Saturday, July 5, 2008

I learned it the hard way...

July 4th and Waco just don't mix well. Half the people in the city were setting off fireworks last night (which is illegal within city limits, btw) and the other half decided to call and report them. Props to you for trying to be a good citizen and reporting illegal activity, but please, don't call back every 15-20 minutes and bitch to me about how slow the police are at responding to your oh so special and unique call about fireworks on the 4th of July. 
Just about every single call last night was about fireworks or something related to that. There were several fires (all started by fireworks), several accidents ("This guy threw a firecracker at my car and made me swerve into a telephone pole!"), and several other people just wanting to know when the fireworks started (9:45). Fortunately, there were still a few non-fireworks related calls to keep it interesting: a suicide threat, a guy stealing steel, and a 70 year old guy who "stole" a lawnmower and required 4-5 officers to stop and cuff him (he actually owned the lawnmower and had for 5 years). And once all the fireworks were over, there was (more or less) a riot in the streets. People that are drunk/excited/teenagers should never be given things that explode. Traffic was awful, people were fighting everywhere, fireworks were still going off everywhere (including under a few cars), etc... downtown Waco was a mess.
And I still didn't get to see any real fireworks.

3 comments:

Patricia said...

Maybe next year, you can ask off and get far, far away from Wack-o. Like four hours north :)

Tracy Jabbal said...

nicccce.... i didn't really get much of a 4th either. just dog sitting at alex's house (while he worked at the empty steakhouse)and making sure their pitbull didn't jump the fence during the fireworks (also during a summer thunderstorm). i feel your pain. kinda...

Deb said...

Sorry you had a crazy 4th of July.

I had the privilege of of bunking down at Trish's place. There's not much more to say.