Friday, October 20, 2006

Manhunt in my backyard


manhunt in my backyard
Originally uploaded by egret's nest.
I know the pictures are terrible but here's the story . . .

My son and I are home alone and we hear voices across the creek. I go look and there's a man out there in the woods. I realize he's a sheriff and he has a gun drawn. Oh crap. I close the door and as I do I hear him say that he saw someone running through the woods. Great.

I figure I'd better let my neighbor know as her kids often play in the backyard and in the creek area. As Gage and I are walking over there, a sheriff drives by in an unmarked car and tells us that there is an armed man in the area and we need to go back to our houses.

So, we run back into the house. And, I see that there are now two sheriffs with rifles in just on the other side of my fence, on this side of the creek. Yikes. As I reach for my camera to capture the surreal moment, they start moving and I can't get the shot. One of them hops my fence and is on my deck that looks over my waterfall on the otherside of my big redwood grove. He walks back towards the house and gestures to me. I open the slider and he asks what our address is. He nods and I call Rosie into the house (well, I gestured and she could see me well enough to figure it out). He hopped the fence again and they moved up the creek. That's what this picture is --- super zoomed in (no tripod, of course). They had a dog with them as well. They moved up the creek and out of sight. So, CHP, Sheriffs, State Park Rangers, and even CDF firefighters were combing our neighborhood. Eventually, things quieted down and I took Gage to soccer practice. I have to point out that the entire time the golf course was open and golfers were doing their golfing thing. Quite the juxtaposition (SAT Word!!!) -- golfers on one side of my house; men in body armor with rifles on the other side of my house.

They are all still here. Greg came home early because he couldn't reach me (he didn't have his cell phone, mine isn't charged, everytime he or anyone else called, I was on the phone so it went to voicemail, etc., etc.). Just as he got home, the cops went door to door again. They searched our motorhome and 5th wheel this time with rifles drawn and german shepherd dogs. Rather intense. I'm really glad that Greg is home. He poured me the last of my Glenfiddich scotch and we watched TV after we made sure every window and door were still locked and talked about every minute detail.

He's probably holed up in the woods for the night and they won't see him tonight but they are staying here all night to keep him in the woods. There are more bad photos including a mug shot of the guy in question on my Flickr account. [click]

Big excitement.

4 comments:

BEG said...

Wow! Stay safe over there! Hope they find him...

Neefer said...

Oh, yuck. I don't know about you, but I don't feel safer seeing people in body armor with large weapons.

I hope they caught him and that they let you know the manhunt is over.

Stay safe.

Susan Gets Native said...

Good grief!
Good thing you saw the cops before the creep saw you.
Clicked on the photo link: Yeah, Mr. Wilson looks like a real winner.

Keep yourself locked in!
And update us when you can!

Anonymous said...

Creee-peee!!!
Hope your feeling OK out there!