My morning prayer walk started out cloudy, but beautiful none the less. Although some of the landscape is changing, as we float through our Spring (actually, it's not even spring yet...according to the calendar), the color is still popping! I love it!
On my walk I often pass one of our neighbor's, Gordon and "G" dog. Gordon asked me, "did you see the set of keys on your street this morning?" I told him that I had not seen the keys, but noticed some of the papers and I was going to pick them up on my way back home. He told me the last time he returned keys to the police station they kept him for 1/2 hour...hmmmm...I thought to myself, "if I see the keys I'm calling the police!"
So, when I got near my home, I did indeed see the keys and thought, "this could be a crime scene...this could be from a home invasion...this could be...Oh yes, I'm calling the police." The dispatcher told me he would send a patrol car out right away. They must have had nothing else on their plate as a set of keys on the street in the middle of a residential area is small potatoes.
While waiting for the police officer, I was talking to Lacee about seeing the keys and calling the police and no more than I got the words out, I heard our street cleaner coming down the street. I screamed and ran outside saying to myself "no, no, NO!!" I looked the opposite way and here came a patrol car. I stood right in the center of the street so neither the police or the street cleaner would run over the keys. Well, truth be told, the street cleaner hadn't even turned around to come back yet. The police officer had a smile on his face when he approached the crime scene...asked me a few questions...and I'm sure I heard him laughing! The street cleaner stopped, seeing the area was under investigation. I asked if I was needed any longer, and the kind police officer (with that smile and I think I heard him laughing again) told me "no, but if I do, you live here, correct (pointing toward my house)?" Of course I answer, "affirmative!"
Lacee told me I was going to get arrested for sneaking around and taking photos of the crime scene. I wasn't a licensed forensic photographer (I hid behind our fence)...our tent trailer in the foreground, the police patrol car sandwiched with the street cleaner on the other side. What you can't see is the police officer scooping up the "evidence!"
The police officer (the one with the shiny thing on his chest near the patrol car) and the street cleaner man (the one in the orange shirt near the police officer) both got back in their vehicles. The police officer traveled one direction and then...
...the street cleaner traveled the other!
Well, it was completely out of my hands now. If it was a home invasion, the police officer had his hands full for sure. I was just hoping we weren't next (sigh)!
I got back to my housework...folding clothes and putting them away and of course a call to my friend, Cherie, to tell her of my excitement...when the door bell rang. It was the police officer. "Wow, he must need my help again", I thought. There was that smile again and..."I just wanted to let you know, I found the owner of the set of keys." Oh, now that is one big showoff if I've ever seen one. It hadn't been more than 5 minutes. He continued, "The keys and paperwork belong to your neighbor a few doors down. I noticed that there was a VW key on the set and looked up and down your street to see if there was a VW car parked near by." Now I'm thinking, "What? No forensic work? We were talkin' a whole crime scene with papers all over the place and a set of keys...yeah, a set of keys!!!" The polite police officer continued. "I guess what happened was, their son had placed the keys and paperwork on top of his mother's car and forgot he had. She took off for work this morning and had no idea they were on the car. So, it all fell onto the street. Your neighbor was so thankful that you called me!" I'm thinking to myself, "Okay Mr. PO-LICE-MAN, if you puff your chest out any farther, your badge is going to explode!!"
Well, it wasn't long before things got back to normal! And, as much as I enjoyed my private moment of forensic photography (I'm pretty sure if I had just a little more time and was invited in on the investigation, I could have solved the crime myself), I don't think criminal investigation is in my future.
