Submitted Photo In this photo taken by Iris Ramirez of Minot, the Lyft driver’s night ended early after her car was pelted by an egg while driving a passenger home in the early morning Friday.

With the price of eggs dropping from early in 2023 during “eggflation,” the frequency of vehicles being egged has ramped up drastically in parts of Minot.

One recent target of the mysterious egg throwers was Lyft driver Iris Ramirez, who decided to pick up some extra cash driving people around Thursday evening, the night before the opening day of the State Fair. Shortly before 2 a.m. Friday morning, Ramirez picked up a fare and started driving southbound on 16th Street Southwest toward his destination.

“It was a busy night, and I was doing everybody’s driving. It was around bar closing time and we were having a good conversation. Then I heard a boom,” Ramirez said. “Because of that shooting at that one bar, I really wasn’t sure what was going on. Did my tire pop? Did someone shoot at me?”

It wasn’t until she drove into a more well-lit area that Ramirez said she saw the yellow egg yolk smeared across the passenger side window. Ramirez composed herself and was able to deliver her passenger to his destination. Ramirez says her passenger helped her take photos of her vehicle and aided her in calling the incident to the Minot Police Department. A patrol officer met Ramirez in a nearby parking lot and took her report, indicating increased police patrols in that the area.

“I had to cancel a guy’s ride because I had to clean all that up. I used the squeegee at a gas station to clean it as much as I could after that. I heard it can damage the paint on your car. By the time I was done I just decided to go home. I haven’t had a chance to take it through a car wash yet, so you can still smell it. It stinks,” Ramirez said.

Ramirez shared an image and a video of her egg-splattered door on a Facebook page, with several users responding that they or someone they knew had recently been targeted by the eggers while traveling on 16th Street.

In June, investigators with the Minot Police Department confirmed they were following up on several leads related to other reports filed by drivers in Minot this summer but did not reply to further requests for comment. In the meantime, Ramirez is considering investing in a dashcam in case she falls victim to the egging outlaws once again.

“You can still see some of the eggshells if you drive by there. I think they’re throwing them hiding on the bushes next to the street there,” Ramirez said. “I don’t know if it’s kids or drunk people doing it. There’s no way a civilized adult would do that. It can damage cars. If it had hit my windshield, it could have obscured my vision or caused an accident. It could be fatal.”