The Longest Day of My Life....

was yesterday. Here we go. It's story time.

Yesterday, about 1:30 I was just finishing up my shower when I heard a helicopter flying over our house. Judah was in the front room watching some cartoons, entertaining himself while I was in the shower. I hurried to get dressed so that I could take Judah outside to look at the helicopter. Once we got outside, I realized it was a police helicopter, and it was flying pretty low and in a circle. That's when I decided we probably shouldn't be outside. So we rounded up the dogs and headed inside, locking the door behind us. About that time, I realized I was hearing some sirens, and then I saw a police car drive backwards down our street.

Next, I saw our neighbor, who happens to be a fireman, walk down the street to ask some policemen what was going on. I watched him walk back into his house, and then come back out to check his mail. I started to think I had better know what was going on, so I ran next door before he got inside to ask him what they had told him. He said that an escaped parolee had crashed a car on the freeway exit right by our neighborhood, and was seen, armed, running through someones backyard. I told him that we would head back into the house and make sure everything was locked. He suggested that we might think about hopping in the van and leaving, just to get the "heck outta dodge". I seriously considered that.

It wasn't much later that our neighbor and friend John called me. He said he could tell from his house, about 2 blocks away, that the helicopter was circling our street, and wondering what was going on. I told him what I knew, and he offered his house as a safe haven to escape to, if need be. I seriously considered that.

It wasn't much later that my friend Tami called me. She wanted to know if Judah and I could join her and her kids at the park. I joked a little bit, and told her we were on "lockdown", and I would call her back and let her know if we wanted to go. While I was on the phone with Tami, the K-9 officer and his police dog walked through our front yard. I officially started to freak out, with Tami on the other end of the phone. The doorbell rang, so I said goodbye to Tami, and answered the door, with all the dogs on high alert.

There was an officer at the door that asked permission to let their police dog off leash in my backyard. I of course said yes, and proceeded to lock Judah, Jager, Honey, Jack and Moose all in Judah's tiny room. I stayed there with them for a few minutes, then decided to come out and see what was going on. They were already gone, but I decided to have Judah stay in his room.

Once the police officers had left, I decided we were getting out of here, and called Brent to let him know what was going on, and to let him know that we may not be here when he got home from work. I had our shoes on, keys in my pocket, and Jager's leash in my hands. I was planning on taking him with me. He just makes me feel safer. Brent suggested we stay put, he was planning on being home in an hour or so, he felt that we would be safer if we just stayed put, in Judah's room until he got home.

SO that is what we did. I poked my head out of Judah's room a few times to see what was going on, there were police in cars, on motorcycles, in unmarked cars etc. most of them were parked right across the street from our house. About an hour later, Brent called to say that he was on his way home from work, he'd be home in about 10 minutes. I was beyond relieved!

About 5 minutes later, I realized the helicopter was gone, or at least gone from here. The police cars quickly followed. I thought they either had found who they were looking for, of had given up. I was even more relieved to see Brent pull up in his work truck and come in through our garage door. I let Judah and the dogs out of his room. We were safe.

A few minutes later, Brent noticed out of our dining room window that some of the officers and the police dog were back in our neighbors yard. They saw Brent looking at them, and motioned to him to ask if they could come over. Brent waved them over, and then decided to go out the front door to see if they needed anything.

About a minute later, Brent came back in, took one look at me, held me by the shoulders and said, "I don't want you to freak out (by the way, that is the universal freakout guaranteed catch phrase) but they just pulled the guy out of our van."

OUT OF OUR VAN!!!!!!!!

He had been there the entire time!!! Why didn't I leave? I had the opportunity to, the means to, even the persuasion to do so MANY times, yet, we stayed here. I KNOW that God was watching over us, and his angels were surrounding us keeping safe. I don't know what would have happened if I had opened up that van door to load Jager up. I don't know where we would be today, or what situation we would be in. I'm glad I don't have to know. i am so thankful that God, in His infinite wisdom, protected us from getting into a bad situation.

Needless to say, we were all pretty upset. I couldn't stop shaking. I looked out the front window just in time to see them escorting him, in handcuffs, to one of their cars. Brent said, when he was outside, and saw them pulling him out of our van, the threw him over the top of Brent's Tempo, and were yelling at Brent if we knew him or gave him permission to be in our van! Ummmm, let me think....NO! About that time, there was another knock on our door, the police asking us if we had any questions...uhhh...yes!??!!?! They didn't really tell us much, we actually got more information from the photographer that was there soon after it all went down. He took our names and numbers, and about 10 minutes later, we had the Californian calling for a phone interview. I did a phone interview for the Press Enterprise, and there are articles in both local papers about the incident today.

Here are the links to the story, which describe, in more detail, who this guy was, and why they were chasing him, and the whole story leading up to the point where he was found IN OUR VAN!!!!!!!!!

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2008/01/10/news/californian/4_02_421_9_08.txt

http://www.pe.com/localnews/murrieta/stories/PE_News_Local_S_smanhunt10.34a4620.html

I still don't believe that this happened. It still has me a little shaken up.

Moral of the story??? I don't think we're in Idaho any more. We need to start locking our car in the driveway......I know, I know....that's what you get for moving to California, right?