Lance Foxx's Journal

Smoking Plane & Drunk Driver Arrested
It's been brought to my attention that I don't post here enough. I'm surprised just how many of you are actually reading my journals and I appreciate that you guys do find them interesting. Thank you for the e-mails and comments!

So, let me try to update this more regularly...

I have two interesting stories for you. One for Thursday in which a plane had engine trouble directly overhead and another for just a few hours ago where I managed to get a drunk driver arrested.

On Thursday, I was doing outside security rounds at work when I heard a building alarm go off. It wasn't one of ours. It sounded like it was coming from one of our neighbors. I called the police, non-emergency, and let them know. The dispatcher said she'd send a unit out to the area to check on the alarm. I decided to stand where I was, behind our complex, so I could watch the police pull into the nearby business I thought the alarm was coming from.

While I was standing there, I also watched air traffic come in and land at the local airport. I watched this one plane come in to land and abort his landing just after appearing over the start of the runway. He veered to one side and pulled in his landing gear. As he flew overhead, I could see that it was a twin turbo prop plane, white, with blue wingtips, and he passed so closed over me that I could look into the compartments the landing gear was going back into.

Just as the doors closed and the plane started to fly away, a thin trail of brown smoke appeared behind the left engine. Before I even realized what I was seeing was smoke, the engine popped! The plane shook. It tugged to the left, shook right, and went back and forth a bit as the pilot seemed to have to regain control, but... after the pop, the smoke seemed to go away. The plane never dipped or banked. It just went side to side for a moment and it was over. The plane continued flying away and gradually gained altitude again.

That was just... really interesting to see that close up. I'm glad he didn't crash. You guys know I've seen just about everything else... >.>

The alarm ended up being nothing. Police checked the building and met with someone who was there working late.

The other story I have for you is an interesting scenario I came across on the way home from work tonight. I was cruising up this hill, past a construction site, and I found this car pulled off the side of the road, at an intersection, still partially on the road. The lights were out on the vehicle and there was a tire on the road behind it. Realizing I might be coming across a new accident scene, I slowed down and carefully passed the car. The entire left side was resting on the roadway. The front left tire was gone and was probably the tire laying behind him. The left rear tired was completely shredded. Otherwise, I saw no other damage to the body of the car.

I decided to turn around and help the guy out. To me, it looked like he somehow blew both tires and was just down on his luck. I parked my truck a safe distance away and walked over. I asked if he needed help. He sat on the curb and said he called a tow truck. I told him I was concerned other cars coming up the hill might still hit his car because it was still sticking out in the roadway. I didn't mention, yet, that I had already called the local PD to assist for that very reason. I started waving a light I had at cars coming up the hill and directed them around the accident. When there was a break, I pulled the tire off the roadway.

At one point, I told him I was concerned for his safety because it's a full moon, Friday night, there's a lot of drunk drivers out there. One of them could come up the hill and clip his car. Case in point, while we waited, a pick up truck came up the hill at a pretty good speed. It was making a lot of noise because it appeared to be dragging something. I hoped that it was debris from the accident, but as it passed, you could see a construction cone stuck under the trucks front end... and he just kept on driving, not a care in the world, over the horizon, just dragging that cone away.

"You see! That's the drivers I'm worried about." I told the guy, still sitting on the curb. "That was probably a drunk driver right there.

He didn't really respond.

Poor guy, I thought, too worried about his car. All he really said to me was how he couldn't believe both tires blew out, never had anything like that happen before. All he wanted to do was just go home.

Finally, the vehicle I was waiting for arrived.

"Here we go!" I said.

"AAA?"

"No, I... called the police to help us out."

He basically just put his head in his hands.

The office got out and I was thankful he parked behind the car so no one would hit it. His flashing lights would finally be enough to get people coming up the hill to move over a lane. The officer got out and was real friendly. Simple, 'what's going on?' as he walked over.

Silence. I looked over to the guy. Obviously, this was his moment to clear his throat and speak up. Instead, silence. The officer looked to me. I was actually surprised the man had nothing to say. I simply pointed. "Um, it's his car..."

The officer walked over to the man and talked to him as he took a step back. He repeated the same story to the officer, who listened, and looked the car over. When he was done, he asked the question I'm sure many of you are thinking by now...

"How much have you had to drink tonight," the officer asked, point blank.

"Couple of beers..." the driver admitted.

...I took a few more steps back down the sidewalk as the full extent of the situation was finally made clear to me. >.>

I never allowed myself to stand close enough to the man to be able to tell. To mean, he seemed to be some poor sap who had a run of bad luck. I tried to help him out and... now he's being arrested. I felt bad at first, but only for a few moments. I reminded myself, this is a DRUNK DRIVER. Why should I be sympathetic? It's guys like him that get innocent people killed.

I went from feeling sorry for the guy to being pissed real fast.

But, more than being pissed at him, I was more pissed at myself for not realizing what should have been obvious to me and what was real obvious to the cop. Friday night, car cuts a tire, but that somehow sheers the whole wheel off the car and pops the other?! That was more than just a flat tire. The construction was at the bottom of the hill, however he forced his car all the way to the top. Was he just getting it to a safe spot or was his reaction so slow he didn't even realize he wrecked his car until the tire came off? And, yeah, the officer, who did talk face to face with the man, could tell "with the first thing he said," that he was drunk, must have been able to smell it on his breath. And then the guy just admits to it.

Unbelievable.

Well, I certainly learned from this. I tried being a good Samaritan, but I put myself in a bad position by just trying to help the guy out. If I knew he was drunk, I would have handled things differently. I would have pulled over a distance away, stayed in my truck, called it in, and waited there, in my truck, at a distance, until the police arrived.

As much as I love the show COPS and still watch it from time to time, tonight once again proved why I could never be a cop. It wasn't instinct for me to be suspicious of the situation. I tend to see people too innocently and I was totally blind to the situation I was dealing with. I think even if I was watching this happen on TV at home, I probably would have thought "Drunk Driver," but there, in real life, I never even considered it until the officer asked him. I'm still kicking myself for that...

Current Mood: Um...

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