Happy Halloween!
You'll never believe the hilarious end that Aaron and I had to our Halloween night.
We go all out for Halloween with ghosts, ghouls, gravestones, dead bodies, cauldrons, mannequins - the works - and thus we've plunked quite a bit of money into decorations. In past years, teenagers have decided to steal some of the decorations out of our yard late on Halloween night and so we've begun the habit of moving all decorations into the garage after the last trick or treater to avoid theft.
By about 9:00 p.m. Halloween night, the trick or treaters had peetered out and Aaron and I, along with our friend, Suzanne, began to remove our Halloween deocrations from the front garden. This took only approximately 20 minutes (setting up takes 2 days!). Suzanne then took her leave and Aaron and I began to take care of the mannequins and pumpkins that were inside the house. By 9:30 p.m., I was standing on a stool on the back balcony removing a hanging ghoul. I noticed a group of late trick or treaters walking across the street. I quickly jumped down and shouted to Aaron to turn off the lights and close the blinds (as this is what you do when you don't want anymore trick or treaters). I ran inside and helped blow out candles and the like until the inside of the house was completely dark and all Halloween decorations had been removed.
Aaron sat down to work at his computer in the dark kitchen while I ran downstairs to fetch the Fall wreath to put on the front door. When I returned to the main floor, I noticed a light flash across our side windows. I didn't think much of it until I looked through the window adjacent to our front door and saw two people moving around in our front yard with flashlights. I moved closer to the door and noticed two police cars outside and recognized that the people in the front yard were police officers.
"Aaron?" I called into the kitchen, "Why are their police officers on our front lawn?"
Assuming the officers were looking for a thief who had escaped into our neighborhood I opened the front door, the fall wreath still clutched in my hand, and walked out onto our porch. The porch was pitch black as we had turned off all outside lights in addition to those inside. Suddenly, flashlights were pointed at me and a voice shouted at me from the yard (our porch has a half flight of stairs down to the yard).
"Sir! Please step down here! Quickly, Sir!" The voice boomed from behind the flashlight.
I descended our front stairs assuming that I was in danger as there was a "bad guy" using our backyard to hide from the police and the officers were attempting to protect me. I came face to face with one of the officers, a stocky, somewhat attractive white male, and he looked at me very seriously and continued to speak in his firm tone.
"What do you have in your hand? Do you live here, Sir!? Who are you?"
For a fleeting moment, I thought my friends had gotten me a stripper and this was all a joke. But then I noticed a third police car pull up to the house and before I knew it, six police officers were surrounding me. They continued to ask me who I was and if I lived in this duplex. I kept explaining that my partner and I lived in the house and that it was a single-family dwelling, not a duplex. I also explained that it was just a Fall wreath in my hand and I slowly set it down on the front steps.
By now, Aaron had descended the stairs and joined me on the front lawn. The officers continued to pummel us with questions and we kept explaining that we lived at this residence and that there was no one else in the house. They didn't seem to believe us and they kept asking the same questions over and over.
One of the officers checked Aaron's car in the driveway and asked if one of us was Aaron Cooke. Aaron, of course, raised his hand in response.
The head officer finally explained that a burglary had been reported at our house and they needed to confirm that we were not the burglars! The lightbulb went off in my head and I told the officers that we had quickly removed our extensive Halloween decorations and it may have looked as if we were robbing the house - especially when I was high on a stool on the balcony removing a hanging ghoul.
Two of the officers then asked if they could come inside with us and examine our ID's. We continued to explain that the fast removal of our decorations most likely looked suspicious to a neighbor who had not yet met us. When the officers entered the house, they saw the back balcony and it became clear to them that the neighbor assumed that the back balcony was the entrance to the second-half of our supposed "duplex" and my actions to remove the ghoul very much could look as if I was breaking and entering.
The officers examined our ID's and clearly saw that we did indeed live in the house. By then, the officers had calmed down and began laughing with us over the circumstances. At that point, a fourth police car pulled into our driveway! The officers explained that they take burglary calls very seriously and had responded within minutes (no lie!) to the 911 call from our neighbors.
As the officers apologized and thanked us for our cooperation on their way out the door, I asked them if they'd be willing to take a picture with us as our friends would never believe what happened.
Five officers posed with us on our front stairs - the sixth officer took the picture and the other two remained in their car.
As they departed, I jokingly told the lead officer that I thought, at first, he might be a stripper. This caused all of his colleagues to burst into laugther. He looked up at me sheepishly and told me that I had just given his fellow officers teasing ammunition for weeks to come. I apologized, but he then grinned at me. I think I gave him a bit of an ego boost that night!
So...if you live in West Seattle and your report a burglary, know that four police cars and eight officers will come to your rescue!
Enjoy the pic of Aaron and I with Seattle's finest! We're considering using it as this year's Christmas picture!
Happy Halloween!!
Scottland & Aaron
1 comment:
On the plus side, you know if there is an emergency the police will be there pretty quick!
~ Charles
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