... of my "Things To Try Before I Die" list.

1) Be on my knees in the middle of the street and handcuffed at gunpoint by 4 police officers and a K-9 unit <check>

Christ, am I glad this night is finally over... at least I didn't need any bail money I think this beats any story the rest of you might have about getting a traffic ticket. Had to go have a burger and an apple after all was said and done.

I'm just happy they returned my sidearm to me. Of course, Merri wasn't too happy about opening the door to the sight of an officer's 9mm barrel pointing at her and being asked "Where is the weapon?!", but I think she'll survive.

Maybe moving to Texas isn't such a bad idea

 

wow... gonna have to hear about this one...

 

Ok, you absolutely have to explain this one!

Did this really happen to you? Where? When? Why?

 

Dan, Have you been having flashbacks to "Nam" again ? Are you o.k. and what the hell happened - If it makes you feel better I dropped a valve on my # 2 cylinder and need a new motor

 

I'll try to keep it fairly short and sweet...

Even though our property clearly states "No soliciting" on signs around the property, the guys most companies hire to actually do the soliciting either aren't very intelligent, don't care, or both. Either way, when you tell them about the property rule and ask them to leave, the best you can hope for is for them to take a long walk around your building and start on the next building. This little gem of a story revolves around one of those in the latter group, didn't care and wasn't intelligent enough to know any different.

Meredith answered a knock at the door (WHY she did this when she couldn't clearly identify the guy is beyond me ), which quickly turned into an argument. She politely informed the guy that selling magazines (don't you just LOVE those guys?!) was soliciting (DUH!) and that he needed to get off of the property. He started off with their usual arguments of "Well, your neighbors didn't have a problem with it", etc. He even claimed that he may have been giving away a million dollars. Of course, that quickly turned into nasty comments towards Merri. I knew it was a solicitor, I knew what to expect from these guys, but she was continually asking him to leave and the only reply she was getting was more and more nasty comments.

Sooooo, I slid my sidearm into the back of my pants (just in case) and went downstairs to show him there was another person in the household, not just a pushover female. Now it was MY turn to tell him where to go. When it was obvious he wasn't going anywhere but to the next door, I turned around, set my sidearm on the steps, and walked outside, again telling him it was time to leave and when the police showed up (Merri told him she was going to call them) we would BOTH escort him off of the property.

Needless to say, he didn't like that one bit, so he started backtalking, saying things like "Oh, you think YOU'RE going to walk me out?" (of course, I'm being very generous with the quality of pronunciation). He approached a woman further down the building who had just come outside and said "Ma'am? This guy is threatening me, can you call the police?" He seemed to be walking off of the property at this point, so I went back inside and called the non-emergency police line asking for an officer to come by and get rid of this schmuck when no other calls are coming in.

TBC...

 

Oh, this is gonna be good!

 

can't wait.

 

The woman at the other end of the phone (Liz, very sweet girl) takes down my details and says an officer will be around shortly to talk with me about it. I forgot to give the apartment number, so I stand outside waiting for them to show up.

Well, they showed up surprisingly fast... and the solicitor was in tow. Uh oh... and they also have their guns drawn. Uh oh, I hear them say to the solicitor "That's the guy, right?". Hmmm, I think my night just got a little more interesting

Their commands came quickly... hands on your head, step into the middle of the street, on your knees (that's usually MY line). The cuffs come next, a pat down, and a quick third degree about what happened. Seems when the woman called she called in a frantic state (no one can stand this woman, I think she's getting evicted soon), so the officers thought some real wacko was out there waving a gun around at people.

They talked things over with me, Merri, and this drain on society for a while, matching up stories. They took the cuffs off after a few minutes when it was obvious to them I wasn't a psycho.

In a nutshell, I did nothing illegal. The solicitor was working without a license (one of those deals where the manager who supposedly has the license has a hotel room in Miami with 50 guys living out of it, they drop these guys off for a day in various areas and pick them up at the end of the day). To really top it off, he was just released from prison in Ohio. Yes, folks, we had a true winner of society at our doorstep

I have to say, the officers were really cool about the whole thing. Several of them are the same guys we deal with when there's trouble on the property, so they knew Merri and me. I shot the shit with the K-9 guy while he was watching over me in handcuffs... learned some cool stuff about their training, etc. After I was out of cuffs, he saw my UF shirt and asked if I was a fan? I told him I received my BSEE from there, to which he replied "Looks like we'll have to take you to jail after all"

In the end, the officers gave him a verbal warning never to come back... they didn't want to do any paperwork, and I can't blame them for that. The surprising thing to me was they actually apologized for having to bear down on me with their weapons and cuffing me. I mean these guys were doing their jobs, doing it efficiently, and still managing to be nice about it all considering the possible bad circumstances they were walking into, and they apologized for it all. I completely understood where they were coming from and knew they had to cuff me, etc., but they didn't have to apologize for just doing their jobs. My hats off to those guys, they definitely deserve hazard pay.

Afterwards, we went out to Ruby Tuesday's for a burger and an appletini

 

Oh, I forgot to add... while I'm sitting there in cuffs, I get a call on my cell phone. I thought it might be Merri, but couldn't answer it. It turned out to be Liz at the station, asking if I would call her back.

While at dinner I did, explained the whole situation, and we got a big chuckle out of it. I suppose things may have gone better for me if she was able to get my complaint to the officers about the solicitor BEFORE they got the 911 call from the wacko further down the building... but what are you going to do The officers were actually surprised to hear from Merri that I called the police... they had not yet received the call, so all they knew about was some wacko waving a gun at someone.

 

Oh, I have all kinds of great, funny stories about that night. The officer went to get weapon and had to ignore the other... <ahem>... "personal" items in the nightstand. If anyone needs clarification, ask Richie, as he's well aware of what I'm speaking of from my little move-in party