Thursday, September 27, 2007

Last night...What a night...

I'd never been witness to a felony.

Until last night.

Heather needed to take Wonder outside at her apartment. I don't like Heather going outside of her place by herself because she doesn't live in a very good area of town. So, I went with her to take Wonder out.

After we did that, Heather brought me back to my place. She parked right out front of my building. We sat and talked for a little while. Right at midnight I decided I would let her leave and go back to her place to go to bed. So, I said I would let her go. Then I remembered to tell her something. While I was telling her, we watched something insane go down about twenty yards directly in front of us...

This little African guy (who we were later introduced to as Boniface who was originally from Kenya) was walking down my street alone. Right when he got to the corner of my block, another man came from the shadows. He was wearing a black hoody, with the hood over his head. He bumped Boniface. We saw an unusual exchange between the two men, and Boniface dropped everything out of his pockets onto the ground in front of him. Heather and I were silent. The other guy picked everything up and put it all in his pockets and then held a gun up to Boniface's face. Boniface begin waving his hands and blocking his face. Then, the guy turned and ran off down the crossing street.

After the guy was out of sight, I rolled down the window and called Boniface over. I handed him my cell phone after I dialed 911. He begged to get in the car with us. He was so scared... and rightfully so. He was in such shock that he couldn't remember most of the details of what just went down, so I had to tell him for him to relay it to the officer on the other end of the line. He told the officer that Heather and I were good samaritans.

Within ten seconds countless squad cars came zooming past us, driving in the direction we told them that the guy ran. I got out of the car to try and help. As I stepped out, I saw a motion light go on in the back yard of the place across the street, and I saw the mugger dart across the yard. I stood up on top of Heather's car and pointed frantically for the cops to see where he was.

The cops surrounded the entire block. They brought in a dog to track the guy and, before I knew it, a helicopter with a spotlight was overhead. I couldn't believe all this was happening. Heather and Boniface went inside my apartment to stay safe, but I wanted in on the action. Boniface and I eventually told our sides of the story and the cops went around trying to find the mugger. Heather went home. I told Boniface I was going to bed, and he thanked me over and over and said he wanted to come over this weekend.

I woke John up and he and I watched from the window, hoping to see the cops take the guy down. It got boring. Eventually cops were leaning against their cars with their guns back in their holsters. The chopper left, and slowly so did all the squad cars. I don't think they got him.

John went to bed and called me "The Hero"... I like to think that if they did make an arrest, it was because of me.

Needless to say, it was quite a surreal experience.

Boniface said something in the midst of the madness that I found really profound. He said, "Why did he do this to me? Why doesn't he just get a job and work?"

I think that someone should make a movie about my life.
I could play the part of me.

1 comment:

Josh said...

yeah, heather told me. pretty crazy.