Video

Wrong Direction Leads To Confrontation Between Shoppers

Shoppers Get Into Fracas In Franklin

One Woman Charged With Assault

POSTED: 8:54 am CST December 11, 2007

UPDATED: 10:32 am CST December 11, 2007

FRANKLIN, Tenn. -- An SUV going the wrong direction in a parking lot caused a confrontation in Franklin.

Video: Wrong Direction Leads To Confrontation Between Shoppers

One woman is angry and another woman is facing jail time because of the incident in a parking lot at Cool Springs Galleria.

Tara Underwood said she was trying to find a parking spot when she realized she was driving the wrong way down a lane. She said as she pulled to the side to allow a truck to go by, Cynthia Strong launched a verbal tirade.

“(She) asked me if I was stupid, put a curse word or two in there and asked me if I couldn't read,” Underwood said. “She came up to my car and I have an SUV and the windows are tinted. … She starts banging on my windows, like freaking out, banging on my windows. … When I rolled the window down, that's when she reached in the car and grabbed me by the neck and ripped my iPod. … I called 911. She's still screaming her head off, telling me to get out the car."

Strong isn't denying the confrontation but denied Underwood’s innocence.

“She's calling them and she said, ‘This woman is assaulting me.’ And I said, ‘No. You really need to tell the truth. You were going the wrong way. You swore at me, and I got out and I confronted you about it.’ … She said, ‘I can't hear you.’ So, I reached in, and I snatched the ear bud out of her ear and said, ‘Can you hear me now?’ All I asked her to do was to move over so I could get around her. She's the one that facilitated it by rolling down the window,” she said.

Strong was eventually arrested when police tracked her through her license plate.

“As far as how I feel about handling it as a detective, I think certainly there are better uses of my time than to have to get involved in this type of activity,” said Franklin police Detective Alley Evola.