Just about the time Yordan Alvarez was hitting a monster home run in the bottom of the ninth inning, at around 10:10, I heard a loud noise. At first I thought something had fallen off a shelf and crashed onto the floor. But it sounded like a gunshot or a nearby explosion, to be honest. I ran in to check on Chris, but she was still asleep. I stepped outside and looked around the front yard. Nothing that I could see there. I came back in and walked the entire house, looking for whatever could have been the source of the noise. Freddy was waiting at the door when I opened the laundry room, and she ran into the living room, obviously nervous about something. She apparently heard it, too.
When
I could find no evidence of anything, I turned off the front porch light and
locked the front door, as is my custom after an Astros game. I had to pick up Freddy to get her back into
the laundry room, though. She was
shaking like a leaf, sure that something was afoot. And she wanted no part of that very loud “something”
any more.
About
that time I looked up and Chris was standing there. She asked if I had heard the sirens, or if I
had seen the police cars that were next door … again. Yep. More
police action last night on Sycamore.
Sure enough there were no less than four police cars blocking our
driveway. The whole street, in fact. Police officers were scrambling around with
flashlights, obviously searching for a suspect.
On was armed with what appeared to be one of those small machine guns (but
what do I know about big-time weapons?).
When I saw him I figured the suspect must be considered armed and
dangerous, so I went back inside. Actually
I went in to answer the texts from Janell across the street. Seems Brennan had heard the loud noise as
well, followed by yelling, “Hey, you.
Get back here!” and the like.
I
finally went back out to check out the police follow-up (the big guns were
now safely tucked away). An officer
saw me and asked if I had heard or seen anything, or was I just out checking
out the situation. Trick question. Yes to both actually. But I told him I had heard the explosion and
came right outside, but I didn’t see anything.
He walked away, but the scene supervisor came over right after that, and
we chatted a bit more. I told him I was
the FD chaplain and had been praying for them.
He appreciated the prayers, and then kind of filled me in on what they
knew. Someone had thrown a concrete
paver and broken the neighbor’s car windshield.
Then they threw the paver completely through the driver’s side
window. And the slashed the front tire. As he talked he glanced down at our flower
bed and said, “The paver looked just like those. Are you missing one?” We walked together to the flower bed, and
sure enough, one of the pavers was missing.
Imagine that. One of my pavers
was involved in a criminal action. I didn’t
know whether I should be proud or horrified.
I told the officer that they were more than welcome to keep the
offending hunk of concrete if they needed to.
He chuckled and assured me he didn’t think that would be necessary. I let Janell know the fuller details so they
could go on to sleep. And I figured I
would do the same. Sigh. Excitement on Sycamore. This kind I can do without.
Isaiah
43:2 says, “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when
you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not
be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.”
Father,
would you touch the heart of whoever is doing the vandalism? Amen.
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