Roach Clip

Tuesday night (after returning from the criminal trial) I get a call from a tenant. In a quiet whisper, he says “Mark there is something you should know.” Any call after dark from a tenant can’t be good, this one seemed ominous. Oh Lord, I thought, here we go.

“There are five guys walking around the building.”

They could only be there for two reasons: to steal something (either copper or my contractor’s equipment) or to find a place to smoke some dope. I thanked him, hung up and immediately dialed 911. Unfortunately, the borough police were not on duty. Of course they weren’t. The Chief of Police (our only fulltime officer) just spent the last two days (unpaid) with me as the arresting officer in the criminal hearing.

So I was transferred to the state police barracks. They took my information… five male juveniles, possible theft, drugs, location, etc…. but I learned that it would likely be 30 minutes before they would show up. Someone could do a lot of damage and take a lot of stuff in 30 minutes. So, on with the coat, I grabbed the mag flashlight, my cell phone, asked my wife to notify the Neighborhood Watch and ran out the door with the final words of the state police officer ringing in my mind… “don’t approach the suspects.”

That proved to be impossible. I walked up the back steps to the complex and as I hit the top step, five guys were staring right at me - separated by about 20 feet. Turn around or confront were my only options.

I shined the flashlight directly in their faces and found myself asking “Who are you?” “Jeff” replied a slight voice. Another voice jumps in, “Who are you?”

“Wrong question”, I respond, “What are you doing here?”

“We’re just trying to get out of the wind.” Likely true as it was cold and spitting snow and they were taking hits from a joint.

“Well, it’s a bad place to do that. You guys need to move along.” This was going to be easy or not and the police were still likely 15 minutes away. I was about to find out.

“Sorry, sir” was the response.

Three of the guys immediately left and two seemed to have lost something they were intent on finding. But they moved on in short order.

The state police did show up about 15-20 minutes later and found a roach clip and some butts, they took my information and that was that.

It reminded me of my first encounter with a young person in Brownsville. That one, unfortunately, didn’t go quite as well and involved a flying priest. But that’s another story.