Monday, June 15, 2009

Just Another Saturday Evening

This past Saturday I was taking our clothes off the line on the balcony when a military truck rolled by on the street below. It's not uncommon to see armed officers patrolling our neighborhood -- especially on a Saturday night -- but a troop transport truck with 20 men stands out. I called Ibis to the window and we watched as they circled the block, then stopped on the next street over -- the one beneath our window. We're on a hill so while the entrance to our development is on one level, the next street over is considerably lower AND we're on the fourth floor.

A truck stopped at one corner, an armed Jeep/tank thing stopped at the opposite corner, and the troop truck stopped beneath us. Quite a few military personnel poured out of the trucks, including several that ran around to the back of the building and hid in the trees. Yes, just like in the movies. I'm assuming the rest of the trucks were further down the street, blocking traffic.

So what did we do? Took pictures, of course.










Ibis was getting irritated with me because I kept commenting that I wasn't sure if it was a good idea to be near the windows (there are two on one wall so we each had our own -- he was filming it), but I didn't move. I did stay to the side so my body was behind the concrete -- I'm not completely stupid -- but it quickly became apparent that whoever they were looking for wasn't there.

They searched the building, gave the owner some papers, and eventually left. We counted roughly 50 soldiers and while they spent a lot of time running around and searching the building, nothing much seemed to happen. Just the way I like it.

14 comments:

erica m. chapman said...

Yeah I saw these on facebook... so scary Mel. We need to get you out of there and pronto!!

Very brave of you to take those pics too.

Spy Scribbler said...

FIFTY?! Wow! Very scary. Would make me nervous!

I keep looking at the date on my watch and thinking of you.

spamwarrior said...

That's scary! Wow.

Melanie Hooyenga said...

Erica, I felt more stupid than brave, but thanks. :)

Melanie Hooyenga said...

Spy, at first Ibis said 100, but when I asked him again we decided there were roughly fifty. We couldn't see most of them when they were in front of the house because the tree blocked most of the view.

Melanie Hooyenga said...

Spam, yeah, it was. Especially when they first rolled up and we weren't sure if there would be a shoot-out.

JLC said...

Why would they need so many? Seems a bit, over the top.

Melanie Hooyenga said...

A lot of them seemed to be to watch the streets. It's quite common for soldiers to be ambushed while doing routine things like this, so it takes a lot more of them. And, since they don't know what they'll encounter (a bloody gunfight, etc) they need to be prepared. There were about ten guys who actually went inside the building.

Nadine said...

You can say one thing about your life, it's never boring!

Travis Erwin said...

You lead a much more exciting life than I.

Melanie Hooyenga said...

Nadine, oh how I long for boredom...

Melanie Hooyenga said...

Travis, it's odd how I always seem to post these things on Mondays.

Robin said...

Little Dudette, I highly recommend HIDING UNDER THE BED the next time you see a bunch of soldiers outside. Oy. I'm getting a friggin' ulcer, here!

Melanie Hooyenga said...

Robin, I didn't mean to give you an ulcer!