Strange goings on in my neighborhood!

Well this has been an interesting day of weird goings on. ; Maybe some of the police and fire members here might be interested...or a Hollywood screenwriter, as they might be able to make something of all this.

It started around 3pm this afternoon. ; I was in the pool, relaxing, when I heard sirens - a pretty standard emergency response headed into my neighborhood - one Fire Dept SUV, one paramedic/rescue truck, and one ladder truck. ; I'm not overly nosy, but we're a small neighborhood, gated and private, so you tend to at least be aware of where they go in case it's someone you know. ; Well they went past my house, took the first left about 40 feet past my house, and slowed pretty quickly just a few houses up that road. ; Hmmm...I know folks there. ; So I dried off, threw on a shirt, and took a walk that way to see if I could confirm what house they had gone to. ; In the time it took me to get down the street, two Boca PD squad cars came flying in, no lights but double time. ; They stopped at the same spot. ; I walked as far as the house on the opposite side of the street, and confirmed it was a house next to a neighbor I know...not someone I knew personally. ; Satisfied with that, a little curious about the two squad cars, but willing to let them do their jobs, I left. ; By the time I got back to my house, three more PD squad cars came flying in - one turned up that street, while the other two flew down the road without turning. ; Shortly after, a white SUV, fairly obvious it was an unmarked unit, came ripping past, heading straight again without turning down that road.

OK...so an hour goes by, and the two Fire trucks and SUV head out, lights off...but no police cars seem to have left. ; Not sure if any others had come in for the hour or so I wasn't watching...I decided to have a walk to the end of the corner for a look. ; Gazing down the road, I see at least 10 police cars, marked and unmarked, lining and blocking the street. ; They were turning back all foot and vehicular traffic on that road in both directions. ; Interesting. ; I decide to keep an eye on the front of my house to gauge when the cars leave. ; An hour later, two cars leave...but they stay in the neighborhood, circling around the opposite direction from my house, lights off. ; I decide to try a walk down there again, and find that this time, they are no longer blocking the road, but there are still 6-8 cars there in front of that same house. ; I walk past the house because about 4 houses up I see some neighbors I know standing out in front of their house. ; As I'm approaching them, I'm surprised to find they aren't really paying any attention to the 6-8 squad cars down the street where I just came from. ; As I approach them, I realize why. ; The house across the street from them - a completely different house 4 away from the other, has at least 9 squad cars, an unmarked SUV, and a white van parked all through the driveway and street around it. ; Hmmm...this just keeps getting stranger. ; Talking to them, I learn very little - they had come out of their house earlier to look down the street at the emergency trucks, but then went back inside - they had only come back out when they noticed all the squad cars gathering in front of their house, and surrounding the house across the street. ; None of the officers were telling anybody anything. ; While we were chatting, two officers emerged from the house in bullet proof vests, holding assault rifles, and carrying what looked to be several rifles in cases with several ammo boxes out of the house. ; The big mystery is how the two houses were connected, which they seemed to be as it was far too much coincidence for that many cars to be spread out at two houses at the same time. ; But figuring I wasn't going to learn much more until possibly tomorrow, I left the scene to clean itself up.

So this evening, I'm watching TV, all's well until around 11pm...I see flashing red emergency lights go past out the window...no sirens. ; Oh boy, this HAS to be related. ; It's not like I'm living in South Central LA...emergency vehicles are extremely rare in this neighborhood. ; So I watch as they head past - they are actually leaving from that same street, already on their way out of the neighborhood. ; I walk out in front of my house and watch them pull out of the neighborhood. ; Whatever it was, I guess it's over. ; Just then, my eyes begin to adjust to the darkness, and I see shapes in front of my house. ; Looking back down the street, I realize I see these shapes all over the place. ; A dozen of them at least. ; The shapes are silhouettes of squad cars, all lights off, sitting silently, lining the street on both sides from my house all the way to the corner. ; A close listen reveals some engines are on. ; The road itself is essentially blocked - anyone coming around the corner drives right into a gauntlet, and wanting to get away would require a fairly obvious u-turn maneuver. ; Looking back to the neighborhood entrance and the clubhouse that sits right across the street...I see two more darkened squad cars sitting the opposite direction from the entrance gate - clearly seeming to be the swinging gate of the gauntlet to catch whatever the others have lined up for. ; Mind you, I'm standing in my front yard not 20 feet from these silent cars, silhouettes of heads inside each, craning to look down the street - and not a single response. ; It was almost a little creepy...I decided best to just skulk back into my house and leave them be.

Weird! ; So I've been monitoring this situation - the gauntlet finally started to dismantle about 30 minutes ago - there seems to be one waiting at the end of the street, and two at the clubhouse. ; One or two others are making lights-off rounds of the neighborhood. ; The rest seem to have gone from view - whether or not they're still standing by, I have no idea. ; Nothing on the news. ; Our local PD crime map and online reports and news have no mention of any of this yet. ; I'm heading to bed now...I'll have to catch up on this strange story tomorrow and see if it shows up either in the news or in the police reports. ; We've had Bernie Madoff types down here, and we've had mob hits before, but this is an extraordinarily wealthy low-crime town, so what we do have is few-and-far-between. ; This one has the makings of a big local story indeed...I haven't seen that much police response in this town since the mob hit. ; We've only got 198 officers...a lot less vehicles than that. ; It seemed we had upwards of 1/3 of the entire force committed to this incident...rather a lot! ; I'll update more as I get it. ; 'Night!

 

Can't wait for the update. ; Thanks for the initial story, although next time, maybe some photos?

 

With the look on the faces of the police on scene, I didn't think a camera would be very welcome. ; The ones on stakeout later that night would have needed that F1.0 lens and ISO12800 to see!

So far, nothing. ; Official public incident reports online make no mention at all of anything there - they are updated through this morning and this is currently being quashed. ; Possibly because it's an ongoing incident/investigation.

I'm hoping some of our neighborhood board/council members might know more; one is my neighbor so I'll talk with him when I get home tonight.

 

Yes, I can assure you that police on official business do not care for cameras to be present. ; It's amazing how a photo or snippet of video can get twisted and distorted. ;

 

OK...I have a partial update, but it doesn't sound like it's filling in all the holes yet. ; Apparently, it began with a domestic; the wife called about her husband threatening to injure or kill himself. ; Fire made the initial call, which seems od...police came after. ; Even more odd - they didn't go to the house that called...but another house down the street. ; Rumor is the suicidal man had fled to that house, someone he knew, armed. ; That precipitated the closing down of the street. ; Upon entering the house cautiously, they verified the man was not present. ; So now they've got a suicidal man armed with a gun loose somewhere. ; So that precipitated the initial flurry of activity around the neighborhood. ; The police then went to the man's house where the wife made the call, and found that the man had an extensive weapons collection...which precipitated them to confiscate the weapons and ammo as they could present a danger. ; As they didn't find the man, that apparently led to the evening gauntlet and manhunt they had set up, hoping to catch him heading back home under cover of night. ; Though it doesn't explain the reappearance of the fire trucks again at night. ; The next day, the house was empty...and stayed that way until this afternoon when the wife returned to the house (according to witnesses). ; No sign of the husband. ; All was quiet until this evening, when I took out my trash to again find 4 police cars sitting silently in the dark, again looking like they had set a trap. ; I noticed too that several officers were on foot down the street, behind some yards, and in the field across from the Tennis courts, darkly dressed and hiding among the trees. ; Those backyards and that field would be two alternate methods of reaching the man's house without using the road...so they had all possible routes covered. ; They appeared to be wearing vests, and at least one silhouette revealed a rifle.

Astoundingly, all of this with no neighborhood warnings...no rushing people back into their houses, no explanations. ; I went out to the curb and back 3 times taking out my trash, not 10 feet from one of the silent dark squad cars with two officers clearly silhouetted inside...and not a single warning or hint to get out of the streets. ; So I'm guessing they aren't feeling the man poses any public danger. ; But they're wearing vests and are armed and ready themselves. ; I can't quite buy the 'suicidal man' explanation as the sole reason...something is telling me there's more to the story with the cache of guns and ammo and fairly extensive and man-hour intensive manhunt.

Anyway...that's the latest!

 

Interesting, I can't wait to hear more. ; Thanks for the update.

 

remember, justin stated that the suspect was unaccounted for and possibly armed and suicidal. ; to that end, the response was appropriate.

 

I agree. ; I think some of us here have plenty of stories that we know of.

 

Indeed...I haven't seen David Caruso up here yet - maybe he's coming next week!