For a time now, I have been very thankful that our parked cars have been free of random "intrusions" for a number of years of now. By intrusions I mean not only the smashed window in search of what might be found fast in the glove compartment but also the exterior being side swiped by other cars, keyed by pedestrians, damage to locks or otherwise screwed with.
This morning caught us right up to up date though! As seen in the above photo, something made contact with the blue Prius and the black Lexus. In the photos below is the striking vehicle, a Dodge Caravan, abandoned by it's driver and two occupants about three cars down from the black Lexus. The driver turned the Caravan off, took the keys and left the lights on.
This happened sometime around 7:45am. I would have saved a fair amount of aggravation had I been in bed and slower to respond - maybe even slept through it all - but instead I was up and working in the front room on the first floor when I heard the sound of metal being hit. I looked out the window immediately, thinking at first that somebody or something had done something to either the neighbor's or our metal front porch. Then I saw that a mini van was stopped in the street and it was clear there was damage to the front of the passenger's side. It was clear that the mini van had side swiped a car but I could not tell which car. I then went outside to see what was up with anyone in the mini van and see which car had been hit. As no one had jumped out the doors and started running (as I have seen before), I thought maybe there was a chance the driver was legit.
As I came up to the rear of the van, the driver, a Hispanic male about 25 with a short pony tail and blue and white sweat shirt on, was getting out. He looked fine and made no indication that he was hurt or that anyone in the van was hurt. He looked tired but not drunk; his motions were even. As I scanned the park cars, I saw that about three cars behind where the mini van was stopped, two cars had been hit; one of the cars was ours, the other one belonging to one of our longtime neighbors.
I asked the man about registration and license; he seemed to be getting something out of the mini van and talking to someone in the van. The rear side door and the passenger front door had opened and two Hispanic men, one also about 25, the other a little younger looking, were beginning to get out. One or both of them also had a short pony tail. Neither of the two men seemed to have been hurt. The driver continued to seem to be getting something from the vehicle when I realized that he was not doing anything about his license and registration and he was telling the other two that it was time to go. And away they ran, leaving the mini van in the middle of the street.
As this was all happening a few different neighbors were calling the police, who took more than 15 minutes to appear. As the police (two officers, one patrol car) did not find the mini van listed as stolen, their attitude was that nothing was suspicious about the three men running away. They found a registration and expired insurance card in the van -which they somewhat reluctantly shared. After talking to a few neighbors and getting info on the two cars hit, they basically sat in their cruiser for two and a half hours until the tow truck came to collect the mini van. After the flares burned off in about 20 minutes, the two officers made no effort to keep other cars from turning into Fairmont from 11th St. or to warn cars coming down Fairmont that the road was blocked. They only got out of the cruiser if a driver was trying to make a U turn to return up Fairmont.
When the men were running from the car, I saw one of the man throw a black leather looking case into the curb side storm drain. The officers were not interested in the least about that, refusing to even listen to the information. Basically they seemed to be on a mop up mission that allowed for a lot of sitting. Two and a half hours of sitting in the cruiser seemed to me to be a very ineffective use of the police. Is this what passes for community policing?
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