I got home from my cruise on a Saturday evening. I saw my Jeep that night. The next morning, it was gone. It was stolen (again). Fortunately I have an amazing friend named Jeremy who didn't mind giving me rides to and from work. On Wednesday, I had off work. I stayed home with a little to-do list: 1. Go out for a little while and take some photographs. 2. Schedule social media through October 31. 3. Finalize my logo. Here's how my day actually went: 1. Go out for a long while and take a lot of photographs. 2. Get a call from Aurora PD Records saying that my Jeep was recovered. 3. Spend the afternoon with Detective MacDonald and Lt. Dufour, forensics. Intrigued? Read on. I woke up on Wednesday morning, plugged my laptop in and chatted with my friend Jared while finalizing the logo. After a few more tweeks from working on it Tuesday, I became greatly satisfied with it and published it on the website. After finishing the logo, I was debating on actually getting up and going out and taking photographs, and he insisted I go, so I got my arse out of bed and got ready. I started my walk down to James A Bible Park and was very thankful that I got out of the house to get some fresh air and take photographs. I decided to cut across the apartment complex's lot that is next to our condos and stop by the building that was more than a quarter burned to get some shots of what remained. The smell of burnt wood still lingers in the air. I continued my walk down the street, passing by colorful berries, their bright orange hue standing out against the green leafy background. I got down to the park. About 10 feet into the park, I came across these leaves with dew still beading on the surface. I proceeded towards the bank of the creek, which I had intentions to follow for some peaceful creek shots. After emerging from this footpath that lead down to the creek, I saw a hawk fly across the sky and followed its path until it landed in a nearby tree. The hawk paid me no mind, and I had several people walk by wondering what the hell I was taking a photograph of. I trudged away from the hawk, back down to the creek. I found the "bridge" that I found the previous time I came to the park. The bridge is a row of giant rocks you can cross the creek on. Instead of doing what normal people do and walk across the rocks, I decided to lay across one to get a shot of the creek from right above the water. I made my way back up to the upper path where the hawk had lead me, deciding to try a new path to see where it went. It lead me on the other side of my favorite tree in the park, which ended up being a good side of it too, a footbridge, and so much more. Turns out the footbridge goes over a dried up creek bed. If you've never walked a dried up creek bed, please do so. It is gorgeous. Here are a few from my walk along the bed: I found a vintage car side mirror, took advantage of the image it was producing for me, and walked away. I kept thinking I should go back and get it, but felt that I would just be taking junk home. I couldn't get it out of my mind, so the next day I went back for it. I walked home, and shortly after settling in I got a phone call from Aurora PD Records. They found my Jeep! Yeah! The voicemail from Records told me to call the Aurora Impound and left a number for me to call. I called the Impound, listened to a robot drone on, hung up in frustration, and called Aurora PD Nonemergency line. The officer on duty was very kind and forwarded me to a person at the Impound. I get on the phone with the Impound and they told me that they couldn't tell me anything about my vehicle because it had a "Police Hold" on it. What? What the hell is that? The Impound had to transfer me to another department that gave me my case number and the name and number of the detective who was assigned to my case. My heart started to beat faster, out of excitement or paranoia, I'm not sure which. I called Detective MacDonald, Aurora PD, and found out that my Jeep was involved in a shooting. He kindly asked if I would be willing to give a sample of my DNA so that my DNA would be eliminated from samples taken from the Jeep, and asked if I would let them open up my driver side door to retrieve a bullet that had gotten stuck inside of it. I confirmed the Jeep was toast and agreed to allow him to open the door to retrieve the bullet. He picked me up about 25 minutes later and we drove off to M&M Impound and Tow. There, we met with Lt Dufour, Forensics. We drove over to the Jeep, I took a photo of the bullet hole, gave my sample of DNA to Lt. Dufour (Q-tip swab of the inside of my cheeks), and Detective MacDonald drove me home. It wasn't that brief, we chatted about the case and about other topics of life. Altogether, I believe I was with the two gentlemen for about 2 hours. I had a lot of fun. Today, Friday, October 14, I said goodbye to the Jeep. Jeremy accompanied me back to the junk yard, where I sold it for scrap, and it is now on its way to being a cube. I asked Tito's Towing if he would cut me the small piece of the door with the bullet hole in it. He said he'd try, but he never did get it over to me. Although not originally how I had planned it to go, I had a lot of fun. I had a wonderful walk in crisp, fall, 43 degree weather (43 is my lucky number!) that made me want to carve a pumpkin, and then felt like I was on CSI while I analyzed the items in the Jeep with Lt. Dufour and Detective MacDonald.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Categories
All
|