One of my neighbours, Eric – who has always been a bit of a nutter, but otherwise very pleasant – went berserk last night and threatened to commit suicide. He confronted one of my other neighbours with a wad of cash, saying “I’d like you to have this before I go”, then pulled out a knife and started cutting himself. She started yelling, and her dog started barking, and I happened to see it all over the fence because I was outside in my garden taking some very wet washing off the clothes line. So I ran inside and phoned the police. And they certainly arrived quickly. I could hear the sirens approaching within about 30 seconds of putting down the phone. Then I went next door to help out my neighbour.
We tried to calm him down, and so did the police when they arrived, but nothing was working. So then they maced him, and when that didn’t seem to do the trick, they pulled out the taser. Ouch! Those things obviously hurt. But at least Eric was stopped from doing any further damage to himself. Then the ambos carted him off to hospital and the police took statements from us.
It was quite late before I had calmed down enough to go to sleep!