Yesterday I was on my way to town, and at the bridge over the river – 0% civilization/development here – there are 6 cop cars, a tow truck, and ambulance and a fire truck. The tow truck is trying to retrieve something off of the steep exit ramp. There’s a rest area over there, so drive down that way. Rubbernecking, as I want to see what went off into the ditch. In the rest area is a cop van with K-9 Unit on it and another car. They must be hunting someone! I got the hell out of there.
The 4 lane bridge is squeezed to one lane each direction for construction.
Coming back, crossing the bridge, I notice a guy walking against traffic. I find it odd that the cops, if they are still there, would let him walk across the bridge, especially against traffic. The cops are still there, so I wheel in and say, “Are you all looking for a guy?” “Yeah!” “Well, there’s a guy crossing the bridge, on foot, against…..” ZOOM! The motorcycle cop is gone The cop says to me, “Was he wearing camo?” “Camo pants, no shirt.” ”THAT’S our guy!” And they all take off.
A guy in plainclothes comes up to the car and asks if I saw a guy on the bridge. “Yeah.” Was he muddy? “Not especially.” Wearing camo? “Yeah, camo pants, no shirt.”
Then he says:
“You just made a lot of people really happy! We’ve been out here since 8 this morning (5 and ½ hours) hunting him. He beat his girl friend with a baseball bat, led them on a chase, and got away. There’s a woman home alone with a small child in that house over there (okay, there are TWO houses on that side of the bridge) that was worried sick. He won’t get away now, and we can finally tell her not to worry.”
I called a couple friends and related this story. A few minutes later one called and said she’d gotten a breaking new alert on her phone, and they’d caught the guy.
If I hadn’t been rubbernecking a bit, I wouldn’t have seen the K-9 unit, and wouldn’t have known there was a man-hunt in progress.