072 ACTION GALORE

It was almost non-stop action around here for a couple of days during the Remembrance Day long weekend.  It was like being on an action movie set.  It’s usually pretty quiet around here and quiet being a relative term with all the construction noise next door.  Now granted, that is only during the day and I’m one of the few that is home during the day.  The buildings though are pretty well sound insulated, so it isn’t too bad at all.

But, I digress.  Shortly after watching the Remembrance Day ceremonies on TV, we were surprised to look out and see three RCMP cars come racing into the complex with red and blue lights flashing.  They raced past my place and up the street to the security fence where they were met by the on-site security guard.

The officers bailed out of their cars and set up containment around one of the buildings under construction.  A short time later they were joined by two more RCMP cars.  One was a Supervisor’s unit and the other an SUV with a dog.

After searching the building for a short time, they came out with a suspect in handcuffs.  One member was carrying a very expensive looking bicycle and the other carrying two back-packs.  After loading the suspect into one of the cars, they went back to searching the building.  This is a building which comprises of six individual townhouse units.

It is not even in the lockdown stage as of yet.  The windows are all in, but not all the doors and you can freely walk between units inside.  I don’t know if this is just a moron who picked the wrong building or if he was hoping to steal copper pipes, wires or left-over tools.

He would be out of luck on all three counts because the places are not wired yet.  They use plastic or PVC pipes and the workers are extremely diligent about not leaving tools behind.  He could just be one of the many druggies who roam the streets looking for a score, or he could have been a homeless person just trying to get out of the rain.  In any case, the Mounties did a great job and received a round of applause from all the residents gathered.

The following evening I finally managed to surprise Renee.  I told her we were going to Canadian Tire to get the new Christmas tree and decorations, but instead took her to The Keg for a Prime Rib and Lobster dinner, to celebrate our 13^th Anniversary.  She was very surprised, so surprised in fact because for the third year in a row, she forgot it was our anniversary.  People think men are the ones who forget things like this.

Sunday, morning and we had the whole adventure from Friday repeated.  RCMP units converging and again, they managed to arrest a person in the same building.  I saw him being led outside and it was a different guy.  He was fighting all the way and screaming that the security guy had let him in.  In fact, it was the security guy who spotted him and phoned it in.  this guy was taken away and on the way out was trying to kick the window out of the police car.  Another great arrest.

On Monday morning as Toby and I were going for our walk, I saw the head of construction and told him about the action.  He was aware of the first incident but didn’t know about the second.  It turns out the first guy on Friday was a member of their construction team.  So, all charges were dropped.

I kind of suspect that the guy was one of the “working homeless” and just ducked into the site to get out of the rain for a few hours.  Who, really knows though.  The second guy though, I have no idea who he was or what there is for an update on him.

It’s worked out well though as it has all the residents more on their toes and looking around at who is around.  This could also be because of Maple Ridge City Council imposing a “red zone” on downtown Maple Ridge.  Any of the known criminals in the area are not allowed to be found in an area in downtown.  Unfortunately, this will force them into more outlying areas, which will make us targets as well.