In My Own Backyard!

Perhaps feeling guilty from the last time I failed to act quickly enough, today I believe I was inducted into my neighborhoods "Community Watch" program.

So I'm going about my normal morning business, drinking coffee and scanning the internet. My wireless internet is down so I wasn't on the porch as much as usual. My front door was open and I was sitting on my couch hardwired into my modem. I hear a man on the street below yelling. I come to the porch and see a man looking helplessly around yelling "Thief! Thief!"

He yells to other neighbors that have come outside that he's looking for a black man. He starts walking up my driveway and I get nervous. I call for the dogs and walk towards the backdoor to ensure it's locked. (Thinking that the thief might be looking for a house to hide in.) As I turn the corner into the kitchen, I hold my hands up in some sort of karate pose that I never knew I knew. No one's there. Relief. It's locked and I turn my attention back towards the driveway, sticking my head out of the window just in time to see the man cornering a young black man, with poofy hair in my backyard! The guy looks scared as the worker who has been chasing him starts to move in, yelling "Thief!" and pointing in his direction. I watch it all and grab my phone to dial "911". The kid jumps the fence next to mine and gets away. The worker then runs into my front yard and grabs a broom of some sort, taking the brush part off, (left with just the handle), and jumps into a car. He means business.

At this point I'm trying to describe stuff to the 911 guy, but also trying to figure out where they are going. I've completely lost the suspect at this point, so I tell the 911 man where the worker headed.

I was shaking and nervous but gave all the info I had. The street turned silent as the chase moved elsewhere, but with doors locked and windows drawn, I sat nervously, with the dogs, hoping that Thief wouldn't come back and get revenge on nosey neighbors.

It's now almost 30 minutes later and no police to speak of. The guy chasing him has returned and checked our backyard looking for the purse that Thief seemed to no longer be carrying. He couldn't find it, which worries me that perhaps Thief stashed it and will be back for it later. No one has heard from the cops and I salute the LAPD for taking such action against this criminal. Good to know I guess.

The lady that lives below me, the landlords sister, came out and ensured me that this happens all the time and that they never come into the houses. She said, "he'll do it again and eventually get caught." Good to know lady! Way to ease my nerves! So apparently, this guy snatched a purse off of a woman in a market down the street. I assume that the worker saw and chased him here. Also apparently, this market is not one that I'm going to be frequenting.

Well that's it for now. I guess it's over. He got away. But not for lack of trying! This worker guy was like superman chasing this guy.

Nothing like a criminal chase to wake a person up in the morning.


UPDATE: It took about an hour, but the police finally came. They were milling about in the backyard with the worker from before. I was brushing my teeth and looked down and noticed a black bag on the roof of the garage. As I went out to tell the cops, they had just seen it as well. Turns out, it was a bookbag but the purse was still missing. They get all my info and I went on my way. Let's hope they found that purse! And hope even more that Thief doesn't come back looking for it.