Sunday, January 16, 2011

Multiple Gunshots in Albany

I was out in my yard late this afternoon and began to hear gunshots. Sometimes they would be bunched closely together and sometimes spaced apart. They were to the south of me, but seemed to be moving, like someone shooting from a car.

After about ten minutes of shots, I called the police. I figured they would already know what was going on. I figured must be a workplace shooting, like has become common.

They said they already had officers out trying to locate the origin of all these shots. As I was talking to them, more were being fired. I went and got my neighbor, so she could hear them. Guess it was sort of entertainment. By this time, the shots were farther away and farther east.

Wonder what went on. She thought it must be bored kids shooting out a window or from the back of a pickup. Problem with bullets is, what goes up comes down somewhere.

I never heard if they found the shooter. People are so obsessed with guns and when a person gets mad and has a gun handy, that's what they reach for and god help anyone or anything in the path.

I've heard lots of random gunshots since moving here. I've almost gotten used to it and barely take note anymore. But this time, it was so many shots, I did notice. I ingored the first ten minutes of shooting, dutifully, and finally got fed up.

There are just too many assholes out there with issues and guns.

I got a new perspective on the gunshots when in back of an Albany apartment complex an hour later, after some stray cats, for fixing.

The woman I was helping said, "Lookee, the fire department. M, that's a fire truck!" This was when a large truck of some type appeared, in the dark, in the back parking lot at the far end of all the apartments. The woman disappeared outside then came back to announce police officers were out back, along with the fire department checking all the sewers because those bangs earlier were not gunshots but rather pipe bombs going off in the sewers.

Now I love a good story. I love some drama. But this wasn't quite believable.

If there were pipe bombs in the sewers for instance why wouldn't they be checking manholes in the street, not going back behind some fence at the back of a parking lot into some grassy yard behind it. And, for instance, if there were suspected pipe bombs going off, why would they have not warned the woman to maybe leave her apartment immediately for safety sake!

I wandered back to check a trap and ran into a guy coming back through the fence dressed in a yellow suit with a white hard hat and big flashlight.

He looked at me and implored, "Are you having flushing problems?"

This was not the question I was expecting.

"Um, no. My flushing's fine," I said, cheerily, trying not to act confused at all. "How's your flushing?"

"Well, we're having sewage problems around here."

"Oh, great," I said, still cheerful. "With the whole area?"

"No, it's a private thing," he grunted, unenthusiastically, and nodded towards the fence and backyard behind it.

Whatever, I thought. I looked down the back parking lot to what was supposed to be a fire truck, knowing it wouldn't be one, since this sewer guy sure wasn't a cop looking for pipe bombs. It was some utility type truck.

I go back inside and mention to the woman her 'slight' error in reporting who and what was out back. "Oh, really? The sewer is backing up, no pipe bombs?" She was disappointed her own tale was untrue. Hers was so much better than reality.

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