MrPeter
Member
A few nights ago (Fri, Mar 16 @ 4AM) my roommates were awoken(?) by a very loud crash and some yelling. Me bieng the hibernation expert of the group, I slept right through it. Checking to make sure all the doors were locked and peeping out the window a little through the blinds, they decided that after it had been silend for a few minutes it would be safe to go back to sleep.
The next day I went to go check the mail on the way home from the grocery store, like I always do, by stopping the car, getting out with the mailbox key, and walking over to the mailbox.
Our mailboxes are set up in a gazebo with about 24 boxes per cabinet, and with eight cabinets side by side (a townhouse complex).
When I got to my mailbox I realized that although it was still in front of me, it was now on the ground a good 10 feet in the forward direction, twisted into a funny shape. I also then realized I was standing almost ankle-deep in soggy cat litter.
Before you scrutinize my lack of attention to my surroundings, I was in a deep intellectual conversation with one of my roommates, who hadn't noticed the situation until he had gotten out of the car as well.
Anyway, it looked like someone had tied a chain to the base of the mailbox cabinets and yanked them out. Upon further inspection and a little interrogation of the person manning the office, it seems that some 17 year old kid high on many types of drugs and a lot of alcohol attempted to go back to the future by plowing through my mailbox, across a lawn, and embedded his vehicle into an apartment building almost completely. The reason it looked like it was not rammed, but rather pulled, was because there were no tire tracks leading from the mailbox to the apartment where the car had landed (about 15 yards away). In order for that scenario to have played out as described, the car must have been going fast enough to literally FLY over the lawn and crash into the building. He must have been going VERY fast.
I told you that story to tell you this one:
Today I got my CPL. These kinds of drugged up kids (I live a stones throw away from literally THE most liberal college in Washington State) all drunk and high running around and doing crazy things like this is one of the reasons I wanted to get my CPL. Hiking around in the woods, walking down the street at night, or even sleeping in your own house, you never know what insane crazy thing these nutjobs are going to do next. There have been reports of break-ins and drug-related crimes (mostly people on them, rarely people trying to get them) all over the place.
Not to say I 'needed' my CPL that night, but I sure do feel safer now knowing I can protect myself the next time I wake up to the sounds of someone rummaging through my kitchen to find some drugged-up junior looking for drugs. (actually happened)
If nothing else, now I have joined the ranks of responsible citizens taking charge of their own saftey, and exercising their RKBA.
The next day I went to go check the mail on the way home from the grocery store, like I always do, by stopping the car, getting out with the mailbox key, and walking over to the mailbox.
Our mailboxes are set up in a gazebo with about 24 boxes per cabinet, and with eight cabinets side by side (a townhouse complex).
When I got to my mailbox I realized that although it was still in front of me, it was now on the ground a good 10 feet in the forward direction, twisted into a funny shape. I also then realized I was standing almost ankle-deep in soggy cat litter.
Before you scrutinize my lack of attention to my surroundings, I was in a deep intellectual conversation with one of my roommates, who hadn't noticed the situation until he had gotten out of the car as well.
Anyway, it looked like someone had tied a chain to the base of the mailbox cabinets and yanked them out. Upon further inspection and a little interrogation of the person manning the office, it seems that some 17 year old kid high on many types of drugs and a lot of alcohol attempted to go back to the future by plowing through my mailbox, across a lawn, and embedded his vehicle into an apartment building almost completely. The reason it looked like it was not rammed, but rather pulled, was because there were no tire tracks leading from the mailbox to the apartment where the car had landed (about 15 yards away). In order for that scenario to have played out as described, the car must have been going fast enough to literally FLY over the lawn and crash into the building. He must have been going VERY fast.
I told you that story to tell you this one:
Today I got my CPL. These kinds of drugged up kids (I live a stones throw away from literally THE most liberal college in Washington State) all drunk and high running around and doing crazy things like this is one of the reasons I wanted to get my CPL. Hiking around in the woods, walking down the street at night, or even sleeping in your own house, you never know what insane crazy thing these nutjobs are going to do next. There have been reports of break-ins and drug-related crimes (mostly people on them, rarely people trying to get them) all over the place.
Not to say I 'needed' my CPL that night, but I sure do feel safer now knowing I can protect myself the next time I wake up to the sounds of someone rummaging through my kitchen to find some drugged-up junior looking for drugs. (actually happened)
If nothing else, now I have joined the ranks of responsible citizens taking charge of their own saftey, and exercising their RKBA.
