Some brilliant functionary decided that it would be nice to give our local prison inmates a holiday at the fair. At the end of the day, they’re missing one, sort of a Hannibal Lecter type, far out of touch with reality, to hear the local news guys, and probably off his meds. He just sort of walked away from the fairgrounds. Apparently his voices tell him to do very bad things.
Now we have a chopper with a spotlight circling across the street, and probably every police car in Spokane having screamed its way down our arterial, and you have to feel sort of sorry for the guy who does not live on this planet, and for the cops, who are having to forge through undergrowth, probably down to the Spokane river, in pursuit of a guy whose major recent offense was getting lost at the fair, but who is in for life for his safety and ours. This is not a good situation. We have decided perhaps it’s a good night to shut and lock the windows, and to remain just a little on the alert.
Though if the chase heads for the river, it may have a bad ending. The river is white water, and not one friendly to swimmers, especially at night, and in this season, when the water is getting colder.
Bad situation.
Trust however we’ll stay safe, but, yep, there comes the chopper and its searchlight on another loop. There must be five squad cars down the hill. They were passing us at the rate of one a minute.
Update: well, it turns out they are not hunting the crazy person. They are hunting a man with a gun who committed an armed robbery about 2 blocks from us, and he is still on the run, with the chopper still circling. With luck, he and the walkaway guy will meet out there in the woods.
I’m for bed…
aaaaaccccckkkkk!
Things are quiet up north. Good luck getting some sleep tonight.
Good god, what a *terrible* idea that was.
I’m going to wonder from now on if the person behind me in line for the ferris wheel is an inmate out for a day of fun. Shudder.
Stay safe! I hope they catch him safely and very, very soon.
Just read about the escapee in the local paper. Do the criminally insane need to be entertained? Their perception of reality already fills in the blanks, I’d think. Glad to hear it’s *only* a bank robber, and hope you got some sleep last night.
Lock up the fishies!
In my opinion, if a prisoner is dangerous enough to society that he to be kept from society, then he should be kept from society until he is no longer a danger.
Letting them go to a fair is not a wise thing to do. And who ever thought otherwise should be relieved of a job.
BTW: OSGirl now teaches in Sunnyside, which is where Mr. Lector is presumably headed. I’m not happy.
I heard the news last night and was concerned for you and OSG. All of you stay safe.
Well, and we got up this morning, I had just reheated a cup of coffee in the microwave, and the power went out.
They said 1043 people were without power. I would add, 25 fishes and two cats to the sum. Particularly the fishes.
It is (obviously) back on now.
I agree with you, plus one: the incurably, dangerously insane, who obey voices that they think are God telling them to kill people, should not even be in a prison. They should be in a separate, pleasant facility where there is treatment, but no release. Ever. Until they can fit these guys with an internal, lifetime dosing mechanism, there is no guarantee they will stay on their meds. And can you imagine being in the slammer for growing a pot plant and getting Mr Lector as your roomie?
Mr Lector killed an unfortunate woman in her driveway because his voices told him she was a witch casting spells.
We planned, if Mr Lector showed up at our door, to tell him to go about two blocks south where there was a warlock lurking in the woods.
Update: they have caught the guy with the gun. Mr Lector is still out there, and they give him 3 days before his meds really wear off and his voices become a chorus.
It’s so much fun having copters over your neighborhood at night. Usually I don’t find out what it was about; sometimes I do. Sometimes I know way too much about it: there was a night last September when we had continuous aerial activity from roughly 4:30pm to nearly midnight. (Train wreck.)
In my particular area we call police helicopters “(un-PC term referring to poor, ethnocentric neighborhoods) birds” and they are usually patrolling every Friday and Saturday night. I’ve once had my block cordoned off and and had to drink a coffee and wait for the police to let me get to my house. Lovely.
We’ve been in lockdown several times in the last few years where I work because the police were chasing some armed suspect or another. In fact, we’re probably due one soon (knock on wood – last time I “wow, we haven’t had a major fire in a couple of years” uh… yeah, came true within the week).
I use the (probably equally un-PC) ‘whirlyfuzz’.
If Mr. Lector showed up at your door, don’t let him believe you or Jane are Orien and Tarien. He’s likely to think he’s a Quinalt priest. Best not to answer the door at all, but then, I know you wouldn’t have anyway.
Living in the country has its disadvantages, in that law enforcement is several minutes away, there are a lot of dark areas in which to hide, and getting into these old houses isn’t that difficult to begin with. I’ve got several means of giving whoever comes into the house illegally second thoughts. Now, if I could just afford that $4,800.00 katana…..
Once upon a time I was supervising (in costume) a Roman banquet at a city park picnic house. Over comes the chopper. Spotlight. He kept circling back for another look. We all stood below in our Roman costumes and waved in the spotlight. {Possibly he’d had a complaint about two Roman citizens recently directing traffic in a small intersection not too far away (Bad lads!).) Back he’d come again. I’d love to have heard the chatter between the chopper and home base.
Who would have thought things could get so thoroughly bizarre in Spokane? I couldn’t believe the article when I read it — sure makes you wonder if what universe they decided taking the alternative realityites out for a jaunt was a good thing to do! and then adding in someone who’s there for cheerfully killing people? Not a good choice and of course now they are all pointing fingers if the latest stuff to hit the web is any indication. You, Jane, OSG anbd OSGuy take care!
My widowed dad lives alone, in a small town and very near the road Mr. Lector will almost certainly pass through on his way home to Sunnyside, which does not help my Escalating Unhappiness over the entire situation.
Thank you ryanrick.
Egads! Reminds me of the time my older sis, who went to university in D.C., called my mum one evening, saying that in the recent past she had been at a friend’s house for wine and cops were driving past, lights flashing, sirens blazing, looking for someone on the run with a gun. Note that my sis did not call at the time of said event, but after she was safe and sound… for mum’s peace of mind 🙂
Egads! I saw this story in the news, didn’t realize it was so close to you!! What high IQ wizard decided it was a great idea to take a homicidal maniac, known for trying to escape and attacking guards, out for cotton candy and fried Twinkies?? Good God, could we not see this coming??
CJ, you seriously need to get a dog! At least a dog will scare most loonies away, and even if they aren’t afraid of the dog, the dog will tell you when the bad guys are around! I used to train dogs for the Highway Patrol, and they had a saying that guns were great if you knew where to shoot, but a dog was the weapon of choice when you needed to know where the bad guy was lurking. I sleep soundly at night knowing my dogs are on guard. You should get one!!
With Ysabel (and her teeth) on patrol Mr. Lector won’t stand a chance.
As Mr. Lector is presumably headed toward his parent’s home in Sunnyside I phoned my dad tonight. Mr. Lector’s most logical route would take him within 1/2 mile to 1 block of my dad’s home, in a neighboring community. kkkkkkkk!!!
Dad reassured me he is keeping the doors locked, and said if he could find the buckshot for his hunting rifle, he would give Mr. Lector a pants-full should he appear.
Of course, Dad doesn’t have Ysabel.
Dali, the dog doesn’t even have to be a German Shepherd or Doberman Pinscher, just one that barks a lot and loudly enough to wake you up. My Silky Terriers were good for that.
OSG, um, buckshot is used in a shotgun, not a rifle. But your dad would be better off with a shotgun, as R. Lee Ermey says, when you need to make sure, a shotgun is the way to go.
Joekc, I totally agree, doesn’t need to be a big, nasty dog. ANY dog will let you know if there is danger about. I’m sure Ysabel is a good alarm system, too, but I still feel better knowing my dogs will alert me to any wayward foot stepping on the property. And BTW, I LOVE Silky Terriers!!!! 🙂
Not all dogs will alert their owners. My first indication that someone is in my yard is when they ring the doorbell. Greyhounds make lousy watchdogs. (And yet, when the Guam track shut down, they gave them away to people who were looking for mean dogs to tie up as guard dogs. What were they thinking?)
Actually Ysabel rarely leaves me, and does go on alert if there is somebody approaching the house that she doesn’t know. Her kind were originally bred as temple guardians, and she is pretty possessive of the house. 😉
Alas, I’m so allergic to dogs I have to wash my hands after petting one. I had one when I was a kid: he bit me repeatedly, pierced my ear, got my nose: never barked, just bit…and when he got out the gate and got the postman, Dad found him a home with a very rich lady who pampered the daylights out of him and evidently he got along fine. Just didn’t like kids. Or postmen.
I get along pretty well with Bro, Joan’s frequently laundered and very friendly Wheaten Terrier: not as dander-filled, apparently…which is a good thing, because he’s VERY friendly. 😉
Now, if you want a dog that WILL alert you to a trespasser, get a Pekinese. They were bred for fantastic hearing and a disposition to bark. Some jogger two blocks away will get them on alert and start them barking. Their official job, besides as a ‘sleeve dog’ hand-warmer in ancient China, was to wake up the mastiffs.