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?
We're puting our house on the market, and I made sure that I stood outside with the photographer whie the pictures were taken.
You did the right thing. Please post if anything else happens and stay safe.
Why don't you copy & paste it over here? Please?
A thought just occured to me. What if they were thinking of the condo as a firing position since the school was across the street.
How hard would it be to take over the average apt bldg in an average place? Not very, I would imagine.
Yes, please copy and paste. I'm tired of risking spyware software with unknown links.
Thank you.
Thanks! Sounds too obvious, but then you never know.
Quite so, sadly!
I would encourage folks in such buildings to find out who is conservative and has guns and who doesn't. Make sure one has their cell phone numbers programmed in ahead of time AS WELL AS MEMORIZED.
Perhaps a phone tree if several families have guns. Double up one exposure on the phone tree for those unavailable.
Also, Explore setting up private network/LAN webcams for those conservative, healthily paranoid types to help keep watch on the building.
Thank you! Now...PLEASE, save that whole page to your harddrive. Then copy the post and send it on to the FBI!!
Wait....call them first and ask them what you should do with it.
Now. Please.
My assistant called the FBI based on her watching two middle-eastern men taking pictures of our N. Scottsdale post office on Friday...
Hi Quix! How are you doing?
Oh, and imo...do NOT notify the Craiglist Admin. JUST the FBI.
And welcome aboard!!!
That guy sounds so stupid he just might be the shoebomber's brother!
Most likely your local FBI office will be more receptive than the national office.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.