A French hitchhiker was stuck on the side of the road in a tiny rural New Zealand village for days before he threw a “hissy fit,” destroying road signs and abusing motorists, according to reports.
Cedric Claude Rene Rault-Verpre, 27, was unable to hitch a lift out of the tiny hamlet of Punakaiki for four days before he reportedly let loose Monday.
“Oh he threw an absolute hissy fit; he was lying prone on the road screaming that New Zealanders were assholes and he couldn’t wait to get back to Europe,” local resident Neil Mouat told The Guardian.
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He said Rault-Verpre, who had not had a bite to eat in two days, got into an argument with a local senior, and he was worried things might escalate so he called police.
Mouat said the Frenchman has only himself to blame for not being able to hail a ride.
“He was a spoilt Millennial, and he created a hell of a din,” Mouat said “But all that time he was standing in the wrong place to hitchhike – a corner with poor visibility and nowhere for cars to easily pull over.”
Rault-Verpre appeared in a court Tuesday and said no one even offered water during his four-day ordeal, according to the New Zealand Herald.
A local man is asking to be awarded $3,000 for the damage to his signs.
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Rault-Verpre disputes the cost of the signs, saying they were damaged before he threw rocks at them.
Upon leaving the courthouse he vented his frustrations saying, “they are really assholes in this country.”
When asked by reporters for comment, he said, “you should change the name of this country to Nazi Zealand.”
Senior Sergeant Paul Watson told The Guardian had Rault-Verpre started to walk, he would have been in the next town in a day.
“Hitchhiking is totally legal and travellers usually have no problem hitching lifts around here. It is rare to see anyone waiting for long, and I have never heard of someone waiting four days. This case is an outlier,” Watson said.
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