The Police and Me

This will probably be the earliest-ever post on Manzvillecanada... not by choice, as much as opportunity. You see, I was most abruptly awakened this morning at 0450 (4:50 am) by a incredibly loud acceleration/smashing/screeching noise. True I sleep with my windows open (thanks for the dog, honey) on a busy street - but this was exceptionally loud... and didn't sound innocent. People speed down both the street and the back-alley all the time... and I really thought maybe someone hit either a parked car in the front, or a garbage can (or two!) in the back alley.
My sweetheart being out of town until later today, the task fell to me to investigate. (Shucks!)

As I checked out the front windows, nothing appeared to be amiss... so I moved to the back alley (with my dog - in case anyone is worried... plus it was already pretty broad daylight as it has been since about 3:30 this morning). The first sight that greeted me was this:









"Hmm..." I thought. "Those big, splintered pieces of wood aren't usually there." (Unfortunately, the graffiti is). Looking around the parking area I saw more:



Usually this is an intact fence. And those large, dark, acceleration-looking tracks weaving toward the fence and just past the garage and Cody's car (within 6 inches!) aren't usually there, either. "Great zooks!" I thought. Well, maybe that would be an ambitious and articulate thought for so early, but I was a little flustered at the damage and apparent near-misses... plus I was still shook up from the initial awakening. :)

Enough seen, I went inside and called the police to come check it out. The lady on the phone assured me that officers would be there shortly... so I got more dressed and waited. While sitting in the living room, I thought, "Hmmm... if I was Kurt, wouldn't I want to know what is going on?" :) So I placed a call to his cell just after 5 am... and when my groggy sweetie answered (and wasn't even grumpy!) I told him "Hi honey - good morning... just thought I'd call you while I'm waiting for the police to get here." That woke him up.

Heh.

Needless to say, he made me assure him that everything was okay and that I wasn't hurt, etc... but was also kinda shocked at my story. Not shocked enough forget to tell me to make sure I was dressed, not shocked enough to stay on the line until the police got here (a 911 operator he is not), and also not shocked enough to stop him from telling me he was going to get another hour of sleep... but I digress. (I love you, babe!) So I went out to take another look before the police got there, and took a closer view of the destroyed fence corner... the closer I stood, the worse it looked!
















The officers who pulled up were awesome (Kudos to the local police service!). They were courteous, interested and really kind... and they were also stumped at what direction this guy was coming/going from as he hit not only our fence, but punched in another neighbor's fence and grazed another one further down. The squealing brakes I heard were probably the guy narrowly missing another neighbor's garage. They told me they strongly suspected that it was a stolen car... but had no way of telling for sure.


After they talked to the neighbor with the most damage (his fence seen here) - who said he heard the noise but had no idea where it came from - they drove off to find the bad guy (we all wished), the neighbor went to work (golf pro) and I (after taking a few pictures for posterity's sake) came in to blog before going back to bed. To each their own equally important task. ;-D



Other than the fence damage, Cody's car escaped with a small scratch (instead of being creamed like it very nearly was) and the flying wood appears to have missed it completely... no broken windows. The fence is repairable, the adventure is over... but it will live on in my memories... and my blog. Praise the Lord - who else claims to be the God of "near-misses"?




That said: Have I mentioned that I can't wait to move to the country? :)