Yesterday afternoon I was working at the computer and vaguely became aware of a police siren nearby. As I continued working, I could hear other sirens, and a helicopter hovering overhead. I figured something was up but I didn’t know what.
I went outside to see if I could locate the helicopter. It was blocked from view by some trees but soon it moved and I saw that it was a news chopper. That couldn’t be a good sign.
Time passed as I continued working. We needed to go to the grocery store and the wife asked me if I was ready to go. I put work aside and prepared to leave for the store. It was then that I noticed something odd. There is a school not terribly far from our house and it was about time for the kids to be let out. Normally we have a line of cars along our street as Moms wait to get their kids. There were no cars. In addition, there were no kids. It’s hard to miss them each day when they get out of school as they are quite loud. Nothing but silence.
I told the wife we might have trouble getting out of the neighborhood to get to the store. I explained about school not getting out and reasoned that if the kids were sheltering in place something was very wrong.
We got in the car and on a side street a police car was parked, lights flashing, and the cop watching traffic. As we went towards the front of the neighborhood we saw other police cars parked, with lights flashing.
We got to the main road which runs through the neighborhood and there were police cars all over the place. The street was blocked in the direction we needed to go so we ended up leaving the neighborhood through the back roads.
Later on we found out what happened. A young man was shot after an altercation with several other young men. From what police said the young man who was shot was in his car when it was approached by several young men. There was some kind of conflict ad one of the outside young men shot the guy in the car, who tried to drive off but swerved into a ditch. He was later take to the hospital where he died of his injuries.
Meanwhile, the two guys involved in the shooting ran through our neighborhood and ended up in an abandoned house. The house is a ‘party house’ and six to eight teens were in the house. The police ended up surrounding the house and dragging everyone out of it. The two murder suspects were among those removed.
There was speculation that the whole incident was over a deal gone bad for something being sold on Facebook Marketplace. This sounds dubious to me based on what the police said about how this whole mess started. You don’t usually meet in the middle of a road to conclude a sale. The two suspects were said to approach the car the victim was in, and after being shot the victim tried to drive away.
Things continued last night. Major Tom went nuts over something outside. I went outside with him as he checked the fence line. He kept going to the gate and sticking his nose under it. I looked over the gate every time he did but couldn’t see anything in the dark. I didn’t hear anything either.
Then this morning we were headed out to meet with the granddaughter. When we got to the car I was trying to do something. The wife sat in the front passenger seat and I noticed she was looking over the stuff we keep in the center storage compartment between the seats. I asked her why she had taken it all out and she said she hadn’t, it was sitting in her seat when she got in. I didn’t take it out.
Someone had gone through our car. Nothing was taken except for a couple of bucks sitting in the center of the dashboard we had leftover after buying a bag of ice. I checked the car and I don’t think anything else was taken. Fortunately we didn’t have the insurance cards in the glove compartment.
It is most likely my fault the car got ransacked. I don’t think I locked the car after I finished getting the groceries out. At least they didn’t damage the car just to get a couple of bucks.
This is making me rethink having a garage sale to get rid of our stuff.
Stay safe out there, my Hordeling.
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