"Car into a tree on Webb Road" Damn, I hadn't had dinner I'll drive by...
The car was on the treelawn with zero damage, the person left the scene and had his girlfriend call it in.
Car showed no real issue except missing driver.
Blocked this guy's driveway too.
Talked with police briefly, always rewarding as long as you don't ask about what they are working on.
Off I went, on my way might want to get dinner, maybe Woodstock, nice night I'll drive through the canyon and check out the snow.
Coming back up on Detroit, "Car into a pole..." Roads were barely snow covered, crews were doing a good job in a heavy snow.
Yep, sure enough, car into a pole.
Well off to dinner, of course everything is handled.
On the way a couple domestic issues, some driveways blocked, wow it is snowing...
St. Ed's field lit up, hmmm
Stopped by Woodstock, currently they are featuring a meatloaf sandwich which is pretty damn good, their fires are also always perfect.
Time to head out to Avon Lake...
At the end of Madison see another city truck spreading salt.
And as I hit Bay Village at 10:21 the radio crackles, "Car-jacking on West 117" and the police all head that way. I have to tell you the response was pretty impressive, though futile at the time. "Two black males late teens approached a worker at Asia Wok with a stun gun, threatening to use it. The owner of the "2000 silver Toyota turned over the car, and off they went, north bound on West 117." Now I will not go into all that followed over the next hour, as the teens disappeared into Cleveland. But within 5 minutes they had descriptions, not from the victim, but from the cameras in the area. Police cars being directed by the dispatch room calling up video. Then to various businesses accessing their cameras, and soon a picture emerged. Two black teens came down Detroit heading West from W116, cutting through the Pizza Hut parking lot. They walked south on W117 until stopping and waiting in front of Rally's, then crossed the street and jacked the car owner who was shaken but unhurt. The police then accessed tapes from all over the area, chasing down leads and asking others and a sharper and sharper picture emerged. Still, the teens were uncaught by the time I got back into Lakewood at my house.
As I finally sat down in my chair and reflected on the night and the car jacking, I actually felt pretty damn safe. The response by the police was pretty amazing in the middle of a long cold shift, they had the entire thing figured out down to images of the perps in 30 minutes or less. I also couldn't help but wonder, if the police had not been involved in cars blocking driveways calls, "I think I want to hurt myself" calls, cars into stationary objects for no reason calls, they would have had the corners of the city locked down and been seconds not minutes from the scene of the violent crime, the car jacking. Would they have caught them, who knows, a car stolen nearly anywhere in this city slips into another community pretty quickly, but Lakewood Police have been damn good at catching criminals, especially when they have the corners of the city locked down.
The other day, I read the latest reports from Judge Patrick Carroll's court, 2017 Court report. It would seem all are doing their jobs. Crime down, prosecution up, and sentences being dealt out fairly, and humanely when not violent crime. Yet every area of City Hall in every city, employees are being asked to do more with less.
As I went to bed and had a great night's sleep I could not help but think of the George Orwell quote:
“We sleep soundly in our beds, because rough men stand ready in the night to do violence on those who would harm us."
Thank you Lakewood Police, Fire and City Crews.
.