Of SWAT teams and carjackers

I've been meaning to post something on this blog since this past Wednesday, but I've just been too shaken up to do it (that, and I'm a lazy bum. But I digress).

Last Wednesday, during the American Idol results show, we heard a police chopper circling around our neighborhood, spotlight on. They were looking for something--or someone. An hour passed, and it was still circling around. It got to the point where the spotlight moved across our house.

This is exciting! I thought at the time, and followed the chopper through the windows. Even Amelie was excited, and pointed at the chopper.

Then we looked outside, and there was a police car in front of our neighbor's house. Then we saw a K-9 unit. Then we saw several men with assault rifles.

Uh-oh. This is bad. I then hurried upstairs and made sure all our windows were locked up tight. They were obviously searching for someone, and that someone was obviously in our little neighborhood.

An hour later our worst fears were realized; a sharp rapping on the door, followed by a cop waving his badge at us. He's surrounded by three men with assault rifles and a frisky German Shepherd.

"We'd like to search your backyard. Is your gate locked?", Mr Policeman asked.

"No, but it's latched. You want me to open it?"

(yells at someone to try opening the gate, but the person doesn't succeed). "NO! Stay in the house! Is there a direct entry through your house to your backyard?"

"Yes."

"Can we go through your house?"

"Yes, please!"

So they proceed to walk through and exit to our backyard, and commence their search. They didn't find anything, so they left through our other gate and went to my neighbor's house.

Obviously, it was difficult sleeping that night.

The next day I managed to find out that there was a carjacking around thirty miles from where we lived--and the carjackers had made it all the way to our neighborhood, where they then abandoned the stolen car and tried to escape on foot. Two were caught, but the other person was able to escape.

The whole experience was surreal; it felt like I was in a movie. Luckily, no one was hurt.

It was the end of an eventful day, where the following happened:

(1) I got approved for citizenship (yay!)
(2) Eight children were hurt and a teacher was killed by a car that jumped the curb. This happened in front of where my wife worked, and was witnessed by one of her co-workers.
(3) SWAT team going through our house.

I was wondering at first if (1) and (3) were related (heh). The only link, though, was that I actually had to right to say "no, get a warrant" to the SWAT team. Then again, that thought never crossed my mind; what's the point? They were looking for a bad guy who could have hurt my family. I had nothing to hide.