About noon, Stretch started to get the Heebejeebies. Big time, started doing flips and shit…bouncing off the walls. Barking the “Danger Bark” Needless to say, he got my attention. I grabbed a gun. 30 seconds later a marked police car with lights on and siren wailing pulled into my driveway. I put the gun back in its nook. In the next 30 seconds there were 13 more of ‘em, and three dogs (Belgian Malinois). The police officers jumped out of their cars, in my fucking front yard, with their weapons drawn…three had shotguns. I’m thinking, WTF have I done to get this attention? I went to the front door, opened it, and one of ‘em told me to get down and stay inside. I’m trying to hold onto Stretch, who is going absolutely ballistic, and determine what the fuck is happening. I’ve got a shitload of cops, with their handguns drawn, some with shotguns, running across my front yard. Did I mention Stretch was in rare form?
About one minute later, I saw a lady cop and a boy cop carrying my neighbor’s 12 year old daughter across my front yard and put her in the back of the 1st police car parked in my driveway. I AM LIKE WHAT THE FUCK. Did I mention Stretch was also thinking WHAT THE FUCK is going on here. Cops, guns, and dogs. He ain’t use to that kind of attention. These fuckers were in my driveway and all over my front and back yard, so, no shit, I open my front door, with my hands raised, and walk out side. I’m not certain, but I believe the cops on the right had a gun trained on me. The police were all agitated. I can smell agitation, so can Stretch…did I mention that? He was doing somersaults. Anyway…coast is clear…they didn’t shoot me.
Turns out, her Dad, who is a good father and a nice person, just dropped her off for about a half an hour while he ran an errand. The doors were dead-bolted. She is a little buddy, no problem, and he is a good person. She is old enough to stay alone for a short period of time. She also knows if anything happens…run to Yabu’s. Right after her dad left, a 6 foot black male wearing a black tank top and pants on the ground pants, kicked in the front door. I did not see or hear a thing, neither did Stretch. So she ran to the back bedroom and called 911, and told them what was happening, and that she was going to crawl / jump out of the window and run over to the Juju Crib. 1st floor…short jump / fall…there would have been no problem. The 911 dispatcher tells her not to do that, so she stays in the back of the house, and the guy sees her. She saw him as well. At exactly that time, he heard the sirens, and broke for cover. She was not harmed, but is traumatized to say the least. We believe he ran through my backyard and through my neighbors backyard to a waiting getaway car. Whatever.
So, there are all these cops and dogs and guns and friends and neighbors and mailmen and rubberneckers around. Chaos, I tell you. I will say, the local police were on it. Their response time was FAST. So, the police had two female officers “assigned” to her. They were good, very compassionate, but I was listening to them interview her, and they did a good job. They really did…I was impressed. All of a sudden, as they were questioning her in the back of the police car, she looked up and said…”can I go pet Stretch?” The policewomen looked confused, so I told her that was my Doxie that was barking like hell in my backyard. She said of course you can. We go back to the Stretchengeti…escorted by a guy with a shotgun of course…and he (Stretch) made her moment. Too cool…I’m telling you…too damn cool. It made her settle down a tad. That damn Stretch does have a way with the ladies.
So, the K-9 people wanted to sweep my yard just to see if they could “get a hit”. I told ‘em I should probably grab Stretch before,,,so he wouldn’t hurt one of those huge ass Belgian Malinois. They said that wouldn’t be necessary, their dogs know how to mind. I asked if that was an insult, and they just smiled. Anyway, you should have seen Stretch trying to interact with drug sniffing, bomb sniffing, people sniffing dogs that are 30 times his size. Even the cops were smiling.
They couldn’t find the guy. He got away, and that is amazing to me…with the dogs and all.
Anyway, the nice young kid / lady is fine, but I don’t think she’ll sleep well for a while. She was pretty shaken up…so am I. I live in a nice neighborhood. Maybe, that’s the way it is.
You never know.
15 Comments
Stretch therapy is a good thing.
Yes it is, in more ways than one.
Good for Stretch!!! He’s one hell of a therapy dog. Sending extra pets and treats his way.
That poor child. It will be a long time before she sleeps well again. If you can, make a few suggestions to the father…
Have him look for those “prop” things people put on hotel doors. It won’t keep the door from being kicked in, but when she’s home, one of those on the “outside doors” will make her feel a bit safer and less jumpy. It’s an extra barrier if you will to keep the bad guys out. If nothing else someone would have to kick more than once to get in, giving her a bit more time. In this case though it’s more about making her feel safer. (and she’s going to be jumpy even with her father there)
Then if she’s really got a difficult time settling, I recommend martial arts classes – that is in all seriousness. It’s much easier to come to terms with something like this if you’re proactive. Her dad might need to look around, but there are excellent teachers out there who work well with traumatized kids. He may even be able to ask the police if they have any recommendations. Part of the fear in these situations is not having any idea what to do – with martial arts she will learn that she can do things to help herself in addition to calling 911 (which is good if they get there fast, but what if they’d been a few minutes later?). She won’t be able to beat up a big guy – but she can learn how to hit the vulnerable spots and with lots of practice it will become easy enough that she doesn’t have to think too hard under pressure.
You know, I replied to you off the blog, but she will be fine…there will be some “lifestyle” changes, as there should be. It is sad that people have to change because of all the dirtbags out there. I’m still shook up.
WOW. YAY for Stretch, but most of all YAY for your neighbor’s girl! And excellent police reactions all around.
Does your neighbor have a dog? Would they consider one? Would they arm her at all? Taser maybe? I know you probably don’t know. At 12 I had handled weapons, but I don’t think that’s the norm, especually nowadays.
In the meantime, she will need extra Stretch therapy.
I was pleasantly surprised at the police response. They were here fast, and a lot of ‘em…and they were serious. No, he doesn’t have a dog, but I did mention it to him. She wants a Doxie, and I told told him he could let it hang out with Stretch on the Stretchengeti when they weren’t home. As you know, Doxies have many “different” barks. When they do the “Danger Bark”, they sound much larger than they are. It’s because they have large long lungs. Fact. As you know, Doxies are not attack dogs…but they are the, at least mine is, the early warning system and my alarm. No way in hell anyone could sneak up on me when Stretch is around. No way. Even when he’s sleeping, he sleeps with one ear open.
Nope, I don’t believe he would arm her, or her brother…they are twins, not that has anything to do with anything. He couldn’t believe I shot that huge ass possum that was after Stretch and the Juju Woman, and finally me. He said, “you have a loaded gun in your house?”
Anyway, a lot of the neighborhood rubberneckers said that, because of this, they’re going to get a gun…this incident made them think. This was a big deal for my sleepy little neighborhood. The only thing that didn’t show up was a helicopter.
I recommended two guns…a 12 gauge shotgun with a short barrel, and a .357 revolver. What do I know? I do know they’re shopping today.
You’re correct, nowadays is different from thenadays.
Brave New World.
*especially…damn I just keep making badgers cry don’t I?
Anyone who can make a badger cry, gets a free dinner at my crib.
OMG! that read like a real scary movie! I am so sorry for your little neighbor girl but kudos to her for the fast thinking on her part. and the
5-O. I dont even want to think what could have happened if the perp did not hear those sirens when he did. OMG that is so frickin scary. She probably wont be watchin any scary movies for a while. Poor kid.
I don’t want to think about it either, but I would’ve killed the motherfucker if I’d gotten in the game earlier. No doubt about that. I just didn’t hear or see anything.
I feel bad about that, but it is what it is.
Damned shame they didn’t catch the creep.
You know my friend, it is a shame. With all the dogs, I’m surprised…he had to have a car waiting on the street across from our backyards. She was so scared, she had a difficult time describing the “perp”. If the police had to question all the black males with pants on the ground, they’d have to double their force. The times are a changin’.
How’d you like that Pyrat?
Glad there was a happy ending to this story, if you could call it that… would have been happier if they had caught the bastard.
Unfortunately, one of my colleagues at the Great Corporate Salt Mine faced a similar situation a few years ago. That one did not have a happy ending.
Glad your local Finest were on the ball. I know for sure you were, too.
You know my friend, you never know. This was a first for me, and I’ve been in some interesting situations before. I could feel her fear. I can tell you one thing for certain…she will never forget this. It did have a “good” ending, but she’ll never forget it. In the end, it will probably make her more aware, which is a good thing.
BTW, I’m giving her a rocket for the 4th. She is a little sweetie pie who will maybe grow up to be a Propulsion Engineer. You never know.
Dude, stay out of range with “agitated” cops with guns drawn. What the hell were you thinking?
That they didn’t shoot you by accident is a fucking miracle.
Plus they gave the kid terrible advice. Never listen to a cop on the best way to survive. They almost always want you to “do nothing” and wait for them to get there.
Which is almost always a bad idea, as this example proves once again.