As I was pulling into my neighborhood, getting home late from a Christmas party, I was concerned when I passed two paddy wagons headed out. My neighborhood is small and quaint and there usually isn't much crime here (actually, I think there might be more than I think). I hardly ever see police vehicles aside from the ones that report water abusers (I got busted once).
As I pulled around the corner, I saw my house surrounded by police vehicles. The first things that crossed my mind were: a) burglary, b) house fire, c) something wrong with someone I knew, or d) they were looking for me! The cop cars were sans-cops, and I didn't see anyone in the street. I had left my TV on for my cat and a healthy amount of lights left on to make the house appear occupied while I was out late. If it was a) or b), as long as my cat (Mercury) was safe I wasn't too concerned. C) and d) concerned me more, but I didn't see any reason to think that those were valid, so I dismissed them.
I clicked my remote to open the garage door and was greeted by the white fluorescent lights inside. I pulled my 4Runner up and around into my driveway and into the garage. I didn't pull in all the way in order to give myself room if I needed to get to anything that was lying on my workbench. The truck is a really tight fit and if I need anything from that bench after I park my truck, it is usually too hard to get to.
In my truck I had a ton of alcoholic beverages leftover from the party I was leaving as I had been responsible for bringing the booze. I had drank some during the party, but I had stopped drinking booze and started drinking water about 3 hours before I left, so I wasn't worried about my blood alcohol content or my ability to drive. However, being a savvy citizen, I know that I am never at an advantage talking to cops with a vehicle full of liquor and cerveza.
I exited my vehicle and entered my house, fully expecting to see cops inside. I was actually surprised to enter to my humdrum normal empty house. The lights I had left on were still on. Some of the back rooms were dark so I turned on lights as I went into them. I was also taking mental note of all the items in the room, as well as doing flying karate moves into the dark corners of the rooms and blind punching at larynx-level into the dark recesses of the closets. If someone was in my house, they were getting cold cocked in the throat.
Searching the house top to bottom, I found no one. I did find my cat safe and sound (and a little concerned by all the lights). There didn't appear to be anything missing either, so I went outside to see where all the commotion was. If it wasn't in my house, why were the cops parked all over my property? I walked along the side street that dead-ends into a VERY overgrown field of brush that separates my neighborhood from the less....affluent one on the other side.
I saw some lights out in the field and guessed that the cops were looking for someone when I overheard one of them yelling out to no one in particular to "....give up and come out! You can't hide, we are going to bring the dogs in!"
There was a police officer standing not too far from the corner of my property; he had a flashlight and was searching around the culvert directly behind my lot. I let him know that I was there; lest I surprise him and end up with a flashlight directly to the skull.
I inquired into why they were there. He told me that someone in my neighborhood was having a wild party involving marijuana and drugs and rowdy, peace disturbing music, so they crashed it. When they did, apparently a few male perpetrators of said party evaded capture and ran through the neighborhood in the direction of said field and were attempting to cross it when the cops were able to cordon off the said area.
Now, this field isn't small; it is approximately 5 acres of HEAVILY overgrown weeds, brush and crap. And my house sits right on the edge of it. The owner abandoned it a while back and the city has never been out to mow or take care of it since I have moved into my house.
I never really had much of an issue with the field except that the kids would sometimes smoke a few cigarettes behind my house. But I don't know what happened between the time I was a kid and now, but these kids are so lazy in committing their crimes, they should be punished for laziness. They don't properly extinguish their cigarettes or pick up their cigarette butts. They have been jeopardizing the well-being of my house/family and my neighbors. I am all about ball-busting the punks now.
Kids: If you wanted to smoke behind my house I don't care, just don't be a lazy fuck about it.
What happened to the days that if you wanted to break a few rules, you did so in a cautious, planned out, evidence-less fashion? I guess todays parents are a different type of people. Many of them don't seem to care too much about what the kids are doing. This in turns results in the production of lazy, good-for-nothing, oxygen-consuming, tax-raising things that sometimes cross that field into my neighborhood.
Well, back to the story. I got the feeling that somehow I should be involved in this exciting manhunt and that I had just the tool to help them out! They were all using the reliable, but puny, 6 D-Cell Maglight flashlights. I however had purchased a 10-million candlepower super spot-beam flashlight not too long ago and had just used it a week ago it to find my cat that had gone back into that very field.
Maybe it should be used in official police business? I suggested to the officer that they use the searchlight, so I ran to the garage to get it.
The light was dead! It wasn't holding a charge. It could have been the cold weather I guess. It couldn't have been at a worse time. I was finally going to put my lust for flashlights to a higher purpose! I had to go back to the cop and tell him that it wasn't working. What shame... What humiliation...
I also shared with him that the lot behind me contained lots of old cement and rebar waste that was dumped there probably when they built my neighborhood and never cleaned up. I didn't want any of the police officers to get injured (mainly so they don't have to claim on-the-job injuries which results in higher taxes for me). He thanked me for the information.
As my last attempt to get involved, I offered to check my backyard for any hiders-out and let him know if anyone was back there. So I grabbed a pipe wrench and a fresh *normal* flashlight from my workshop bench and proceeded to check out my property and house.
It was all clear.
I went inside resolved the lets the cop finish their business. They called in a helicopter with a searchlight not much later. I want the searchlight that they use on those (gift hint)!
I'm guessing they either found the person they were looking for or had to respond to another emergency because soon after the helicopter lit the field up with its beautiful white searchlight, all the cops got back into their vehicles and left.
Stupid kids.
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Created 123 weeks, 6 days ago