Frightening incident caught on camera prompts warning from Vancouver driver

Video of a man trying to open a woman’s car door while she was stopped at a Vancouver intersection is being called “unnerving” by police. 

In the footage posted on Instagram and Reddit, the man is then seen standing in front of the vehicle near Oppenheimer Park, and blocking it when the light turns green.

“Get out of the way,” the driver is heard saying. “I’ve got to get to work.”

The man wouldn’t budge.

The driver insisted that she posted the video not to shame the man, but to encourage others to lock their car doors.

“We don’t know what state the people who cross our path will be in” she wrote.

Vancouver Police Department spokesperson Sgt. Steve Addison doesn’t believe the incident from late August has been reported yet, but he has reviewed the video.

“Somebody walks up to their car, starts trying door handles, stands at the front of their car, puts their hand on the car, that’s going to be terrifying for some people,” he said

“These are things that we are seeing more and more, not just in the downtown Eastside, but elsewhere in the city.”

In fact, Addison can relate, having had an experience of his own he also describes as "unnerving."

While driving to work in his personal vehicle, and not in uniform, he and other drivers were confronted and yelled at by a stranger. They were also stopped at an intersection in the Downtown Eastside.

Addison has been a police officer for 16 years and said he was taken off guard. 

“What I did, was kind of look for an exit strategy,” he recalled. “I’m off duty, I am in my personal car, I’m not prepared for it.”

The woman who posted the video shot near Oppenheimer Park managed to drive away when the man was distracted.