Amazing traffic maneuver

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This happened today. I stopped at an intersection, and a car pulled up to the right of me, and the driver shouted to a pedestrian crossing in front of us, "Hey can you tell me where a B of A is?" (meaning Bank of America). The pedestrian stopped and talked to him through the passenger's side, then kept on walking. The car sat there for about 20 more seconds, while the light was still red. Then, just as the light was changing to green, he suddenly turned right around in front of me, and made a U-turn to go back the same way he came from. The path he took is shown in blue in the diagram above, and he made the move just as our light was turning green. He was extremely lucky that I wasn't already in motion.

I know where the B of A is and he could have turned right instead of making the U-turn, and in fact would have gotten to the B of A with fewer stoplights that way. As he was passing in front of me, the light was changing to green. I was stunned and I didn't react at all, it happened so fast I didn't have time to blast my horn or anything. As he passed in front of me he waved and had a sheepish, embarrassed smile on his face. He looked to be about 25, like a painter or someone who works outdoors. After a couple of seconds, I just went ahead and drove on. I kept thinking, "Wow, if a cop had seen that, he would have given him a major ticket." There were other cars waiting at the intersection, who could have also been affected. Sure enough, about 1 minute later, I passed a cop, but he wasn't at the right place to see it happen.