Mowing Mishap Gives Motorist a Startling ‘Shot’

Most drive-by shootings involve feuds over turf.

This one came from the turf itself.

A motorist called police Wednesday to say a bullet slammed through his car window and hit him in the arm as he drove north on De Soto Avenue, just south of Roscoe Boulevard in Canoga Park.

Police and a Fire Department ambulance and fire engine rushed to the parking lot of the First Interstate Bank at 8220 De Soto Ave. at 2:48 p.m. where they found a motorist, who had pulled into the lot believing he had been shot.

But instead of finding the target of a drive-by shooting, officers discovered the victim of a freak gardening mishap.

“A gardener was mowing a lawn and hit a sprinkler head, which shot off into traffic and hit a passing motorist who thought he was being shot at,” Hunter said. “He felt a really sharp pain through his arm.”