Yep, you heard me right, our peaceful and fun family picnic was interrupted by crime.
We had just finished eating and were just hanging out in patio chairs and playing with the dogs. Sweet Pea wasn't feeling great and was lying down inside, Spencer and I were sitting in patio chairs, and Babydoll and Little Man were playing in the grass in front of us.
We heard sirens, but that's not all that uncommon, and then they got louder. And then they got loud enough for us all to start looking behind us past the backyard to see if they were driving by.
All of a sudden a white van came screaching around the corner into the alley behind my aunt's backyard! The van hit the telephone pole as it jumped the curb to turn, and we thought for a second that it might crash right into her fence. My first thought was, "oh exciting! We'll watch the cops chase this van down the alley and wonder the rest of the day if the they got him!"
But then the van sort of pulled into the neighbor's driveway nearly hitting another fence, and the squad car, sirens screaming, pulled right up behind it. By this point the guy on the run had already gotten out of the van but I didn't see him yet because the moment that van stopped behind my aunt's house Spencer and I were up, grabbing the kids (except SP who was inside) and heading for the safe spot along the side of the garage. We didn't know if the guy had a gun, if any shots were going to be fired or what was going to happen, and it all happened in a couple seconds!
Right away the guy stopped running and the officer had him in handcuffs. By this point there were two squad cars, with a third pulling in.
Once we were sure the coast was clear we came out of hiding with our kids. Sweet Pea by this point was outside with us, she had heard all the commotion and came out to investigate. We would have brought the kids inside but it all happened so fast!
We watched the officer who caught the guy give him a breathalizer test, and pull a bag of drugs out of his pocket, and after a while put him in the back of the car.
Say hello to the scumbag who was speeding like a maniac through a residential neighborhood! He's the one you can't really see in the back of that squad car!
See how relaxed we were at this point? Well, my heart was still pounding, but for the most part we were feeling pretty safe now. All the neighbors came out to investigate, including the nice older gentleman who lives next door to my aunt and uncle. That's him leaning on the garbage can. My uncle Paul is the one smiling and taking pictures on the left.
When the officer came over to us to get witness info from a couple of the guests, Babydoll took the opportunity to ask him some questions. "Did you catch the bad guy?" "Are you gonna take him to jail?" The officer told her that yes, he was going straight to jail." Babydoll also told everyone that jail is like when you have to go to timeout!
Apparently I have some ambulance chasers in the family, and they decided to go take a look at the perp's van!
That's the dent from when he hit the telephone pole. That's my uncle Dave, and his mother-in-law Maxine. She's about 4 ft 9in tall, and had to get out there and inspect the van, and from what I heard - kick the tires.
When it was all over, the speeding maniac was hauled off to jail, the white van was towed away, and the cops eventually pulled out of there.
And the kids were left with a story to tell, about how the cops caught the bad guy at Aunty Karen's house!
2 comments:
that was a very exciting family picnic! You forgot to mention the speeding maniac was going 70 mph on side streets!
How exciting. Good lesson for kids that the cops are okay to talk to and that everyone has to pay for wrong doing.
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