Gun and Bear It

I tried posting this a couple of weeks ago, but Blogger was down so you're getting it now...

Granted, I work in one of the most ghetto commercial districts of Lakewood. We've had cops storm our building to do reconnaissance on the pay-by-the-hour motel next door. We've had pimps drop their ho's out in our parking lot to start their daily walk. We've had thefts of our scrap metal from old furnaces. We've had boxes from blow-up dolls (complete with real life pictures of boobies) just hanging around outside. But somehow I never expected to see this...

Yesterday I started to drive home and suddenly came across a scene you think you'll only see in a movie. Three ordinary cars were pulled to the side of the road and a large man was standing on the sidewalk, casually holding a double barrel shot gun. Two other men were on either side of one of the cars, each pointing a handgun in through the front broken windows. I was beyond shocked at what I was witnessing. I got out of there as quickly as possible due to the proximity of mere feet between me and several guns and the fear of what might happen should I linger. Later on, I found the news story and it turned out that they were bounty hunters who had killed the man in the car. I pieced together the story with what I had seen and realized that I had arrived on the scene mere seconds after the shooting. I love that it was mere blocks from my office. (You can check out news coverage at: http://www.komonews.com/news/19196164.html )

Oh, but that wasn't the end of my excitement. The following day, I was in the parking lot of the Safeway by my house and all of a sudden 6-8 police cars pull up to the espresso stand. About 10 officers get out and draw their weapons. Half had hand guns and the other half had rifles. They started yelling and shouting to some people to get down. It took about 5 minutes, but they eventually got an elderly couple to the ground, cuffed them and put them in a police car. It was a thrilling thing to witness. I can't believe 2 in 2 days!!!!!!! What the heck? (My original email to people immediately after seeing the episode had "what the f**k" in it, but I decided to soften my words since there has been a bit of a time away from the thrill of the situation and my disbelief has lessened somewhat).