TRURO — Could a potato salad, lap-bound on the passenger’s side of a Lincoln Navigator speeding south on Route 6 at 65 miles per hour, really have “accidentally” flown out the window? Or did Zachary Tomasek, 24, of Wellfleet — who delivered this story to Truro Patrol Officer Andrew Starbard with a “smirk,” per Starbard’s report — need to work on his physics?
Tomasek ignored the Independent’s requests for comment. We could not learn whether the potato salad in question was store-bought or homemade; whether its spuds were russet, red, or Yukon gold; or whether, before its flight, the potato salad was any good.
But Tomasek did appear in Orleans District Court on April 12, where, with co-defendant Michael Kennedy, 30, of Truro, he was arraigned by Judge Robert Welsh III for his role in a Feb. 6 road rage incident.
Officer Starbard was at Arrowhead Road that evening when he noticed two cars in the right lane ahead of him: a white Chevrolet Trailblazer and, directly behind it, a white Lincoln Navigator. So began a tango. The Lincoln merged left, blazed ahead, straddled the lane line, braked; the Chevy fell back, sped up, repeated the sequence. At one point, wrote Starbard, dealing a blow to Tomasek’s theory of self-propelled salad, “I observed the front passenger of the Navigator throw a plastic object out of the window in the direction of the Trailblazer.”
When Starbard activated his emergency lights, only the Trailblazer stopped. Its driver got off with a warning for speeding, and Starbard set off in pursuit of the Lincoln. Its registered address led him to a Truro house. In its detached garage sat Tomasek and Kennedy, drinking, Starbard reported.
Tomasek maintained his innocence and his salad’s guilt; Kennedy admitted to being the Navigator’s driver but refused to cooperate further. Ninety minutes later, he called Truro dispatcher Martha Wheeler and told her “he should probably go to jail.” That, Sgt. Andi Powers informed him, was not going to happen.
Tomasek’s antics earned him one count of throwing an object on a public way “so that the lives or safety of the public might be endangered.” He paid $50 cash to have his case dismissed. Welsh arraigned Kennedy on six charges: operating a motor vehicle with a suspended license, negligent operation of a motor vehicle, failure to stop for police, speeding, failing to signal, and a marked lines violation. He’ll next appear in court on May 12, for a pretrial hearing.
