Dropping rocks on passing cars is no sport

At 1 a.m. on Sunday ­- in other words, Saturday night -­ I became a crime victim.

Driving back from a long day visiting my folks with my fiancée, I passed under the Stacy, Minn., exit on Interstate 35 when my car window exploded. Small, extremely sharp shards of glass imploded, littering the dashboard, the passenger seat and my lap. I wasn’t certain what had happened…

It was completely dark, with no cars close by. Somehow, I was blessed enough to keep the car going straight and steady without losing speed or swerving. But I was scared and unsure what to do next.

Had some wheel of a truck well ahead of me spit up a rock? Had the heavily humid, hot air outside and the AC-cooled air in the car caused the windshield to implode? Worst of all, had I been shot at, either knowingly or by way of a stray bullet?

None of those possibilities seemed plausible, but my windshield was nevertheless spiderwebbed, my lap full of tiny glass slivers. Thankfully, I wear glasses or the implosion might have had more severe immediate consequences.

On the off-chance I had been shot at, I decided to keep driving until I reached the North Branch exit, where I had been planning to stop for gas anyway. Once I arrived, I climbed out and inspected my car.

The deep indentation in the windshield indicated a couple things. First, some sort of object ­ a bird, a rock, a baseball, whatever ­ had collided with my windshield, dead square center. Second, if it had impacted any harder, it would have come through the windshield completely, resulting in a lot more than tiny splinters of glass.

I could have been sliced up by the glass. The object could have struck me. I could have lose control, crossed the median, entered the ditch or even collided with another vehicle. It could have been fatal. Thankfully, though, it wasn’t.

I called my fiancee while driving up to North Branch, Minn., to let her know what was going on. Once I arrived, I placed a phone call to 911.

To my surprise, I barely needed to start describing what had happened when the operator ­ and later the state cop ­ said that they knew exactly what had happened. It seems the I-35 overpass at Stacy, Minn., has had a chronic problem with an individual or group ­ assumed to be kids ­ tossing rocks at passing cars from atop the overpass, late at night.

That night, I was only one of five or six vehicles to get hit. They remain unapprehended and unidentified. They’ve been at it long enough for it to be familiar to state cops and 911 dispatchers.

Many folks try to excuse this behavior as the misadventures of children. “It’s just a kid’s prank,” they claim.

Legally, it’s either assault or vandalism. The standard sentence would be suspended in favor of probation and restitution.

I disagree. Call me biased as a victim, but it’s more serious than that. As far as I’m concerned, it’s attempted murder.

Once they catch them, that’s how it should be charged.

They just haven’t succeeded. Yet.