began honking at her: "I'm like, I don't get it. Where do you want me to go?"

The driver squeezed in around her, she said, and began cursing and making hand gestures. He allegedly signaled for her to turn into a parking lot.

"So, I thought, oh, we're going to have a logical conversation about this," Stein said. "I pulled up behind him and within 10 seconds he jumped out of the car, went into his truck and grabbed a bat out of the car and came to my window."

She was terrorized: "There's a young punk standing over my face with a bat. That scared the living daylights out of me."

Before Stein could get a picture of the bat, she said, he put it away. She did take pictures of the man, a woman who also stepped out of the vehicle and threatened her, and the Dodge they were in.

The frightened driver went to the North Hollywood police station, but officers said there wasn't much they could do: "They said we can't do anything. We don't have a name."

CBS2/KCAL9 brought the matter to the station's attention Thursday night, and an officer made a report of the confrontation.

Stein hopes her speaking up will stop this from happening again: "Bottom line is they shouldn't be allowed to run the streets and scare people."