Wednesday morning about 4:30, I’m making coffee when I hear a car race up the street. Even though the speed limit is 25 mph, most people speed through the area, uncaring of small children, pets, elderly people, but because of the construction on the street and the bright orange cones, most people were going a little slower. Not this guy. A few minutes later as I’m stirring my coffee, another car comes up the street more slowly. I remember thinking, man, this is a lot of traffic for 4:30 in the morning. I didn’t think any more about it until….
I left for the Evil Day Job around 5:30 and I didn’t go much more than a block before I saw the police car stopped on the wrong side of the street with his search light on. There was enough room to get by him, so I slowed down and did that. I thought it was strange, but no more than that until I came to the 4 way stop.
There was another squad there with his spotlight on and when I stopped, he shone that light in my face! Ugh! When he moved it away, I went through the intersection and around the curve there’s a road to the left. Another squad car is down there with his search light on, then I look ahead and there’s yet another squad near the T intersection with his light on. I might not be a ball of fire at this time of the morning, but I was able to figure out that something was going on.
I got to the T and directly in front of me was a flatbed tow truck and to the left were another 3 or 4 squad cars with their search lights on. I reached the street that takes me to the highway, and when I near the frontage road that runs alongside it, I see another squad car. This one had his red and blue lights going and he’s parked across the opening of the frontage road, blocking it. I merge onto the highway and as I near the freeway exit, I saw yet another squad car parked on the bridge over the freeway with his red and blue lights on.
By this point, I’m dying to know what’s happened. My little neighborhood area is usually pretty quiet and to see 8 or 9 squad cars there at 5:30 in the morning is a shock. I’ve checked the police department website–no luck. I’ve checked the local paper–today’s edition is reporting police reports through Sept 6. Argh! I’ve searched Google News–nothing. How can something involving 3/4 of my city’s police force happen without my being able to find out what was going on?
My guess about what had occurred (and remember, I have a writer’s imagination) is that the first car speeding through my neighborhood was the suspect and that the second was a police car. At the T intersection, going to the right takes you to a main road and that leads to the highway, but if you turn left, it dead ends. I’m surmising that the suspect didn’t know the area and turned to the left, realized he’d hit a dead end with a squad car coming up behind him, and decided to abandon the car and flee on foot. I happened to hit the area as they continued their search for their bad guy.
But I don’t know for sure this is what happened. Seriously, am I going to have to drive to the police department and comb through the public records? Obviously the weekly newspaper is not right on top of breaking crime news, so it might be up to me.
Tags: adventures, commute, manhunt, police
Very cool, hope you find out what happens and we get another blog.
You can always tell them that the deputy blinded you with his light and for repayment of your pain and suffering they need to tell you what the heck was going on
That’s kind of scary! Something similar happened to me once. When I was living in Berkeley, CA I went for a run about 4:30 or 5:00 am and when I got to this one particular street there was a cop, leaning against his car. I kept going. Only to find there was a cop every 50 feet or so for the next two blocks. I was VERY relieved when I got to my turning around point and headed back on the next street up. And for those two blocks there were also cops every 50 feet.
That was the creepiest damn morning run of my life. And I never did hear anything about who they were after. I thought it was pretty clear they were going to bust somebody. Or wait for someone to come home…
I hope you find out what it was.
Doesn’t that just drive you crazy? If you find out please let us know.
I hope I find out what happens, too! Curiosity is killing me!
Patti
Carolyn,
Your event was scarier than mine. At least the urban assault vehicle offered some protection. I think if I’d been you, I would have just turned around and gone home.
Patti
Joyce,
If I do learn what happened, I will make a full report here.
Patti
Whoa, that is creepy. It reminds me of a trip we made to MN several years ago for my job. We took the kids to Mall of America as soon as we arrived, and were stunned — the place was practically dead. The kids rode everything they wanted in Camp Snoopy without any waits. Later, we learned there had been a bomb threat at the Mall…. *gulp*
Same trip (I swear!) we were driving home through Kansas City and were in the middle of a freeway chase. Cop cars were parked along the freeway, and as we passed, they tossed those things across the highway to blow up tires. We ended up pulling over to the shoulder as the chase passed us.
Ironically, the runaway vehicle was a little and very old Ford Escort, tires blown and running on rims. (Not exactly the sort of vehicle you’d expect to see in a police chase!!)
Wow, Joely, you had a bigger adventure than I did! On the plus side, if the bomb scare had been credible, they probably would have closed the mall.
But scary anyway when you think about it too long.
Yeah, an Escort isn’t what I think of as a getaway vehicle.
Patti