We've all been there (I think). Your car acts up, you panic, and in the heat of the moment, you make a questionable call. Maybe you ignore the check engine light for six months. Maybe you top off your coolant with water from a gas station bathroom. We get it. Some judgement, but we get it.

What we don't get โ€” what no deputy, mechanic, or sentient human with a driver's license should ever get โ€” is the thought process that ends with: "You know what? I'll just drive backwards down a busy Florida highway."

And yet, here we are.

Last week, 47-year-old William Murphy III of Palm Coast became Florida's most creative commuter, piloting his silver sedan in reverse down State Road 100. Not a parking lot. Not a quiet residential street. A busy road. With other cars. Going forward. Like normal.

The Flagler County Sheriff's Office, in a move that can only be described as extremely justified, shared the bodycam footage on Tuesday after receiving multiple witness calls โ€” because when a man is driving backwards down a main road, people tend to pick up their phones. Deputies tracked Murphy to a Panda Express parking lot, where he had apparently completed his reverse odyssey and switched back to drive, as if returning from a completely ordinary errand.

When asked why he did it, Murphy offered what may be the most Florida explanation in recent legal history: his car had a mechanical issue, and he "thought the best option" was to drive it backwards to AutoZone.

My shocking opinion: it was not the best option.

But here's the part that truly elevates this from "wild local news" to American legend: according to deputies, Murphy's mechanical issues "evaporated when deputies got behind him." The car that allegedly couldn't go forward? Suddenly had full range of directional motion. A miracle, really. The kind that only seems to happen when law enforcement shows up.

On bodycam, Murphy remained surprisingly calm about the whole situation.

"I didn't think that was that bad," he said. "I wasn't even swerving or anything like that, or driving fast or anything."

A deputy โ€” bless them โ€” replied with the patience of someone who has genuinely seen everything: "You were driving backwards on the road."

And that, friends, is the entire trial right there.

As it turns out, Murphy wasn't just having a rough mechanical day. Deputies arrested him for habitual driving while license suspended or revoked โ€” a charge that comes with the habitual qualifier because this was, reportedly, his tenth-plus conviction of the same kind. The man has been caught driving without a valid license more times than most people have changed their oil.

He was transported to the Sheriff Perry Hall Inmate Detention Facility and later released on a $1,000 bond, presumably to reflect on both his driving decisions and his navigational philosophy.

Now, we're not here to pile on. The man had a car problem and, in his mind, had a solution. It just happened to be a solution that terrified motorists, baffled law enforcement, and resulted in an arrest. For car enthusiasts who would never dream of manhandling their precious vehicle in such a manner โ€” relax. Your differential is fine. Not every mechanical crisis needs to end in a track-style reverse maneuver through civilian traffic.

But if there's a lesson here, it's a simple one: if your car breaks down, call a tow truck. Or a friend. Or literally any human being who isn't you in that moment.

AutoZone will still be there when you arrive going the correct direction.