You know how crazy things just seem to all happen at once? Well, this has been one of those weeks......
Where to begin? :hmm:
On Sunday we were eating lunch with the family at my parents' house. We recently bought the place right next to their property and have been in the process of renovating it (my husband works as a Park Ranger at a nearby park which is where we currently live), and when I walked over to check on things I noticed two strange vehicles parked in the driveway, blocking it.
I immediately thought somebody had broken in and was stealing power tools and copper and such, so I ran back and told everyone.
We all went over to investigate. My dad recognized one of the vehicles as the lady that owns the property on the other side of us. We've always been curious about her living situation, as she seems to basically just camp out over there in a lean-to.
So Mark went over to to talk to them (I was pretty pissed that they were parked in and blocking our driveway :evil:, so I decided to stay behind to keep things calm ). He was still on duty and in his uniform, so she looked a little scared when he walked up, lol.
Luckily she was nice enough, even though she claimed she didn't know anybody owned our place, despite all of the obvious work going on over there and the recently mowed grass. :roll:
She and her friend moved their vehicles, and hopefully that doesn't happen again. (Mark thought about running their tags, but we figured we got off to a bad enough start as it was).
Nosy people that we are, we looked her up online, mainly just to see if she was squatting illegally or if she had bought the place. Luckily it was all legit.
What we did find out however, by perusing Facebook, is that she is an outspoken vegan, among other things.
verreaction:
We just hope she doesn't end up being the crazy type of person who tries to "free" our rabbits or something. We shall see......
So that encounter was interesting enough, but it was only the beginning.....
Later that night, back on the park, my husband called me and told me to lock all the doors. I could tell by the tone of his voice something serious had happened. He had just surprised somebody robbing the Park Office (which is just a 1/4 mile up the road from our residence) and they had taken off into the woods in the direction of our house. :x
So I locked all the doors, turned on all the outside lights and listened for the dogs barking.
I was really more scared for him, since he was the only one on the park that night.
Luckily, instead of taking off after him in the dark, he decided to call for backup first (he knows the rugged terrain well, but it doesn't really matter if you don't have a flashlight). Besides, the guy was wearing flip flops! :lol: He wasn't going anywhere very fast.
So the other rangers, the County, TWRA, the Corps of Engineers and the Chief Ranger with his tracking canine all showed up to assist in the search (our park is 6,000 acres of steep, wooded terrain.)
My husband had already detained his suspected accomplice, who had been cruising around the park. He also had the good sense to confiscate his phone before trying to arrest him (he broke away and bolted as soon as he heard the cuffs), otherwise the guy would have been long gone in the escape vehicle, and it would have turned into a real chase.
It took several hours of searching, but in the end the guy basically just sat at the park entrance waiting for them to pick him up. When they saw his feet it was clear why he gave up so easily. They were black from dried blood, and he had a huge gash in the top of his foot. Evidently he had run full force into one of the guard rails, catching it on an iron bolt or something.
Remember those flip flops? Yeah, he lost those pretty early in chase, and ended up running several miles through the woods and along the road, through brambles, rocks and old barbed wire.
So after the chase, the arrest, the hospital visit and booking him into jail, my husband finally got home at 5am.
After 13 years of service, these were his first arrests, ever. He's always called himself the "white cloud," because he somehow manages to miss all the crazy stuff whenever he's on duty. He realized how he had jinxed himself however. Just before all of this went down, he was talking to the camp host and she asked him if he had ever arrested anybody before.
Luckily, the guy wasn't aggressive, and other than initially resisting arrest, made no attempt to fight. My husband later found a crow bar easily within the perp's reach, hidden from view. Things could have gone very badly.
He was also collecting all of the keys that were in the closet with the safe - keys that open every building in the park, including our houses!! :shock: Who knows what could have happened if my husband hadn't been there at the right moment.
I am so thankful for the way everything turned out. In the end, nobody got hurt.
Well, almost nobody......
I found his bloody footprints on the road the next day. :x
We also learned afterwards that he had narrowly missed stepping on a giant copperhead that was in his path.
My husband asked him whether running had been worth it. The guy just hung his head and said, "no." :lol:
We weren't the only ones who had a close brush with criminals that night. I learned the following morning that somebody had broken into my brother's car and stolen all of his work tools and his laptop. (Too far away to be a related incident).
Jeez. They are coming out of the wood work. I hope everybody else has had a calmer week than us!
Where to begin? :hmm:
On Sunday we were eating lunch with the family at my parents' house. We recently bought the place right next to their property and have been in the process of renovating it (my husband works as a Park Ranger at a nearby park which is where we currently live), and when I walked over to check on things I noticed two strange vehicles parked in the driveway, blocking it.
I immediately thought somebody had broken in and was stealing power tools and copper and such, so I ran back and told everyone.
We all went over to investigate. My dad recognized one of the vehicles as the lady that owns the property on the other side of us. We've always been curious about her living situation, as she seems to basically just camp out over there in a lean-to.
So Mark went over to to talk to them (I was pretty pissed that they were parked in and blocking our driveway :evil:, so I decided to stay behind to keep things calm ). He was still on duty and in his uniform, so she looked a little scared when he walked up, lol.
Luckily she was nice enough, even though she claimed she didn't know anybody owned our place, despite all of the obvious work going on over there and the recently mowed grass. :roll:
She and her friend moved their vehicles, and hopefully that doesn't happen again. (Mark thought about running their tags, but we figured we got off to a bad enough start as it was).
Nosy people that we are, we looked her up online, mainly just to see if she was squatting illegally or if she had bought the place. Luckily it was all legit.
What we did find out however, by perusing Facebook, is that she is an outspoken vegan, among other things.
verreaction: We just hope she doesn't end up being the crazy type of person who tries to "free" our rabbits or something. We shall see......
So that encounter was interesting enough, but it was only the beginning.....
Later that night, back on the park, my husband called me and told me to lock all the doors. I could tell by the tone of his voice something serious had happened. He had just surprised somebody robbing the Park Office (which is just a 1/4 mile up the road from our residence) and they had taken off into the woods in the direction of our house. :x
So I locked all the doors, turned on all the outside lights and listened for the dogs barking.
I was really more scared for him, since he was the only one on the park that night.
Luckily, instead of taking off after him in the dark, he decided to call for backup first (he knows the rugged terrain well, but it doesn't really matter if you don't have a flashlight). Besides, the guy was wearing flip flops! :lol: He wasn't going anywhere very fast.
So the other rangers, the County, TWRA, the Corps of Engineers and the Chief Ranger with his tracking canine all showed up to assist in the search (our park is 6,000 acres of steep, wooded terrain.)
My husband had already detained his suspected accomplice, who had been cruising around the park. He also had the good sense to confiscate his phone before trying to arrest him (he broke away and bolted as soon as he heard the cuffs), otherwise the guy would have been long gone in the escape vehicle, and it would have turned into a real chase.
It took several hours of searching, but in the end the guy basically just sat at the park entrance waiting for them to pick him up. When they saw his feet it was clear why he gave up so easily. They were black from dried blood, and he had a huge gash in the top of his foot. Evidently he had run full force into one of the guard rails, catching it on an iron bolt or something.
Remember those flip flops? Yeah, he lost those pretty early in chase, and ended up running several miles through the woods and along the road, through brambles, rocks and old barbed wire.
So after the chase, the arrest, the hospital visit and booking him into jail, my husband finally got home at 5am.
After 13 years of service, these were his first arrests, ever. He's always called himself the "white cloud," because he somehow manages to miss all the crazy stuff whenever he's on duty. He realized how he had jinxed himself however. Just before all of this went down, he was talking to the camp host and she asked him if he had ever arrested anybody before.
Luckily, the guy wasn't aggressive, and other than initially resisting arrest, made no attempt to fight. My husband later found a crow bar easily within the perp's reach, hidden from view. Things could have gone very badly.
He was also collecting all of the keys that were in the closet with the safe - keys that open every building in the park, including our houses!! :shock: Who knows what could have happened if my husband hadn't been there at the right moment.
I am so thankful for the way everything turned out. In the end, nobody got hurt.
Well, almost nobody......
I found his bloody footprints on the road the next day. :x
We also learned afterwards that he had narrowly missed stepping on a giant copperhead that was in his path.
My husband asked him whether running had been worth it. The guy just hung his head and said, "no." :lol:
We weren't the only ones who had a close brush with criminals that night. I learned the following morning that somebody had broken into my brother's car and stolen all of his work tools and his laptop.
(Too far away to be a related incident).Jeez. They are coming out of the wood work. I hope everybody else has had a calmer week than us!
