So today was beautiful here in Lafayette and the mrs and I went out to a park near here with the lovely #2 daughter and her three energetic children. We had a lovely time.
As we came up to our house the Mrs. said "Oh there is a police car out front of the house". I said "probably stopped a speeder, they have been doing that lately".
As we drew nearer we realized that a truck had run into the back of my big Dodge truck. It was a green ford ranger with a big load in the back covered with a wrinkly tarp. The front end of the ranger had gone under the corner of the dodge and the bumper of the dodge was about even with the firewall of the ford and the ford's front wheel was entirely under the bumper of the dodge. Yikes!
The impact had driven the dodge (all 6000# of it) uphill and into the back of my 87 Mitsubishi and had driven it up the hill about 6' as well. The dodge was heavily damaged front and rear, the mitsubishi only a little as the spare tire took the brunt without doing too much damage.
The neighbor across the street had heard the crash and come out and said that he had called 911 and witnessed the driver flee the scene in a white cavalier. I figured he didn't have a license or was drunk or high.
Soon the investigating officer said that they figured the three motorcycles and a bunch of tools in the back were all stolen.
So myself and my friend Ron who rents our carriage house stood there and watched all the merriment for about a half hour or so and then this rough looking fellow walked up from down the hill and told the officers he had been with the driver of the truck earlier and had left his book bag and phone in the ford. He wanted to know if he could retrieve them.
I thought "this guy is going to get himself arrested".
I could see the officers (there were three there by now and three cars) antenna go up. The officer got in the car and brought out a fairly large back pack which decidedly did not look it had books in it. he said "can you prove this is your bag?" "no" do you have ID?" "yes". what is in the bag? "some tools that belong to my dad and I was going to return them to him today"....."Can i look in the bag?"...."yes".....the officer has trouble getting the bag open. The scruffy fellow takes a few steps toward the officer and says "you want me to open it?" "NO. you go over there and stand against the front of my squad car". the man goes over there. The officer opens the bag and pulls out a ball peen hammer, crow bar, glass cutter, a bolt cutter and a couple other things I did not recognize....classic burgler tools.
I turned to Ron and said "I think I'll go in the house now"....Ron said, "me too".
About a half hour later I went back out expecting the fellow to be under arrest.
I didn't see him so I asked one of the officers "You let him go?"...smiling a little. The officer said "For now". He then stated that in california if you caught a guy with a bag of burgler tools you could arrest him but here you had to catch him doing the deed.
After about two hours they cleaned it all up and hauled the ford and stolen goods away.
The dodge runs and drives but the lr leaf spring is bent and there is a lot of damage....possibly totalled.
Just a quiet day in provincial Lafayette Indiana.
