Breaking News on the Burglary

Police raided a meth distribution center here in town, the home of a Laotian family at 12:32 am this morning (Monday). In addition to numerous bags of what were allegedly methamphetmines, they found numerous items of property that went missing after a serious of burglaries around here. Fingers crossed, but... that was the house of the lead suspect in *our* case, and what the paper is describing, I believe could be *my* things. Paper mentions a couple of handguns and a rifle.
Fingers crossed. I'm going up to see if they'll let me identify them tomorrow.
The group was composed of several men ranging from 18 to 20 years old. The one with the guns? He's the older brother of the kid we suspected orchestrated this. They're in jail. And if those *are* my guns, they are now off the street.
Can't wait to see if they are indeed our missing guns -- and see what else they took of ours.
Get this. Know why the police raided the house? One of the boys butt-dialed 911 and hung it up quick. That sent officers to investigate. When the door was open when they came to the house, they could the drugs in plain sight on the floor, on the table. They seized possession of those while requesting a warrant. They got a warrant to search the entire house and it just all came together after that.
I wonder if it was really a "911 hangup" investigation, as these were the lead suspects all along. I don't know why they had to have a warrant, either: several of the family members in that house are on probation. The way I understood it when I was on probation, the police can search your house at any time without a warrant.
I am cautious to judge all this too early, though. It's just the newspaper, after all. I don't know anything more that what the reporter said, if she got it right at all.

Criminal genius? Not!
The one guy, "Dao," had only just gotten out of jail. Looks like he must have liked the accommodations. Newspaper described the inside of the house as uninhabitable: trash, food, "cockroaches and other bugs" (quoting the article). They're being charged with possession, intent to distribute, and use of drugs and drug paraphernalia in the presence of minor children. Possession of guns after a conviction -- so far that's all, according to the paper. But I bet burglary gets added pretty quick.

Oh Woodsroad... such a long story. Has to do with a vindictive ex-wife and her cohort -- who was my superintendent of schools at the time. The charges were brought against me to get me to resign, and then he was going to drop them. Bankrupted me, so I had to finally plead guilty and pray for a deferred sentence (got it), but I won a settlement in the termination hearing, and the judge ordered my record sealed, no conviction, after I did time served and a year of probation... it's all good.
As a writer... it was excellent. I know such cool things firsthand now. I mean, people who haven't been in jail secretly kind of what to know what it's like, right? (No, you are not entitled to a phone call. That's a myth. The sound of a stainless steel toilet flushing in an empty concrete room is deafening, worse than a jet engine... They don't make orange jumpsuits in my size (real nut-buster, what I had to wear) ... Prisoners do not have a right to privacy: hence, the three video cameras on you all the time... and the bastards don't turn the damn lights out when you're trying to sleep on your metal shelf with the wrestling mat mattress.... Visitation for male prisoners was 2-4 pm on Sundays.)
Worst two hours of my life. Hadn't even finished making my shiv yet. (I was expecting to be in there the whole time waiting for trial, but the State's Attorney went soft and gave me OR (released on Own Recognizance).

No home and no job in the meantime, so I learned that people throw away a lot of untouched pizza in the dumpster behind the pizza hut. I slept on a couch at the local airport for a couple weeks until a friend of mine took me in, once he found out where I was (I was sort of... humiliated and ashamed, you know. Not anymore!). I won, sort of.
Justice doesn't come cheap. Wiped out 25 years of accumulated wealth to beat a charge that even the judge said wasn't meant for guys like me. Lawyer gave me a book to read, "When Bad Things Happen to Good People." Long, LONG story. I'll tell it someday, but ... no freebies. You have to buy the book. (Crap. Just told half the story here. Okay, books are half price now.)
But yeah -- I was told that while I was on probation my house (well, my friend's house) could be searched at any time to check for compliance with terms of probation. Having guns in the house? No no. I supposed having meth in the house would be frowned on, too. Maybe the cops were just making absolutely certain there were no loopholes or technicalities, getting the warrant -- if that's what happened. Just a reporter's story so far.

I heard it was tobacco, lonestar.

You know, I imagine they might have been emboldened that night by a little bit a meth as they did it. Maybe they wouldn't have done it if not for that. Takes a little bite out of it for me. Harder to deal with thinking someone stone cold sober came in and did that to my cabinets and locks.

Thanks, Woodsroad! I'll confess that I didn't do it alone. Dang if the parents of my students didn't find me from time to time -- maybe at Walmart, maybe at church -- take me aside, very emotional, telling me I was being railroaded -- same word you used. That was a lot of power, right there.

Exactly right, sirbogglesworth. Exactly right. People living by that house have been afraid a long time. They get to sleep better tonight. So much tension, broken.

That's Mr. Rice to you, trailboss.

Dang. Dreamed all night about it. Anticipation of the relief it would bring to know they were off the street.
This morning, first thing, evidence cop told me, no, they weren't mine. Different calibers, different makes.
Well, that's a sagging gut feeling.
Also told me that had there been a possibility they were mine, they'd have called me immediately. They would want me to identify them, of course, to help them prove the burglary. More charges. They didn't call me because they didn't match.

That's Mr. White to you, trailboss.

Dang. Dreamed all night about it. Anticipation of the relief it would bring to know they were off the street.
This morning, first thing, evidence cop told me, no, they weren't mine. Different calibers, different makes.
Well, that's a sagging gut feeling.
Also told me that had there been a possibility they were mine, they'd have called me immediately. They would want me to identify them, of course, to help them prove the burglary. More charges. They didn't call me because they didn't match.
http://www.dglobe.com/content/three-arrested-drug-charges-1
Story isn't quite what my mother-in-law read to me last night. But there it is. Oh -- and as a number of you had figured on a connection to someone at our house, yes, that "Dao" mentioned in the story is the older brother of my stepson's (ex-) friend. (Ex, because if you'll remember, they did not take my long guns, but they took my stepson's two .22 rifles and his youth bow).
I embellished, calling it a meth distribution center, because my friend (and godfather of my children) lives across the street. His own home has been broken into, and he said this past 4-6 months it has been nonstop traffic at that house all hours of the night. He knew people were making pick-ups there. And we figured the cops were already watching that place.

That's what the evidence cop said, rangerearthpig. He said it is within reason to expect that they knew they were suspects in our burglary, they didn't want to be caught with the stolen goods. Either passed them out to friends or chucked them in the lake.
He said, "Don't hold your breath waiting to hear about them, because when the water's down, people bring us guns that were stolen 10 years ago."
Thanks, marine!
And thanks to all who are biting your tongue right now. I know there are those among us you who favor stricter gun control laws or who can see this as support for a belief America has just got to do something about its gun culture. I appreciate that you are not using a situation that causes me and my family great anguish for general debate. That has not escaped my attention. Thank you for your compassion and gentlemanly tolerance right now, further testimony to the quality of membership of Pipesmagazine.