strange business is afoot
This will keep my street talking for months.
Last night, around eleven, as I had just gotten into bed, I heard somebody
yelling, "Get DOWN! GET DOWN!"
At first, I thought it was my neighbour yelling at his dog. But it wasn't my
neighbour's voice, and his dog, although he's the largest rottweiler I've ever
seen, doesn't need that kind of direction.
Then I heard, "DROP IT AND GET DOWN ON THE GROUND NOW!"
Police.
I wander downstairs, trying to figure out where this noise is coming from, and
I hear a blood-curdling scream. And then another one, and more shouting to
get down and stay still. Then I hear, "What's your address?" and the reply is
the address of my next-door neighbour. Odd.
My entire family has congregated in the living room. We determine the sound
is coming from next door, although it has moved from the driveway to the
backyard. Dogs are barking all up the street, so it's kind of hard to hear
what they're saying, although I can tell the constable is having trouble
holding this guy down, as he has to hit him a few times with his MagLite.
Accompanied by more blood-curdling screams and "GET OFF ME! YOU'RE HURTING
ME! THIS IS BRUTALITY!"
We were getting kind of worried: one cop and a crazy man? But luckily backup
showed within five minutes. And what backup it was! A cruiser and two of
those huge black SUVs.
At this point, all my neighbours deem it safe to emerge from their houses and
find out what the hell is going on. They're all old, so they're all in their
pyjamas. My next-door neighbour, Joe, comes out of his house and the police
approach him, while his wife, Rosa, remains on the porch. While Joe and the
officers go into the backyard to see if the suspect dumped anything, the
suspect was dragged by three officers into the back of the cruiser, kicking
and screaming. Once inside, he started yelling that he couldn't breath. We
could hear this because all the cruiser windows were open.
Rosa tells us that she saw the suspect and the police officer wrestle the
entire length of her driveway, from back to front and back again, before the
backup arrived.
We hear an officer telling the suspect not to run from police, and we
determine that he has knocked over the Scotiabank ATM at the end of the
street, and that another suspect is still on the loose. Three officers go off
down the street to where he might be.
My dad goes out to talk to the constable who is still talking to Joe, and
finds out that, yes, indeed, they did knock over the bank. He told me that
the ranting and raving suspect was curled in the back of the cruiser, and
that, although he was black as the ace of spades, he was sweating so much he
was white in the glare of the headlights. He was on something that took him
out of this world. Apparently, the constable had chased him through all the
backyards on my block, which all have six-foot fences or higher.
I was quite impressed with that officer. He was half the size of the suspect
and still he brought him down -- with difficulty.
The funny thing is, my next-door neighbours on that side also have a
rottweiler, and this one is vicious. He was inside last night, but if he
hadn't been, he would have torn the suspect to shreds. The constable said
that if that had happened, they would have waited for the dog to finish with
the suspect before they took him away.
Anyway, that's all I can really remember about it, but it sure was interesting.
Out.
Posted by Ally at September 19, 2005 09:58 AM