Tuesday, May 05, 2009

Here's a little citizen journalism for you...


Ghost cars and yelling police disrupt rural suburbia Tuesday night shortly after 10 pm as the Kamloops Police Department arrest two suspects in a stolen car from Chilliwack.
The dispatch was notified that the four-door white import was parked at a “seedy Valleyview hotel” earlier today said an officer who debriefed my family after we witnessed the arrest at the bottom of our driveway. The police stealthily punctured holes in the car’s tires outside the hotel and assigned ghost cars to tail the suspects.
An SUV ghost car flips on its lights after deflating tires stop the thieves outside my house. Another cop car appears. “Hey there’s a cop with a gun outside our house,” I say, yanking my sister Larissa and Mom out of their romantic sitcom on Global.
I peer through the curtain to see a police officer pointing his gun into the driver’s side window as a ghost truck surrounds them from the top of the hill. First time I’ve seen a handgun in Barnhartvale, most locals around here only possess hunting rifles. (So I live among hicks, big deal.)
Mom’s heart rate skyrockets as she irrationally demands we all squat down and after turning off all the lights. Other police vehicles join the scene. I laugh at the absurdity of her overreaction because the police clearly had a handle on the well-surrounded vehicle.
They pull out the fairly slender, blonde, male driver and arrest him. Through the bushes we can’t really tell if he was thrown on the ground first before he’s forced against the back of the car in handcuffs.
“He doesn’t look too happy,” says Larissa as they shove him into the back of a police car. No shit.
Other approaching vehicles are instructed to turn around as they attempt to come down the hill.
I scurry into my room for a better view where my mom already has the window open to eavesdrop on the arrest. “They said that the girl was around 13 years old,” said Mom after the passenger in the car was arrested.
Police later state that they don’t know if the girl is local or not.
Mom calls Dale across the street to tell him to look outside his window and Larissa calls her friend, our neighbour, Alanna on her cell. We all assume that it’s one of the drug dealers who either live beside or across the street from Alanna. However, our immediate assumptions are wrong. For once something other than the usual drug bust draws police to Barnhartvale.
The black ghost truck parks in our driveway and a tall dark-haired policeman comes to our door. A coffee in hand, he debriefs us and my mom offers him more coffee while he waits for the tow truck to arrive. He kindly declines.
“I can’t put down my Timmies even if I’m at an enquiry,” he said, truly demonstrating the commitment Kamloops police have to their local watering hole. (God we have too many Tim Horton’s here.)
He apologizes for using “not so nice words” after Mom tells him about how she was so scared she turned off all the lights. I chuckle inside as he explains that they “had to speak their [the suspect’s] language” and be so strict during the arrest.
I was just excited that a story came to me and that I didn’t have to go hunt for one in this sleepy neighbourhood.
Kudos to the police for their sneaky tactics in avoiding a car chase and snagging a thief. After all, most of us are under the impression that they only ticket N drivers and speeders around here. You know...jobs that can be easily executed with an Iced Cap or Double Double in hand.
Don’s Towing comes and hulls the car off of Todd Road at about 10:50 and Mr. Tim Horton’s Cop pulls out of our driveway.
Who needs cheesy romantic comedies on a Tuesday night when you can have real-life, dramatic episodes of Cops rolling outside your living room window? Now that’s what I call high quality entertainment.



**Google Image "Kamloops Police Cars" and this comes up ----------------------------------------------------------->>








No comments:

Post a Comment