Someone was arrested right outside my house last night

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

My wife told me this morning it was about five minutes to one. I’ll take her word for it, since she actually got out of bed. I was awake, but I didn’t even open my eyes. I just lay there listening to the drama.

We live about 100 feet or so from a T intersection, our street being the vertical line. We’re one house from the corner property, and the lots are fairly small. We’ve become used to traffic coming around the corner to get to the highway at the other end of the street.

Since it’s so very warm and muggy now, we had the bedroom window open, so we could hear everything. First there was a very high-pitched revving growing louder as it came down the street, then screeching brakes and tires, and the crunch of metal. Shortly after that, I was aware of flashing police lights and a lot of commotion.

A very young-sounding male voice kept yelling, “What did I do?” and then the police officer’s voice telling him he was under arrest.

A scuffle followed, and the officer kept telling him to calm down, and the kid was yelling “OW! OW! Somebody help me!” The officer told him he was resisting, and the scuffle continued. (Side note here: when a police officer tells you you’re under arrest, it’s not a debatable point. You are, in fact, under arrest, whether you did anything or not. You can straighten it all out later, but you are definitely under arrest.)

I don’t know how long the whole thing lasted, or what the kid hit, but eventually things calmed down and they drove away. A tow truck came by shortly after that and took the wreckage away.

We figure it was a high-school or college kid who made a dumb mistake, and tried to outrun the cops. Probably alcohol was involved, since being out at 1:00 isn’t a crime around here. It’s hard for me to have sympathy for the kid, since he chose to act irresponsibly. My wife feels for his parents. Imagine getting that phone call at 1:00 in the morning…

She also worries about our own kids. Our son more than our daughter, since she is 19, and has already shown her level of responsibility. The boy is ten, and boys are more likely to engage in such acting out. I don’t suppose it’s too early to have a talk with him.

Man, this being a parent gig is rough sometimes.

2

“Well, at least no one got hurt.”

Hopefully the kid will straighten up and fly right, and that you’ll never have to deal with this with your son.

Although, you do know that your son will wreck the car, right? But with the right kind of parental guidance, he will be stone cold sober when he does it. :smiley:

3

My SO once came upstairs from either doing laundry or taking out some trash and told me she was surprised by creepy-looking guy who was hiding under the stairs. Within half an hour, the complex was swarming with cops who were presumably looking for the guy hiding under our stairwell (we live in a second floor garden-style condo).

4

About two weeks ago (Sunday), I’m in the basement, doing laundry with the washer and dryer going, when my daughter hollars from the top of the steps, “Mom, Come quick, there’s a dead guy across the street!” Nothing has gotten my feet moving that quick in a long time…

Seems that the house across the street (which has been converted into apartments), there was (notice the usage of the past tense: was) a couple who lived on the second floor. The day before, she had hired a guy who lived two blocks down to fix her car. She paid him $40, but apparently that wasn’t enough and he wanted $25 more, so he broke into the apartment with a loaded guy, held it to her head. At some point her live-in boyfriend came into the room and the woman ran out of the apartment, down the stairs, across the street and to my next door neighbor’s house, screaming like a banshee. (Me, in the basement, never heard a word of this.) Mean while, the guy with the gun shoots the boyfriend at the top of the steps, twice in the back, boyfriend falls down the stairs, where he lands and proceeds to bleed all over the front porch and down the steps. Guy with the guy disappears amongst the confusion.

Police show up (as neighbors and media are gathering), as does ambulance, who quickly assess the situation and wait for the coroner to arrive. soon, the street is blocked off to vehicles (but unfortunately not the hundreds of people who have now gathered in my front lawn to view the dead body on the porch), crime taped the scene and the S.W.A.T has arrived two blocks down to storm the suspect’s house. (Of course, he’s not sitting in his livingroom watching Simpson reruns, but has already stolen a car and left the area.) Four hours later, the body has been removed, the girlfriend taken who knows where, and the fire department are hosing the porch and steps.

Oh, and the neighbors are STILL on my lawn.

…and, no, I didn’t stay out there, but went back inside shortly after the police arrived. (And no, this thing does not typically happen in our neighborhood!)

They caught the suspect two days later, in another county, and the Mayor said on the news that because he came to the scene with a loaded weapon, they’ll try for the death penality. However, I can’t seem to recall the last time a prisoner was executed in the state of Pennsylvania.

I related this story to a friend, and was amazed that a person’s life was worth $25. “No,” my friend said, “It was actually worth about 38 cents, which was the estimated cost of the two bullets which killed him.”

5

I took a look on my way to work this morning, and apparently, the car smashed into some large rocks at the base of a telephone pole. That’s what it looks like, anyway.

I’m glad the kid didn’t wreck anyone’s property but his own (or his parents’, more likely).