PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — On Tuesday, the day after he went to the Trail Blazers game, Mark Holzmann said he found the tires of his car slashed with a note left on the windshield, a parting gift with a side of intimidation.
“You were so easy to find, Mark,” the note read, an added underline for emphasis. “You should drive more carefully.”
The note triggered a flashback to the night before when Holzmann was driving on North Russell by the Moda Center. He made a right turn to get into the parking garage, but on his way inside he said he may have cut a bicyclist off. It’s a busy intersection, Holzmann said, filled with traffic on two and four wheels. A problematic area.
“I don’t know, it’s not like I overtook him, passed him and turned in front of him,” he said. “If anything he was coming up from behind me.”
But the incident wasn’t over. Holzmann said he saw the bicyclist — who he said was riding aggressively — turn his aggression on him.
“The guy was very unhappy and went from zero to ballistic in two seconds,” Holzmann said, “yelling, screaming, shouting.”
Then, the next day, Holzmann found the note.
“It wasn’t lost on me that that was intimidation,” Holzmann said.
He thinks that the suspect found his address through his customized license plate — HOLZIE. He said he has no problems sharing the road, but he believes that should come with shared responsibility.
“They don’t think the rules apply to them,” he said, “just the same as sometimes the rules don’t apply to cars. They make mistakes and if their awareness is heightened through education, it might help.”
Portland police said they’re investigating the incident.