Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

Fire trucks, ambulances, those arrive pretty quickly after a 911 call. The Baltimore police? Not so much. Fifteen minutes after I called to report a burglary in progress across the street, I rang back again to tell them that the fellow trying to pry/smash open the second-floor porch door had succeeded in entering the building. Just after they answered the phone, the fellow appeared on the sidewalk hauling ass down Lombard. (Then I saw someone not dressed for the weather turning on lights on the third floor; I'm guessing that the burglar got the crap scared out of him when he discovered someone was there -- a sound sleeper who didn't wake up during the twenty or so minutes of bangs, crashes, and thuds that got my attention from across the street.) It was another five minutes before a police cruiser came up Fulton, sortakinda slowed down a little, and kept going.

I may have caught 'im on film, but the camera with the fast film in it had a dead battery when I picked it up, so I was just guessing at the exposure. (I never got a clear shot after I fetched another camera to use as a meter.) I got him with the cell phone, but there's no way there'll be enough detail at that distance to be useful in identifying him.

I continue to be unimpressed with the Baltimore police force. Here was a chance to catch someone in the act instead of just dusting for prints and filling out a form and neglecting to contact pawn shops later to check for stolen stuff. Eyewitness describing the progress in real time to the 911 operator. Nah, that's not important enough to check out.

White male, dark hair, reddish dark flannel shirt, faded jeans, impressive sprinter, apparently not very bright. Can't help wondering whether I'll see him again. Hope it doesn't take the police twenty minutes to roll past the house if I hear someone trying to break into my own house.

The one bright spot is that he didn't seem to be carrying anything when he ran away, so if he got any loot at all it was small enough to fit into a pocket.

Maybe I should've used the trick I saw described on a chat board just after I moved here: call the police to report the crime you're observing, then call back five minutes later to say, "Never mind, me and the boys are going to take care of it." Word is, that's what it takes to get a timely response.