‘Nothing surprises us’: Oak Bay Police assist man in distress while driver honks impatiently

Police officers in Oak Bay attended a distress call on Friday morning, much to the annoyance of one motorist.

At around 10 a.m. on Friday, February 21st, officers responded to reports of a man who was potentially in distress at McNeill Bay on Beach Drive.

According to police, the man in question was at the beach and had been yelling which caught the attention of passersby.

“However, he was very calm with us and did not appear to be a risk to himself or others,” said Deputy Chief Ray Bernoties in an email to Victoria Buzz.

“We spent some time with him and ultimately gave him and his dog a ride to his friend’s residence.”

As police were talking to the man, they had vehicles parked along the side of the narrowed road for about 20 minutes.

“Traffic is very light there anyway so no motorists experienced any delay beyond perhaps 3 seconds at the most,” says Bernoties.

However one motorists appeared to take exception to the delay and decided to make his feelings heard.

“The driver honked at me,” said the Deputy Chief.

“He couldn’t have been inconvenienced for more than 2 – 3 seconds as I repositioned the car I was driving. Pedestrians found it odd that he was so impatient…but nothing surprises us.”

Later in the day, officers at the Oak Bay detachment took to Twitter to announce that they were sent a bouquet of flowers from a resident who wished to thank three officers for their compassionate response to a tragic circumstance.

And just like that, the indiscretions of the day were forgiven and forgotten.