I was on the phone with Carissa, staring out my bay window (as per usual) when I saw something strange. Across the street from me is a bus stop and the glamorous E&E Electrical Supply, a view I often make fun of but actually really enjoy for all the people-watching opportunities. While one or both of us chattered on about something apparently unmemorable, I watched a man in black clothing hop over the gate next to E&E while another man in black clothing tossed him a duffel bag. I said “I think I’m watching a burglary. Am I supposed to call 911?” Perhaps a bit slow, but in my defense, I didn’t wait for an answer.

While I was on the phone with 911, the other man was watching the street, playing lookout. After about a minute he hopped the fence too. Both were now hidden from my view, but the rest of the fence was covered in barbed wire, so neither could leave without me seeing them. After another minute a cop car rolled by, but was apparently oblivious to my call. I saw one of them run up to the fence to make sure he didn’t stop (and he didn’t). Three more minutes and they were both back over the gate with the duffel bag and around the corner.

Just in time a cop car responding to my call made it to the intersection, but instructions traveled slowly through the chain: me to the 911 dispatcher to the cop dispatcher to the cops. Where they should have turned left they instead went straight and I was sure the two had gotten away. Fortunately I got a call a few minutes later and they had two suspects down the block. It was a slow night for the cops, by their own admission, so the manhunt and crime scene inspection involved at least 8 officers. When the cops surveyed the site, what they found was an empty parking lot next to E&E. There were no doors into the building. Apparently I had just inadvertently busted some taggers. I most certainly would not have called 911 on some taggers writing on a brick wall in an empty parking lot. If it was the front of a business or something more destructive, sure, but the wall they wrote on was pretty much an ideal spot for tagging. I was unsure what to do about the two suspects waiting for me down the street.

Fortunately my dilemma resolved itself because I honestly couldn’t positively ID either one of them. Both got taken into the station, however, because one fought with the police and the other admitted his tagging name which was then found on the wall. Had you kept it cool, kids, you would’ve walked away. Ah, well.