El Paso — When Patricia Vega headed to work Thursday morning in her navy blue Ford Explorer, she never imagined she would be the stage for a ballerina dance spectacle in the middle of Interstate 10.
“I saw traffic started slowing down near Hawkins, so I hit the brakes when all of a sudden what I thought was a woman came running towards my car with her hands extended out telling me to stop,” said Vega, who works at the University of Texas at El Paso. “All of a sudden the person jumps on my windshield and I can hear her walking around on the top of my car.”
The person was actually a man, dressed in a tutu and tights.
“I just thought, ‘my God what is this person doing,’” Vega said. “He was dancing around like Shakira.”
Worried that she would run the man over, Vega slowed down.
“I couldn’t see him anywhere. At one point I thought that he had fallen down, but then I saw his legs dangling in the back window,” Vega said.
Captured by traffic cameras, the man was seen on top of the SUV waving, blowing kissing, and dancing.
While all this was going on Vega was trying to call 911.
“The lines were all busy. I had never been placed on hold when calling 911, but then I finally got through and was able to tell them what was going on, but at that point he jumped off my car and ran towards a trailer truck,” Vega said.
The trailer was barely able to stop, Vega said. She then saw the man jump on other cars.
According to the El Paso Times and other local media, the man was eventually arrested and taken to a hospital for a mental evaluation.
Newscasts throughout the day were unable to determine if the driver of the SUV, Vega, was involved in the spectacle. She assures she was not.
“I was just going to work as usual,” Vega said. “When I got to work and told people what had happened, nobody could believe it.”
