Anyone get any cool presents?
I got......my neighbor arrested!
Background: The house across the street is a rental and the owner got pretty desperate and rented to some low-rider chop shop owners who have friends in high-end Escalades and Benzes visiting for five minutes at a time at all hours of the day and night. Get the picture? Yeah, the other neighbors -- a mix of elderly retirees, executive types and young families -- are desperately hoping there's no Breaking Bad type of manufacture going on in the shed out back. The homies are not friendly and definitely keep to themselves.
So DH and I are watching The Tonight Show at about 10:40 when I hear all this hellacious banging. It sounded like somebody was trying to kick a door in. The house across the street where the noise was coming from was totally pitch black dark, so -- being as how Neighborhood Watch has given us instructions on being vigilant and protecting each other, especially in the wake of recent local burglaries -- we called 911 to report the noise. One police car arrived, lots of shouting, another police car arrives, more shouting, Fire Dept. Rescue arrives, an ambulance, some other police truck and the Chief of Police decided to come out.
As it turns out, the neighbor arrived home three-sheets-to-the-wind and without keys or wallet (don't ask how...I haven't a clue) and decided to break into his own house. Failing to kick in the door, he busted a window and got cut up pretty bad. About this time the police arrive to investigate and find a dark house, a busted window and a bloody guy without any form of ID. The snippets we heard from our porch concerned him not wanting to place his hands behind his back, lots of yelling about not wanting the police there, an observation about definitely needing stitches, the fact that no medics would arrive until the place was secure, more yelling about not wanting police in the house, lots of flashlights all over the interior of the house (could somebody PLEASE explain to me why lighs don't get turned on? This act drove me crazy watching CSI), more yelling about not wanting to ride in an ambulance and counter yelling about certainly not driving, and then the officer explaining to the Chief that they had to take a look around because the guy had no ID and they weren't sure there wasn't another burglar, and then lots of activity until well past 2:00 a.m. and talk of location of certain canisters and whether they could charge him with being violent to a police officer, yada, yada.
I don't know if they did a drug bust or if the guy was just drunk and disorderly, but at least
this house is now on the police's radar. I hope there's impetus for the neighbor to move as he and his roomies makes the rest of us rather uncomfortable.
Me, do I feel bad about this? Not really, because I would hope if somebody heard my house being broken into they'd call the police, so I was just being a good neighbor. Do I think the neighbor is an idiot? Yeah. No ID? No keys? No hidden key? So drunk he couldn't navigate? Listening to the whole thing unfold was rather fascinating in its sheer stupidity. His roommates arrived home about midnight and probably got questioned and detained for a bit. Don't know if anybody ended up going downtown as we went to bed. It's very quiet over there today.... Needless to say, it's probably one Christmas the guy won't forget. And I'm sure all the Services personnel sitting around with nothing to do enjoyed a little holiday excitement as not much exciting happens often in our little village.
