Posted on 10/26/2004 5:38:03 PM PDT by libertylass
I HAD MY OWN LITTLE EXPERIENCE LAST SATURDAY THAT PROMPTED ME TO CONTACT THE LOCAL POLICE, AND WHEN THAT DIDN'T SATISFY ME, THE HOMELAND SECURITY OFFICE IN SACRAMENTO, CA. THEY IN TURN SENT ME BACK TO MY LOCAL FBI OFFICE, WHO CONSIDERS MY "EVENT" WORTH LOOKING INTO:
I was walking my dog at about 10:30 am when a man pulled up to the curb in front of my condominium units. We have 23 units that are place in a horseshoe shape with the "opening" of the horseshoe facing the street. The "opening" contains the building for our clubhouse and sauna room so you can't actually see into our common area from the street.
Anyway, I didn't pay any attention to him until about a 1/2 hour later when I left with my dog to take her to the vet. As I walked to my truck (on the street) this middle-Eastern looking guy was standing in the middle of the street taking pictures of our condos. Our condos are directly across from a school and less than 1/2 a block from an elementary school where voting takes place for our immediate area.
At first I wasn't going to say anything, thinking he works for a real estate company, but because there are no "For Sale" signs, or "For Rent" signs on our front lawn, I found it odd. I recently refinanced my condo and they never took pictures of the front of the condo units, but only of my interior and immediate outside walls.
So.....as I walked towards him I asked "do you mind me asking you what you're doing?" He replied "I don't know that it's any of your business" at which time I replied "well, I live here and you're taking pictures of my condos, and people are watching out for this kind of thing." (I was getting perturbed at his uncooperative and disrespectful attitude.) I figure if he was a legitimate real estate agent, or an appraiser, he would have offered an explanation or a business card.
He stated "this is a public place" and proceeded to go get in his car. Me, always being a bit bolder than I should be, got a bit mouthy and said "Oh, so now you're going to leave when someone questions what you're doing?" He replied "yeah."
As he got into car I read his license plate number out loud, got into my truck, wrote it down along with the type of automobile (Dodge Intrepid) and drove to my moms to contact the police.
It turns out that they didn't consider him committing any crime (which I knew), so I contacted the dept. of homeland security. They referred me to my local FBI office in L.A. where my story was welcomed, and that I would be getting a follow up call from an agent at some point.
After talking to a co-worker she reminded me that one school is directly across the street from our units and the other one is around the corner just a few houses down.
Perhaps I was overreacting, but taking pictures of PRIVATELY owned homes without offering an explanation from a resident makes me suspicious. He spoke good English, but has a middle Eastern accent.
I keep thinking I'm gonna wake up in the middle of the night with an orange jumpsuit on and my hands tied behind my back. Shiver........
I believe he also wrote down my license plate number, but can't be sure.
Was I over-reacting you think?
No over-reaction. Well done. Carry on.
Thank goodness, no I haven't had this kind of experience but you did the right thing. We all have to keep our eyes and ears open. Keep a look out.
In light of the Russian school incident... you did the right thing.
Sounds like we all need the FBI number programmed in our cell phones.
You did the right thing and showed the fortitude we all should have. One thing that does bother me is that at this stage local police would not pursue it in any way. Just goes to show the disconnect between law enforcement when there should be none.
'Hey, brilliant idea!'
Yeah, okay Joe.
my story is about a van walking buy with a camera on a tripod that i could see in the open door behind the driver's door. the truck stopped at every house and took a picture. naturally, i called the police. he asked me where i lived, then laughed, almost frantically, and thanked me very much for my call. he explained that the truck was taking pictures of all houses and their street numbers for use in their 911 information data base. when a 911 call comes in and the police must be dispatched, they want a picture of the house to be sent to the police car to better help the officer get to the proper house as quick as possible. i had a good laugh too.
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What building in Atlanta was it?
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The Turner building, publicly refered to as "Centennial Tower," 101 Marietta Street. My company's regional office is located there, though I work from home in Savannah. The perp also filmed the Westin hotel, which I understand to be an exceptionally vulnerable structure.
Very, very glad you reported this. This is what we all must do. Thank you!
Several years ago while I was working in the NY State prison system, we had had an incident that resulted in the prison being locked down and the cells being searched one at a time. At one point, one of the female officers I worked with (I'm female) was frisking an inmate's cell and discovered some drill bits. There was no reason for this inmate to have those drill bits, and so the officer wrote a misbehavior report on the inmate. Sherry had charged the inmate with possession of escape paraphernalia. Several of the male officers thought she was overreacting, and made fun of her for writing the inmate up on escape related charges. To them it was all a big joke.
Several weeks went by, and either on a tip, or on a random search of this inmate's cell, it was discovered that the inmate had managed to drill through the vent in the back of his cell wall, and was able to climb in and out of his cell onto the catwalk when he chose. The catwalk ran between the two rows of cells on either side of the gallery. This catwalk was kept locked at all times, and was accessed only by staff for plumbing repairs and replacing blown fuses.
Besides discovering the vent removal, they also discovered civilian trousers in his cell. Since inmates are not allowed to have anything but green pants in their possession, it was determined that the inmate had planned to make an escape attempt at some future time. He was brought up on outside charges and his sentence extended.
The guys who had laughed at Sherry for making such a big deal over the drill bits suddenly weren't laughing anymore. Had they taken the situation as seriously as Sherry, and looked upon the discovery of the drill bits as a potential security risk, they might have found that the vent had been tampered with sooner than they did. At it was, they were lucky all he'd been able to do was get out on the catwalk. I learned after that time, that it never hurts to question things, no matter how stupid or trivial it may seem. As one person told me when I first took the prison job, "The only dumb question is the one you don't ask."
Sorry, my standard advice for dealing with a ME type with a smart mouth could get you arrested.
You were not over reacting. This type of activity is on the rise in all states. Let's just hope the authorities take it seriously.
libertylass....good thinking! Just knowing that you could ID him and his vehicle; may keep this bold and ignorant ME from trying anything in your neighborhood. Amazing that this jerk could think that his taking pictures of condos wasn't something out of the ordinary; especially since he didn't mention real estate, insurance etc.
Stay safe...BTW I hope that you have a big dog!
You did the right thing -
I had a 'weird' thing happen to me here in NYC and called the terroism task force here -
it involved 3 guys ... anyway the story is a bit involved - but they were 'fishy' in my view - I lost them in the crowd and even followed to try to get their photos -(I had my camera with me as we were doing a Bush/Cheney table near Madison Square Gardens....)
I think everybody's eyes and ears are crucial...
God Bless....keep your eyes open for that vehicle and stay safe.
yes, I think you were over-reacting. Most likely he was a P/I working for some lawyer somewhere.
I would go to the two schools and tell them what happened and to watch for any suspicious people or events. Tell the people at the voting location too. They all deserve to know and keep their eyes and ears open. Tell your neighbors too so that they can keep on the watch. Do you have a neighborhood watch group? If you do then certainly contact them. I would take my own personal action considering what happened to the Russian school. It hopefully is nothing but even on a slight chance that it is not and many lives may be involved I would take my own action too. I would also call the FBI up and ask them if they have done any follow up. This is the address of the Homeland Security site where you can give them your terrorist threat tips http://www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/display?theme=36. Maybe you scared them off if they are terrorist. Hopefully they don't plan on going somewhere else. This is a reminder for all of us to keep our ears and eyes opened pray.
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