Driver is uneasy after rough night

Akeem Mostamandy and his old friend from the fourth grade at Earl Frost Elementary School in San Jose get together twice a year or so to share a meal and catch up with one another’s lives.

Last week, the two buddies met at the El Amigo Restaurant near Santa Teresa Boulevard and Bernal Road in South San Jose, a convenient midpoint between their homes. Mostamandy didn’t expect the evening to end with the taste of terror in his mouth.

It was a good meal, a soulful conversation: Mostamandy, a 40-year-old software license manager, remembers that they ordered fresh mashed avocados and a churro dessert. “It was one of those nights when you feel useful to an old friend,” he told me.

When Mostamandy said goodbye at 10:30 p.m. and returned to his Lexus wagon in the parking lot, however, the night went south. He had left his interior map light on, which drained the battery. The car was dead.

Mostamandy felt there was no purpose in trying to summon back his friend, who was headed home to his family in Gilroy and had to rise at 4 a.m. the next day.

“No worries,” he text messaged his buddy. “I’ll just open my hood, call AAA’s roadside assistance, and send you a text after I’m home safe.”

A long wait

Mostamandy says AAA told him it would take 45 minutes. When he checked back 15 minutes later to find out if a truck was on its way, he says, his call was inadvertently canceled. (An AAA spokesperson said there was “probably some miscommunication on both ends. Obviously, we take responsibility.”)

More than two hours later, Mostamandy was still there. He did, however, encounter one very strange driver who started to drive in circles around him at a distance of about 50 yards.

The odd driver then paused his 90s-model four-door Jetta and drove toward Mostamandy, circling within three yards of the Lexus and holding up his hand to cover his profile. Was it intimidation? Scoping for a robbery? Mostamandy says he doesn’t know. “I couldn’t comprehend what he was saying,” he told me.

It was, needless to say, an ugly experience, not easily dismissed even though the driver eventually retreated and parked the Jetta some distance away. “I felt scared, frustrated and helpless at my predicament,” said Mostamandy.

Instead of calling the cops — he says he wasn’t sure they would respond right away — Mostamandy called Uber’s ride service. And he wound up talking to an Uber driver who had been a stockbroker.

A ride at last

Mostamandy explained his plight to the driver, who said, “I never come out that far. Now that we talk, I’m going to come get you.” Ten minutes later, he was there to take Mostamandy home.

The next morning, Mostamandy retrieved his car. In comparison to some other people, you could call him lucky. He was not injured and his car was not damaged — though he says someone threw a glass bottle onto Highway 85 that narrowly missed his Uber ride.

But the experience left him with a sour taste that unsettles someone unused to mean streets. “I can’t describe it,’’ he said. “I feel betrayed, I guess, by society. Why would someone do something so animalistic to a person with a disabled vehicle?”

No easy question. And no easy answer.