Police in Hot town, summery in the city - 2017

I’ve been calling the police far too often recently. And it’s only when I take a different route to usual.

Well, it’s only been twice…

A couple or three months ago I was stomping to the shop. The girls had been bickering and telling on each other to the point that I was way beyond wanting to be near them (temporarily) so I stomped to the shop in the guise of needing to buy food, leaving my phone behind so no one could call me.

I went the long way.

I watched a guy pull a window open on a bottom floor flat and climb in. The person is well known locally for breaking into homes and cars to feed his habit. But I’m also on ‘stop and chat’ terms with his wife.

However, I had just witnessed a potential break-in.

And I didn’t have my phone.

My mind did a quick mental search of the local area, touching on little tesco, the pub, the library, the hairdresser, the community centre, the chu… wait, the community centre… There’s a members only bar and a friend of mine works there.

I walked in and my friend looked up, baffled and I asked where this dude lived (just in case, you know). It wasn’t there.

I borrowed her phone and called the police.

The following week our local paper ran a story about how he was going to prison for 4.5 years for a burglary the previous October, the thing that caused the time to be longer than his usual 3 to 4 months was being caught in the middle of a burglary a few days before he was due on trial.

That was probably my call....

And so we lead on to today. It was my last day as a supply TA now that childminding is doing its thing. I finished, hung around to chat, filled in my last payment form and headed home.

The sun was shining, it had been a good last day. I was feeling happy and walked a different route home than usual. Rounding the corner towards the main road I heard a loud bang. I looked around and saw a car.

With what looked like a municipal steel fence sticking out of his bonnet.

Smoke was billowing around the car and I thought “what the ever loving fuck?!”

I crossed and turned into my street. There was the car, in the middle of the road. The driver door was open and the driver was staggering around, trying to pull this huge piece of steel, concrete moorings still attached, out of the front of his car. He was swearing and bashing his door, then dragging the metal again.

I walked home and phoned the police.

At 9:45pm a police officer knocked at my door to ask for more information and they are coming back tomorrow to take a statement.

According to social media the metal item was the street sign from the main road and he also knocked a lady off her bike.

So, I’m going to stick to tried and tested routes from now on!

Last updated July 25, 2019