Our backyard seems to be a bit of a police magnet.
A few years ago, while we were away, a S.W.A.T. team crawled across the lawn and over our fence to quell a domestic disturbance at a neighbour’s place. Since then, I have joked that one sign you might not be living in the best part of town is when you have S.W.A.T. teams crawling through your backyard. (We actually live on a very nice street and we love it here but it’s an old part of town and police are not strangers to it.)
And last night, responding to a break-in up the street, officers were walking the neighbourhood when they heard glass crashing in our yard. A policeman hurried back there, thinking he might catch the suspect. Instead, he found a group of teenage guys skating on our homemade rink. One of them had accidentally broken a floodlight with his stick just as the officer was walking by our place.
It was a bit unsettling for us at first but on reflection, very reassuring that the police are there to track down people who like to break into others’ homes. The only thing our son and his buddies could have been charged with might have been poor stickhandling and lousy slapshots.
And yes, they do owe me for one spotlight.
(Update 2020: Seven years later, I am still waiting for the floodlight compensation which I know will be coming any day now.)
©2013 Jim Hagarty
