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Friday, March 5, 2010

7 Quick Takes Friday, #53




My Quick Takes this week are all related. Oops. Sometimes I need to break rules, and doing it through Quick Takes makes me feel satisfactorily rebellious while not actually doing anything serious. This is me being passive aggressive. Feisty, ain't I?



1. Do you remember when Justin chased off a would-be burglar from our house last year? Somehow that experience frightened me worse than what happened this week, which should have been immensely more scary. But the burglar was acting directly against us and our perceived security; this week, the occurrence merely went on around us. (Our neighborhood IS safe and quiet 364 days out of the year. It's just weird.) Here's what happened:


2. Wednesday night, I was proud of myself for getting to bed early; by 10 PM, I was reading in bed while Justin studied in the living room. Around 10:30, we both heard what we thought were fireworks, but it didn't register enough in our minds to wonder about it. A few minutes later, I heard voices in the street in front of our house, sounding pretty agitated or excited. I assumed the neighbors were out there for some strange reason, and was about to go see what was going on, when the voices got louder -- they were running along the side of my house. We live on a dead end next to the woods, and there's no reason anyone should ever be running back there without our knowing it.

I froze in my bed, not able to decide what to do next. The frantic voices got louder as they ran closer to my bedroom window at the back of the house, and then there was a racket of fence shaking and wall pounding. I heard "We need help! Call the cops!"


3. No longer frozen with indecision, I yelled for Justin who'd begun hearing the yelling outside, too. Two men ran around behind our house and up to our back porch, banging on the windows for help. They begged Justin to call 911: someone had been shot. Justin yelled for me to get the phone.


4. I have this recurring dream: I'm trying to dial 911, but I keep punching the wrong numbers, and as I'm fumbling such a simple task, time is running out. Maybe it was preparing me for this moment, I thought. I would be able to dial it correctly since my brain was so used to running through the scenario, I thought.

I ran out of the bedroom, dialing as I went. I punched the 9 successfully, then accidentally the 4, then tried to hit clear so I could re-dial, but hit the 3 instead. 911 FAIL. I got it right on the second try, though, and told the operator what was going on.


5. I stood at the back door, relaying information to the 911 operator from the men on my porch. One was covered in blood and terrified. The other one -- the one who'd been shot -- was sitting down, leaning against our door, and in pain. He was bleeding from under his ballcap, and on his abdomen. He was saying things about telling his boys he loved them and apologizing for mistakes he'd made. He thought he was dying.

On my porch.


6. The police and ambulance arrived shortly, just about the time the wounded man had to lay down with weakness. His vision was failing and his arm was numb. He was having trouble breathing. He was taken to the hospital and we heard later that his lung collapsed, but it looked like he was going to be OK.

We were questioned about what we witnessed and then stood around watching the crime scene work unfold. A fire truck blocked off our road and aimed day-bright floodlights at our house. Officers milled around talking to the other man and trying to piece together the details of the story. The authorities and investigators stayed around until after midnight, when Justin and I finally got to bed. Not so much to sleep, though.


7. What it boiled down to, was trash talk. These guys had words with some other guys, and got shot at for it. What in the world? You don't like what someone's SAYING, so you SHOOT them?

What. In. The. World.


That's all, folks. Head over to Conversion Diary for more Quick Takes, and have a beautiful March weekend.

20 comments:

  1. Nothing like a little excitement to spice up your evening eh?
    I'd still be shaking.
    So glad the gentleman is going to be all right.

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  2. Phew. Seriously, I'm so glad that you guys were safe throughout this whole ordeal, as weird and bizarre as it was.

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  3. How scary! A few years ago we drove just as the cops arrived for a shooting that had just taken place. The guy was laying up against the wall bleeding everywhere. He survived, but he had been shot 5 times at point blank range because he hadn't paid for lunch for his "friend". It really doesn't make any sense.

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  4. Are you kidding? Wow. I'm glad, weird as it sounds, that that's all it was. Did your girls sleep through the whole thing?

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  5. Oh geez, that would freak me out. And your kids slept through it all? Crazy.

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  6. CRAZY!!!! I just don't even know what else to say about that. Glad it all ended up okay. What about your porch? Are you responsible for clean up duty or do they have someone do that? Eeeew!

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  7. OH MY GOODNESS! I am so glad you all (and the guy) are okay. Did the girls wake up?

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  8. HOLY COW! That is INSANE!!! Did your girls sleep through all that - floodlights and all? And I'm wondering what Cortney's wondering - did you have to clean up blood on your porch?

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  9. Holy cow, that is crazy! It's like a scene right out of COPS! I'm glad everybody is ok!

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  10. Egads! And I am really sorry to say that I thought, just briefly, "I wonder if she took any pictures." I apologize for even the thought. I am bad.

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  11. Four Things:
    1. That is SO not the point of Quick Takes.
    2. I'm glad you shared that story.
    3. WHOA!
    4. Good thing your husband is Superman. :)

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  12. Wow! I think you win the prize for "Most Exciting Quick Takes" this week. What a story! The neighbourhood we live in is way worse than yours, I bet, and yet we haven't seen such an event yet. I did have the police storm into my house at 5am once to arrest a guy my downstairs tenant was harbouring who was a fugitive from the law-who knew? No shootings though. Did the girls sleep through the whole thing?

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  13. Holy Cow! Ho.Ly. Cow. I would have freaked out if that was my house. I too am wondering about the same things as your other commenters: did the kids sleep through it, and did you have to mop up the blood?

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  14. Oh my gosh... that is crazy!! What in the world is right! Glad you were all ok!
    ~Jennifer
    www.studiojru.com

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  15. Wow. That's just crazy. Crazy! I don't even have any more words...

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  16. I was gonna say, Holy Cow. But someone already said that. Holy mackerel.

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  17. Wow! What a crazy, random situation to just plop itself into your lives! I'm glad you were able to help and that after you're over the shock, this stressful event should have no long-term consequences for your family.

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  18. Oh my goodness!!! How scary! :( Glad you're all okay, although I'm sure you were quite shaken... ((HUGS))

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  19. It seems everyone had the same questions -- we all must have little ones and understand the importance of uninterrupted sleep :).

    My girls never knew a thing happened. They slept soundly through all the noise and floodlights. For this, I kissed the humidifier the next day. Love the humidifier and its ambient noise.

    And yes, we had to clean up all the messes ourselves. (It was like getting taxed twice...) Though really, the mess wasn't very extensive. The guy's clothes absorbed most of the blood, so there was only a bit to scrub away from the porch and fence. Justin did that. (He IS superman, Chelsea!)

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  20. Ahhhh CRAZY! I am such a scaredy-cat! I think I had heart-palpitations just reading this! Thank goodness you are ok and the "trash talk" wasn't closer to your home!
    CRAZY!!!

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Hmm...And how did that make you FEEL?