ANOTHER DAY IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD
Last night was rather different at my house. The first different thing was that we were going to bed around 10:30 pm, which is somewhat earlier than usual. That lead to the second thing that was rather different.
No, not THAT. Get your mind out of the gutter.
It was raining pretty hard and I went to the door to let the dogs out. As I opened the door, I noticed a vehicle drive up directly behind our property about midway between our two side boundaries and stop. It sat there only a moment or two with its lights on, then the lights were turned off but the vehicle didn’t move. I mentioned it to Hubby, who was busy turning off lights and the television.
To understand the full impact, you should know that I live in the least populated area of a residential subdivision . As you face my house, there is a neighbor to my left ...then a small area of vacant land that is for a road that has never been developed because the lots behind us were never sold ... then there is our house ... then two vacant lots and another undeveloped road before the next house. Behind our property is an open field and woods. There is no road behind us.
When I first saw the vehicle, I assumed it might be the neighbor that I mentioned to our left as you face my house from the road. Her daughter lives on the road that intersects with ours and they have been known to cut across the field to go between the two houses rather than get out on the road. Strange I admit, but these people are rather like Deliverance meets the Beverly Hillbillies...very back-woodsy with more money than they know what to do with. The thing is, when they go back and forth that way, they don’t stop.
The other thing that made us a little concerned was that a neighbor from across the street had stopped by Thursday evening to suggest we be sure to keep things locked up because a car had been stolen the night before a couple blocks down the street.
Hubby and I watched the vehicle for about twenty minutes and it never moved, although we could occasionally see tiny lights that we assumed might be from someone smoking. Finally, Hubby had enough and called the Sheriff’s Department to report it.
As it happened, there was an officer fairly near by. He drove up and parked directly in front of our house in the edge of the yard, rather than in our driveway where the occupants of the car might see him. We let him in through the front door and he went to observe the vehicle through the back door as we’d been doing.
Hubby explained about our neighbors and the Deputy said he was very familiar with the family. Turns out the daughter from the intersecting street and her hubby have recently been released from prison where they were serving time for a variety of drug-related charges, and their son (mid-teens) was arrested just last week for under-aged drinking. The Deputy said we’d done the right thing by calling, even if it was them.
He was hesitant to approach them on his own because just last month, officers had been called to a similar situation on the far side of the county, except that the vehicle was parked on a dirt road. Assuming it was kids making out, a Deputy approached the vehicle. To make a long story short, the occupant of the vehicle had shot his girlfriend over in the next county (which wasn’t actually discovered until the next day). The end result of that call was that one officer was killed, another shot and probably left paralyzed (still in hospital) and the occupant of the vehicle ended up dead as well. So he called for backup.
Backup was two other Deputies and two Police Officers. They watched the vehicle while mapping out their strategy in the dark in our living room, but as they discussed what to do, a figure ran from the back of our boat to the vehicle and got inside. This got the officers out of the house, weapons drawn.
After a few minutes, the door to the vehicle opened and someone got out and started walking back toward our boat. The vehicle turned its lights on and started driving off in the opposite direction. At that point, one of the officers ran back to his car to intercept the vehicle on the intersecting street and another stepped out with a huge spotlight and his firearm aimed at the person walking. He identified himself as a Deputy and instructed the person to freeze with his hands in the air (apparently they really do say that).
The person kept walking for a bit and the Deputy repeated his identity and instructions, at which point the person stopped and turned toward the officers. He began walking in their direction then, arms at his side and holding something in his left hand.
The next command was “stop, and put your hands in the air or I will shoot.”
The person then did as instructed, and was ordered to get on the ground, face down. (Remember the rain? The ground was soaked.) When he did, two officers approached him. One put his foot on the guy’s neck with an AK47 aimed at him and the other patted him down for weapons before they let him up.
Well, it turns out, it was our neighbors ... but the whole story goes a little squirrelly from there.
The vehicle was occupied by our neighbor to the left and her live-in boyfriend. (Not directly relative to this story, but to further describe our neighbors, the woman is married. Her husband lives in the next state with his girlfriend, and sometimes they all take vacations together). She told the officer who intercepted her on the other street that she was sitting back there waiting for her grandson, who was coming home through the woods on his four-wheeler from a friend’s house.
Meanwhile, the grandson (who was the one on foot) told the officer at our house that his “MeeMaw” had been watching his Mom’s house to see if she came home with some guy named Kevin. He said he’d been out to the car to tell her she was wasting her time because his mother was at some other guy’s (David’s) house at the time.
The officer that had intercepted the vehicle followed our neighbor back to our house, where she started raging at us about calling the cops and one of the officers rather quickly told her if she didn’t want to have similar encounters in the future, she should stop behaving in a suspicious manner. She repeated her four-wheeler story to him and he turned around to ask the boy where his four-wheeler was (he was still some distance away talking to a different officer). He immediately said “It’s home in the garage. The motor blowed up about two weeks ago and MeeMaw won’t get it fixed.”
Meanwhile, the daughter showed up and she started having some sort of yelling match with her mother and an officer had to break them up. It calmed down fairly quickly when he asked the daughter if she wanted to be arrested for disturbing the peace (it was about midnight by then). He asked her where she’d been and she said she’d gone to the store to get a pack of cigarettes.
Ultimately, they all went home and the officers told us to call if it happened again. Evidently “Kevin” was the Dealer who got the daughter and her hubby involved in drugs, so catching either of them with him would be a violation of their probation, even if no drugs were present.
It took us a long while to fall asleep after that last night.
No, not THAT. Get your mind out of the gutter.
It was raining pretty hard and I went to the door to let the dogs out. As I opened the door, I noticed a vehicle drive up directly behind our property about midway between our two side boundaries and stop. It sat there only a moment or two with its lights on, then the lights were turned off but the vehicle didn’t move. I mentioned it to Hubby, who was busy turning off lights and the television.
To understand the full impact, you should know that I live in the least populated area of a residential subdivision . As you face my house, there is a neighbor to my left ...then a small area of vacant land that is for a road that has never been developed because the lots behind us were never sold ... then there is our house ... then two vacant lots and another undeveloped road before the next house. Behind our property is an open field and woods. There is no road behind us.
When I first saw the vehicle, I assumed it might be the neighbor that I mentioned to our left as you face my house from the road. Her daughter lives on the road that intersects with ours and they have been known to cut across the field to go between the two houses rather than get out on the road. Strange I admit, but these people are rather like Deliverance meets the Beverly Hillbillies...very back-woodsy with more money than they know what to do with. The thing is, when they go back and forth that way, they don’t stop.
The other thing that made us a little concerned was that a neighbor from across the street had stopped by Thursday evening to suggest we be sure to keep things locked up because a car had been stolen the night before a couple blocks down the street.
Hubby and I watched the vehicle for about twenty minutes and it never moved, although we could occasionally see tiny lights that we assumed might be from someone smoking. Finally, Hubby had enough and called the Sheriff’s Department to report it.
As it happened, there was an officer fairly near by. He drove up and parked directly in front of our house in the edge of the yard, rather than in our driveway where the occupants of the car might see him. We let him in through the front door and he went to observe the vehicle through the back door as we’d been doing.
Hubby explained about our neighbors and the Deputy said he was very familiar with the family. Turns out the daughter from the intersecting street and her hubby have recently been released from prison where they were serving time for a variety of drug-related charges, and their son (mid-teens) was arrested just last week for under-aged drinking. The Deputy said we’d done the right thing by calling, even if it was them.
He was hesitant to approach them on his own because just last month, officers had been called to a similar situation on the far side of the county, except that the vehicle was parked on a dirt road. Assuming it was kids making out, a Deputy approached the vehicle. To make a long story short, the occupant of the vehicle had shot his girlfriend over in the next county (which wasn’t actually discovered until the next day). The end result of that call was that one officer was killed, another shot and probably left paralyzed (still in hospital) and the occupant of the vehicle ended up dead as well. So he called for backup.
Backup was two other Deputies and two Police Officers. They watched the vehicle while mapping out their strategy in the dark in our living room, but as they discussed what to do, a figure ran from the back of our boat to the vehicle and got inside. This got the officers out of the house, weapons drawn.
After a few minutes, the door to the vehicle opened and someone got out and started walking back toward our boat. The vehicle turned its lights on and started driving off in the opposite direction. At that point, one of the officers ran back to his car to intercept the vehicle on the intersecting street and another stepped out with a huge spotlight and his firearm aimed at the person walking. He identified himself as a Deputy and instructed the person to freeze with his hands in the air (apparently they really do say that).
The person kept walking for a bit and the Deputy repeated his identity and instructions, at which point the person stopped and turned toward the officers. He began walking in their direction then, arms at his side and holding something in his left hand.
The next command was “stop, and put your hands in the air or I will shoot.”
The person then did as instructed, and was ordered to get on the ground, face down. (Remember the rain? The ground was soaked.) When he did, two officers approached him. One put his foot on the guy’s neck with an AK47 aimed at him and the other patted him down for weapons before they let him up.
Well, it turns out, it was our neighbors ... but the whole story goes a little squirrelly from there.
The vehicle was occupied by our neighbor to the left and her live-in boyfriend. (Not directly relative to this story, but to further describe our neighbors, the woman is married. Her husband lives in the next state with his girlfriend, and sometimes they all take vacations together). She told the officer who intercepted her on the other street that she was sitting back there waiting for her grandson, who was coming home through the woods on his four-wheeler from a friend’s house.
Meanwhile, the grandson (who was the one on foot) told the officer at our house that his “MeeMaw” had been watching his Mom’s house to see if she came home with some guy named Kevin. He said he’d been out to the car to tell her she was wasting her time because his mother was at some other guy’s (David’s) house at the time.
The officer that had intercepted the vehicle followed our neighbor back to our house, where she started raging at us about calling the cops and one of the officers rather quickly told her if she didn’t want to have similar encounters in the future, she should stop behaving in a suspicious manner. She repeated her four-wheeler story to him and he turned around to ask the boy where his four-wheeler was (he was still some distance away talking to a different officer). He immediately said “It’s home in the garage. The motor blowed up about two weeks ago and MeeMaw won’t get it fixed.”
Meanwhile, the daughter showed up and she started having some sort of yelling match with her mother and an officer had to break them up. It calmed down fairly quickly when he asked the daughter if she wanted to be arrested for disturbing the peace (it was about midnight by then). He asked her where she’d been and she said she’d gone to the store to get a pack of cigarettes.
Ultimately, they all went home and the officers told us to call if it happened again. Evidently “Kevin” was the Dealer who got the daughter and her hubby involved in drugs, so catching either of them with him would be a violation of their probation, even if no drugs were present.
It took us a long while to fall asleep after that last night.