RSM789 Posted January 24, 2015 Posted January 24, 2015 I have a tale that kind of qualifies as a fish story only because I skipped going fishing this morning and was around when it happened. I normally fish on Saturday mornings, but the forecast was for high Santa Ana winds today, so I decided to go out on Sunday and get some honeydo's done around the house today instead. A quick background, we live in a nice housing subdivision in South Orange County. Not the million dollar homes you see on those housewife reality shows, rather a typical middle class neighborhood that is been well kept for its 25 years of existence. Our city is relatively quiet & crime free and most of the neighbors in our area know each other & look out for each other. A little bit of a throwback to the 1950's, in as much as you can in today's society. I am upstairs around 10:30 in the morning when I hear my wife & one of my son's talking about some guy parked out in the street. I'm not really paying attention to what they are saying until I realize my other son is now in on the conversation. Out of curiosity, I go downstairs and the 3 of them are watching (through our front bay window) this guy walk up the driveway of one of our neighbors. He is kind of sketchy looking, mid to late 20's with a Mohawk, someone that none of us recognized as a neighbor. My wife says he had put something in the back of his pants when he got out of the car & had crossed the street a couple of times, from one house back to another. He went up to the front door of a house 3 doors down & across the street, out of our view. 30 seconds later, he came back around to the front of the house, just kind of hanging out at the garage door looking towards the front door. After another 30 seconds or so, he turned the other way & hopped the side yard fence of the same house. I told my wife to call the police & I went out to get the license number off of his car (he was parked in such a way that you couldn't see the plate from our vantage point). I returned to the house, my wife is explaining what she is seeing and then reads them the license plate number I just got off the car. The police dispatcher yells to someone else on his end "We got him" and then keeps asking my wife questions about what is going on. About 2 minutes later, the guy hops back over the gate, walks to his car carrying something, and as he gets in, removes from the back of his pants whatever he had put there earlier. He then drives off as my wife relays what is happening to the police. I took off out the front door down the street (we live at the top of a hill) in the direction to see if I can see where he is going. I hear sirens, but they sound a bit off in the distance. After running a couple of blocks (barefoot), my son pulls up next to me in his truck & I get in. We get to the bottom of our hill (about a 1/2 mile away) and there are 6 or 7 police cars surrounding this guys car at a stoplight. 10 cops have there weapons drawn, a few with shotguns. We keep our distance as they have the guy get out of his car, walk backwards to them and end up cuffing them. After they clear his car, making sure no one else is with him, I walk towards the cops, motioning to one of them. He meets me halfway, I identify myself as the people who called it in & that we will be back up at our house if they need us. At that time, one of my other neighbors who is a sheriff for an adjoining city, pulls up. I tell him we were going to call him personally and he says it was better that we called the police, they had been looking for this guy for the past 2 days, he was responsible for a few "kick-in" break-in's. Turns out the guy is a druggie and had stolen some jewelry from our neighbors. He was targeting homes that had no cars in the driveway & no dogs barking. He had hit another house earlier in the morning & the homeowners walked in on him. He fled there and those folks had gotten part of his license plate, which matched the complete one I gave them. The cops told us he appeared high as a kite when they were questioning him. Looks like he will have some time to sober up over the next few months or years as he serves his time for breaking & entering multiple homes. Normally, I am coming home & telling my wife something unusual that happened when I was out fishing that day & that it was too bad she missed it. The one time she could have turned the tables on me, I just so happen to change my schedule and be home to witness it myself... 1 Quote
Super User F14A-B Posted January 24, 2015 Super User Posted January 24, 2015 Haha, sounds like he gets to kick heroin in county jail! Or whatever, anyway, this happens everyday in the louisville area... Sad, but true nonetheless Quote
Super User Sam Posted January 24, 2015 Super User Posted January 24, 2015 Good story. Glad you and you son did not try to encounter the crack head one on one. Quote
Super User Dwight Hottle Posted January 24, 2015 Super User Posted January 24, 2015 We need more people to use common sense approach like your family did. Congrats on being a good observant neighbor. 1 Quote
Super User FishTank Posted January 25, 2015 Super User Posted January 25, 2015 Growing up my dad use to talk about the "Fishing ***". It did everything from make the boat blow across the lake to make the fish disappear and some days he told me it said to stay home. For him and a few other fisherman of his day, it was as real as anything. Quote
RSM789 Posted January 25, 2015 Author Posted January 25, 2015 Good story. Glad you and you son did not try to encounter the crack head one on one. Thank you. For a brief moment, it was easy to think the solution would be to grab a baseball bat & meet the intruder as he was exiting the neighbors home. In the next moment, I knew that I didn't know what was in his waistband, how desperate he was or if a direct confrontation would lead to attempted retribution in the future. After the fact, I am glad we just made sure to provide the police with the up to the moment information they needed. No lives were in danger as this unfolded and a direct confrontation by an untrained person like myself may have just changed that. As vengeful as it would have felt to take a whack at his knee as if he was a piñata, I did gain satisfaction in imagining the look on his face as he made it to the bottom of the hill, thinking he had gotten away with it when suddenly the police swarm his vehicle. I bet it left skidmarks in his shorts... Quote
Super User SirSnookalot Posted January 25, 2015 Super User Posted January 25, 2015 Good thing you called the police instead of confronting him yourself. Quote
Super User Oregon Native Posted January 25, 2015 Super User Posted January 25, 2015 Most awesome.....thanks Quote
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