Police officers, Machine Guns, and Bullet-proof vests, Oh My!

Yes, we've just finished a fabulous vacation and yes my little Max-man turned 2, so there are lots of updates to be had here, but I  must interrupt the regular scheduled blogging program for an emergency... and it involves guns.

First a brief description of our neighborhood-- it's big and connected to another neighborhood, it's in 2 different counties and 2 different school districts and it's old.  All the houses are about 40 years old- our was build in 1973, and there are a lot of people who have lived there since their house was built.  So yes, most of our neighbors are elderly, with children my age!  And most of them take wonderful care of their yards- they probably hate us for the overgrown island that takes up half of our yard! The neighborhood also has some renters from all different ethnicities- this has not been a problem at all, and has actually given Gabe some great friends with different cultures than us, which is always great.

So yesterday, I was sitting on the couch feeding the baby, Max was in his high chair eating lunch in the kitchen, and Chad was also in the kitchen, fixing sandwiches for me and him.  I was looking out the window, which I do often, when all of a sudden a police car drove very slowly in front of our house.  Then another, and another, and another.  And they stopped.  I looked more closely and saw about 6 police cars and called Chad to the living room.  He took a peek out the window and saw a police man with a machine gun running towards our front door. I kid you not! So naturally he slowly open the front door when the officer yelled at him to get back inside. Chad replied "but you're in my front yard" and the officer told him he'd explain later and to shut the door.

At this point, I jumped off the couch- Jack's lunch will just have to wait!  And I join Chad starring out the window-- and I see 3, THREE, cops in our yard, hiding behind our trees with machine guns.  3 more in the neighbor's across the street, and 3 more behind another neighbor's car. By the time I was done counting, there was at least 14 officers-- ALL with GUNS DRAWN, and more coming down the street. Umm.... problem?!!! So I grabbed the boys and hid in the back of the house-- my mind was going nuts: "Um, what is going on, how many walls can bullets go threw before they stop? Are we safe here? Is there a safer place? Is someone going to die?  Why is Chad recording all of this on his iphone instead of hiding with me? What if this is how we die! This is not a good way to end our vacation...."

Then there is pounding on our door- Chad cracks it open and I stick my head around the corner. The officer wants to know if we've ever seen a certain kind of car in the driveway across the street. (I'm leaving those details for safety reasons.) And yes, we have seen the car there often, but obviously it's not there right now.  Shortly after that, the people across the street come out of their house-- maybe because there were 15+ guns pointed at them... they are told to put their hands up- they do. Then they are told to lift up their shirts and turn around, to make sure they don't have any weapons.  At this point, the cops all begin moving in closer to them.  I'm not sure what was said- there was a long conversation, then eventually they are allowed to put their hands down.  About 10 cops go in and search their house and come back out within a few minutes.

Then before we know it, all the officer are getting back in their cars and beginning to drive away.  Naturally Chad goes outside to get details at this point- apparently the guy who drive "the car" has had an altercation with his mother and they are looking for him. And we should let them know if we see him. And that is that.


Ummmmm.... so I've had an altercation with my mother before, and it did NOT involve machine guns... or any guns... or even the police for that matter.

According to Dictionary.com:  

al·ter·ca·tion

   [awl-ter-key-shuhn]  Show IPA

noun

a heated or angry dispute; noisy argument or controversy.

Who here thinks there is more to the story??? Um, me! But there were no more details. Every hour or so a cop would drive down the street, and that is all.  The people eventually left their house, while I stayed inside still scared that we were about to be part of a crime seen.  Altercation smaltercation!

So around 10:30pm, I headed to bed and Chad stayed on the couch watching tv.  I fell asleep quick, like I always do, but at 11:15 the power clicked off and woke me up. I felt for Chad and he wasn't there (at this point, I didn't know what time it was) so I began moving slowly down the hall to find him or my phone for light.  There was no storm/ rain/ wind/ or lightening, so this power outage was weird. Chad came up to bed and called GA Power only to have them saw that they knew about the outage and were working on it. Chad fell asleep almost immediately, but I laid awake feeling the temperature of the house slowly rise without the AC- and it was so dark, down our entire street and nothing worked, it really freaked me out. I was just sure that "the car" was somehow responsible for this and at any moment they were going to come bust down my door or something horrific. But instead, I just laid there sweating while the rest of my family slept, until 1:30am when the power kicked back on.

So I still don't know the details behind all the cops and guns, and I still don't know what was the deal with the power, but I can confirm that I have a wild, worry-filled imagination, and if this story hits the news, just remember... you heard it here first!