What do you do?

[Hacienda71]

I decided to leave before the rush hour tonight. Normally i ride back at 5:30 with fairly heavy traffic in Macclesfield Wilmslow and Alderley Edge. So today less traffic but lots of school kids waiting for buses lifts etc. As i arrived in Wilmslow a group of youths (probably six) at a bus stop decided to launch an empty litre plastic water bottle which hit my front wheel. Putting this in context i am 6'4" and weigh circa 14 stone and have always been able to stand up for myself although i always avoid confrontation. The youths were probably no more than 14 and a couple looked in the gloom as though they could have been girls

Question, what should i have done?

 

[AlanW]

As much as I hate to say it, but walk/cycle away and try and avoid that location again.

In this day and age you just never know what lengths some kids will go to in order to extract revenge if you were retaliate.

 

[Jezston]

Depends if the kids are nutters and will call all their mates and make a big deal out of it, or if they are just normal kids and maybe one of them is a nutter in which case smack the nutters and the other kids will cry and apologise.

Bit late now anyway.

 

[summerdays]

Stage a fantastic wobble straight at the group

Sorry you reminded me of taking a friend ice skating 20 years ago - he looked as if he should have been sitting on the ice the whole time ... but just managed to stay up right with madly windmilling hands. Some show-offs decided it would be fun to cut him up... which did overbalance him - but not before he knocked into and grabbed the nearest things - them... and somehow he managed to land on top of them. Just deserts.

 

[Bandini]

Stage a fantastic wobble straight at the group

.

Now that's good! Preferably screaming 'Mummy!' in an unsettling voice as you knock them over!

 

[Matthames]

If they were still in uniform, you could have a word with the school. Depending on the head, this could mean the entire school is pulled in to an assembly at the most inconvenient time and the whole school is given a stern talking to.

 

[semislickstick]

I might of tried a (in hurt voice) "come on, there's no need for that" or depending on mood an "f' off" or the *you idiot* stare.

 

[Bandini]

I might of tried a (in hurt voice) "come on, there's no need for that" or depending on mood an "f' off" or the *you idiot* stare.

All good. Ringing the school is a good idea too.

 

[Vikeonabike]

Report it to the Police and school. You may not be the first to suffer, or the last. If no one reports incidents then there is no way of knowing there is problem.

Never ever get into a confrontation with children that could possibly be avoided. It generally ends up with the original victim becoming i) the offender or ii) even more of a victim.

 

[hackbike 666]

That's nothing,I had a group of yewfs throw a rock at me in Leyton a year or two ago and also some kids in a van squirting water or piss over me.

 

[kevin_cambs_uk]

What a sad society we live in
We need more police about all the time, all over the place,
zero tolerance

 

[Hacienda71]

I rode on, as it was just before a roundabout I was very tempted to circle round and give them what for, but I thought better of it. I had not thought about reporting it to the school. There is only one in Wilmslow and I went there so maybe it might be worth a call. If my two kids go there i don't want them behaving like that. I don't think I will bother with the Police as unfortunately I don't think I would get any help from them, from past experience of reporting what they will consider a fairly minor matter.

 

[garrilla]

YOu can only remostrate with so much. I tend to just vent off a few choice words, but I would phone the school too in this situation.

It happened with me earlier in the year when a group of kids launched a football at me while I approached some lights. I caught the ball and decided to keep it (which was a bit daft on the bike). They launched full bin bags at me to distract me while one of them took the ball back. There were lots of cars at the lights and no one intervened at all, except one who wound the window down and told me to remove the bin bag that had bounced off of me and into the path of his car.

 

[Kestevan]

I would have answered on the poll, but there was no option for
"Brain the little shoots with a D lock".

 

[magnatom]

None of the above. I'd cycle closer to them making sure I caught all of their faces on the camera, and then as I shoot off I'd point out the camera. Then I would report it to the police and show them the footage.