This past weekend Mattie (my baby girl) and I went to visit Kita (my oldest girl) in Stillwater. Kita swears she lives a quiet life but.....she sure shared some excitement with us Sunday afternoon. We were all out together getting some shopping done All we had left to get was some groceries for the cook out later that night. Kita had us take the back roads on the way to the grocery store. It was hot, hot, hot outside. I am talking triple digit hot! Mattie's poor little car was doing it's best to get us where we were going while cranking out the AC on high. It was barely keeping up. Mattie noticed a young man walking on the side of the road and made the comment "Poor guy, it is too hot to be walking". Kita looked at him and got a funny look on her face, then said "Is it punishment enough?" She recognized him as the person that broke into her house last year. Apparently that guy had several warrants and had successfully ran from the local police while trying to serve those warrants several times. Kita decided that walking in the heat was not punishment enough and called the local Police Department. We had driven quite a ways past the "poor guy" by this time, so we turned back around, drove past him again, and pulled in a gravel parking lot out of sight. We wanted to try and see if we could keep track of him so if he left the general area that had been reported to the police we could let them know that.
Mattie's poor little car couldn't idle for long with the AC on so we had to turn it off and roll the windows down. We were just sitting there discussing how long we should wait, wondering if he would notice us, and melting in the 100 plus heat. After several minutes we see the "poor guy" walk past. He didn't even look our direction. Mattie started her little car back up and pulled closer to the road so we could try to keep an eye on him. The road way dropped off as we watched him continue to walk away. We sat there at the end of the driveway trying to decide if we should drive by him a third time. Would he get suspicious? Had he even been paying any attention? Finally we agreed it was worth the risk, we could no longer see him since the roadway dropped off going down hill. We pulled back out on the road and once we were at the top of the hill we could see him again. He was still making good time. It is hard to believe he could walk so fast in the heat. We drive slowly past him and continued on discussing options for other parking areas further along. There is a four way stop about a quarter of a mile past him and as we pull up to it we see two police cars coming from the opposite direction. There is no other traffic any where around so we all agree to just sit at the stop sign and watch what happens. The two police units, one city and one county stop on the hill side and park their cars in the middle of the road. They both get out of their cars and start walking towards the "poor guy".
I think this is where I should quit referring to him as the "poor guy" and start calling him the "bad guy". After all he is a burglar that has successfully run from the police several times and has several warrants for his arrest.
So here we were sitting at the stop sign looking behind us watching the two officers approaching the bad guy. At this point Mattie is still driving her car, Kita is in the front seat and I am setting in the back fighting with my seat belt trying to turn around and watch what is happening. Of course the "bad guy" started to run. He ran in circles a few times trying to avoid the two officers. It is always funny watching a pursuit that goes in circles. I have only seen video of it before and it was always a pursuit in vehicles. This time it is on foot and I get to watch it live. One tall skinny bad guy running from one county Deputy and one very tall city Police Officer.
Running in the heat is not easy! Running with a fully loaded police belt with all the gear only makes it harder. I always feel sorry for the Officers in the summer. The bullet proof vest that can save their life is like wearing an oven strapped across the core of their body. It holds all of the heat in. Running in 100 plus heat in one is horrid!
So the bad guy that is not wearing all of that gear is leaving the officers behind. He runs right past us. We are all in a bit of shock watching while the bad guy runs towards some closed industrial buildings and disappears behind them. For what ever reason we decide to follow him and see if we can see where he went. We drive past several businesses and sure enough here he comes, still running. He runs right on past us and disappears behind another building. I see a few other police cars flying past with lights and sirens on towards where it all started. Then I see them come flying back our way headed towards the area the bad guy ran. Mattie had jumped out and ran towards the roadway to point the police cars in the area that the bad guy went. As she was walking back towards the car here came the two officers on foot. They look so hot and pathetic we offer to give them a ride to where all the other police cars have headed. They both agree quickly. Kita climbed from the passenger side to the driver's side, Mattie hopped in back with me, I scooted over to the middle of the back seat, the county Deputy hopped in the front passenger seat and the very tall city Police Officer opened the back door behind the driver's seat and was attempting to fold himself in the vehicle when Kita started to drive off. He had to yell to her to stop that he wasn't in the vehicle yet. There I was sitting in the middle of the back seat with my feet on the hump, purse in my lap, trying to take up a little space as I could. At this point I am giggling, I couldn't help it. It all seemed so funny. Kita is giving the tall man a hard time about being slow, the Deputy is pulling out his stun gun and I am trying to not laugh at the tall Officer hopping along on one foot half way folded in to the back seat.
Did I mention it was hot? Mattie's poor little car was not able to keep it cool at all at this point. It was way over loaded with five adults crammed in. It had been sitting idling with the AC on high but it wasn't making a dint in the heat. We would have been better off just turning it off and rolling the windows down.
We didn't have far to go, as we turned one more corner there were all of the other Police cars and a dog pile of Officers on top of the bad guy. We stopped, the two Officers jumped out and ran towards the dog pile and we just sat there for a moment taking it all in.
At some point I had made the comment that this was not how I planned to spend my Sunday in Stillwater. Mattie had mentioned that I work for Owasso PD and Kita had told them that she was the person that called it all in. I don't think they heard a thing any of us said.
The tall city Police Officer came walking back towards us after it was all under control pulling out his note pad and pen. While Kita gave him her name and contact info and Mattie and I tried to find somewhere that had shade. It didn't take long, they thanked us for our help and we were allowed to leave.
As we drove off we were all excited and jabbering about what had just happened. It reminded me of when the Officers that I work with have an exciting call and would all come back to the station and talk about it. It was the same adrenalin high that I have watched before. This time it was us girls telling what we saw and noticed. Funny how each of us noticed different things.
My little sister and I are headed out to visit our big brother and his family in the morning. I am so excited to see them. A very big bonus is we will be leaving behind highs like 104 in OK for highs like 83 in PA.
Have I mentioned that it is HOT around here? I usually like the heat but enough already!!
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