The Hysteria Begins

[Kythas]

A man sitting in his truck in a Wal-Mart parking lot was talking on his cell phone. Someone told a passing police officer the person was acting erratically and holding a gun to his head. This prompted a lockdown of the Wal-Mart and the man being taken into custody for 20 minutes before police determined no crime had been committed.

See something, say something, right?

http://www.kirksvilledailyexpress.com/f ... t-Wal-Mart

I suppose it could have been a high-capacity cell phone, capable of sending more than 10 text messages before rebooting.

[Dave2]

A man sitting in his truck in a Wal-Mart parking lot was talking on his cell phone. Someone told a passing police officer the person was acting erratically and holding a gun to his head. This prompted a lockdown of the Wal-Mart and the man being taken into custody for 20 minutes before police determined no crime had been committed.

See something, say something, right?

I wonder how long it will take for this to overload the system? It seems like "more protection" is one thing that people won't gripe about paying for, but at some point the economy just can't support it.

Oooh... I'll bet Janet Napalitano is doing this as a favor for Obama so that he & the dems can step in and offer many-strings-attached federal assistance to cities and states whose PD budget is running low.

Seriously, though, don't do that now with school and road repair funding?

[A-R]

I suppose it could have been a high-capacity cell phone, capable of sending more than 10 text messages before rebooting.

if it is, it's cetainly not an iphone

[Dave2]

I suppose it could have been a high-capacity cell phone, capable of sending more than 10 text messages before rebooting.

if it is, it's cetainly not an iphone

That's because Apple designed the iPhone as a purely defensive texting device. Though, if you "jailbreak" it, seedy developers will sell you apps that can send 33 texts at a time. Who needs that?!? Nobody, that's who!!!

[Rebel]

This made me remember an incident I had tried to forget.

About 15 years ago, I was out in California for a few months to visit my girlfriend(now my Wife), that Summer the "hot top" on the California news was kidnappings. All of a sudden every few weeks there was a new kidnapping, not that there were anymore than normal, it was just the topic of the moment.

Anyways, I was taking my Wife's son(now mine as well) to day care that was in a strip mall type of setting. The way it was set up was there was parking behind the building that was visible to the other businesses and in view of the playground area. I took him in and the went back to my truck and started filling out some mail I needed to send out before I stopped at the Post Office.

After about 5 minutes of sitting in my truck I can see through the corner of my eye a lady who seems very erratic she keeps coming out and pointing in my area and then going back in and bringing out other people(all male) and just making me feel something wasn't right. So I pull out and drive halfway down the strip mall and stop off at the pay phone to call my wife to see if she needs anything, this was before everyone had a cellphone.

I'm on the phone with her for about 2 minutes when all of a sudden 3 cop car come blaring into the parking lot and surround me. They jump out, screaming at me to get off the phone and get down, I tell them "what's going on", they start searching me and asking why I'm there and what was I doing, I keep telling them I dropped of my girlfriends son and was fill out some paperwork. They wanted no part of it, one of them seems to really have an itch to beat me down, and keeps asking me questions and when ever I answer he tells me to shut up(except not so nicely) or he's going to tase me for resisting. It get real ugly for a bit, until the lady who runs the day care comes out and tells them I was there to drop of a child. They then start asking her all sorts of questions but after a few minutes they let me up and tell me that I was lucky she came out.

As soon as they left, I walked over to where the lady who clearly called was and start telling her some choice words. That encounter has always left a bad taste in my mouth, and to this day I still remember the officers name who threatened me.

[jimlongley]

I hate toadmit how long ago, but while I was in the Navy I was driving my mother's car a few miles from where I used to live, and saw an old friend (a girl) and waved madly at her, and then pulled a very illegal u turn and followed her. She stepped on the gas and pulled away from me, but not far enough that I couldn't see where she stopped and went inside.

I went up to the door of the business and asked a receptionist if the young lady was there, and she told me she could not reveal that information.

I went back out and sat in my car, and was about to write a note to leave on her windshield when the cops started to arrive.

As they had me out of my car and bent over the hood of a cruiser, in uniform yet, all of a sudden we heard "OHMYGOD OHMYGOD, JIMMIE, JIMMIE, Please officer, let him go . . ." and she went on and on in a panic.

My mother's car looked like her ex husband's (and I didn't even know she had been married) so when she got to where she worked, the first thing she did as she got there was call the cops. It wasn't until they dragged me out of the car that she recognized me, when I came to the door before she was hiding in the back and didn't see me.

After a few minutes of explanation I was turned loose and left. Didn't see her again for about 10 years, and have only seen her twice in the ensuing 32 years.

[jordanmills]

You guys sure it wasn't just some cranker making fun of the whole say something nonsense? How long will the cops care when they get a call like this every week?

[Fangs]

Props to the officers for not shooting first and asking questions later.

[Pacifist]

Hey, what a great idea. I see this as a real opportunity to get the cell-phone-using, texting-while-driving, drive-like-they're-drunk idiots off the freeways for at least a little while.

"Hello, 911? Yes, I think there's someone driving down the freeway with a gun to her head! Yes, indeed, that's what it looks like. And she's swerving all over the place..."