Road Rage incident spills over into Los Altos neighborhood

 The eight police cars at the corner of Abbeyfield and Fairbrook streets on Saturday afternoon were responding to a possible gun being brandished after a “road rage” incident at PCH and Clark streets.

According to the police and Los Altos neighbors familiar with the incident, passengers in two vehicles exchanged insults at the corner of PCH and Clark, one of the involved parties called LBPD and stated that the other driver involved pointed a gun at them.

The LBPD requested a helicopter (which was not available because of the Grand Prix) and LBPD patrol units from the West Division and East Division responded. Spotting the blue truck in question entering the Los Altos Center Adjacent Neighborhood, the police stopped the truck at gunpoint on Fairbrook between Calderwood/Tulane and Abbeyfield.

Reportedly the LBPD wanted to drive the reporting party by the stopped truck to identify it, but the reported party refused unless a gun was found. No gun was found and both parties were released.

Did the reporting person actually think they saw a gun, or was this a case of “swatting”? 

Swatting has become a huge problem in using police resources. Swatting involves people making false reports about a dangerous situation to prompt an unneeded overwhelming police response. While it usually involves “celebrities”, it has been attributed to other circumstances, such as “getting back” at a perceived “slight”.