Evil Lurks...When You Least Expect It

Every morning I do several things within 10 minutes of getting out of bed:  bathroom, water, brush teeth and then I either get dressed to head out to run or not get dressed to run.  And if I am not going running, I go outside on my porch and sit down for about 5 min taking in the quiet and stillness of the morning.  I think about anything that might have bothered me in the night, but mostly I just enjoy that its morning and that I get to live another day.

And 98% of the time I do this, its anywhere from 5:15am to 6:00am, but generally its right at 5:30am.  If I am running before work, I am up at 5 and out the door at 5:30am. 

This morning I knew I wasn't running (only running on treadmill for now except on Saturdays due to ITBS), but as I laid there contemplating getting out of bed, I kept hearing this squeaky vehicle that had passed by a couple of times.  This is odd because either you are leaving or you are parking.  I live basically at the dead end into the parking garage.  I really didn't think too much about it to be honest, just that it was odd to me.  There is one resident there that I know that has a squeaky vehicle like that so I figured it was them possibly.

As I walked onto my porch, said vehicle was coming from the back part of the property and had again turned into 'my drive' towards the garage.  I heard him in the garage, turning around and I thought WTF?  Is this guy stalking someone, looking for their car? 

As I was sitting there and he emerged from the parking garage he clearly looked up towards me and knew I was on the porch, and another car had just turned towards the garage...the truck then pulled straight into a parking spot ahead and proceeded to get out of the truck and left his door open.  As he began walking towards the garage, I got a bit spooked for some reason and got up to go inside, and he looked up at me as he was passing by.

I went inside, locked the door immediately and went into my room, shut the window and pulled the blinds.  I had no idea where he had gone and even though I live on the 2nd floor of 3, I did what I did.  I went back to the living room to look through the blinds on the door and I could see his truck still there, driver side door open, and lights on, but I still had no idea where he had gone.

I then just decided to get in the shower and when I emerged about 10 min later, if that, I went to the door again, and there was the guy next to his truck and a man dressed in an HPD uniform!  And it appeared the guy was in handcuffs.

Periodically in between all the things I do to get ready for work in the morning, I would check outside and it wasnt until close to 7am that an actual police cruiser showed up.  That is what was weird to me!  Where had this other cop come from in the span of 10 min while I was in the shower?!  There was no cop car that I could see anywhere.  Had one of the resident cops come outside to go to work and noticed creepy guy?  I had no idea.

So I leave for work, dude is in back of patrol car and his vehicle is being searched.  Are you freaking kidding me?  WTF? 

After I get to work, the first thing I am thinking about is that this guy saw me, knows where I live and probably thinks I am the one that called the cops!  So I email my landlord about something else but also mention the incident this morning.  When she writes back and tells me that 'A' is an onsite HPD officer (lives there) actually apprehended the dude, I just replied back with how uneasy I was, so she called me.

Here is what happened:  So remember when dude exited his vehicle, left the door open and headed towards the garage?  Well the one car that had went by that I mentioned...well dude was going in there to rob that person!  Only dude didnt know when he was almost to the car, the guy exiting the BMW?

HPD.  Full uniform.  Boom. 

So a lot of this and that and basically ended up with po-po taking down the creepy guy and then of course thats when I come out of the shower to see none of that (it was actually in the garage anyway), only to see the aftermath.  At one time when I first saw the guy I figured he was probably scoping out the bikes that are chained up on that first floor, but apparently when he saw the BMW guy going into the garage he figured he would rob him?

Now here is where I get creeped out.  What if I had stayed on the porch?  What if the guy hadn't been a cop?  And what if this guy robbed/shot whoever and then ran from the garage and I was still there?

And what if I had walked outside to freaking go run?!?!?  I get creeped out 99.9% of the time I run that early anyway, but run in the middle of the road, opposite side of traffic etc., but still.  Part of me figures had I seen this guy before or as I was going downstairs I wouldnt have continued on.  My senses are extremely heightened that early and I am hyper-sensitive to anything out of the ordinary.  And if I am running, and a car even so much as slows down, I am going to bolt.  I've done it a couple of times, and one time in particular on an early Saturday run where the guy actually got out of his truck.   Ugh.  That still spooks me when I think about it.

Now this guy has some ballz too, because honestly 5:30am is not such a smart time to be casing an apartment property.  People ARE beginning to wake up and ARE out walking their dogs and what-not.  And apparently his phone rang while HPD cop#1 was waiting for back up and it was his friend down the road.  HPD cop#1 acted like he was the criminal and the person on the phone said 'dude, whats taking so long?  Its getting to be the time people will be getting up'.  And also apparently the guy has a record and is on parole, so he's going to jail fo sho.

But even so, I must say I am still spooked by it, and thankful that at least for a while, I won't be having to run before work.  I don't know that I could given what happened this morning.  I will stick to the treadmill, and only after work running on the roads, except for Saturday morning group runs.

Even though I live in a nice neighborhood, in a gated community and surrounded by nice neighborhoods, there is always room for the bad people.  They could be just a few streets over (zoning is dumb in this part of town), or they could just be driving by and think 'oh that looks like a good place to case'..

So my message to people is to be hyper-sensitive to your neighborhood and anything that doesn't look like it belongs or is just 'different'.  And call the authorities!  You just never know!  Your instinct is typically right on target, and if it isn't, no harm done at all!

Looking back on it now, instead of getting in the shower I should have called the cops.  If that had been just a resident and not a cop, they could have been hurt and I was the only one that had seen the guy, his truck and his license plate number.