vqdriver
08-20-2009, 12:08 PM
it's done
wow - what an event - CALAMITY ENSUES
first off, i'll say that the licensed and legit company that i ended up hiring was very professional and definitely knew what they were doing. apparently everyone's really slow right now, so they showed up with TONS of equipment. two enormous chippers, two small bulldozers and stump grinder, and about 8 guys.
basically, the tree work was pretty textbook, with the larger trunk pieces sending earthquake like vibrations thru the house. they managed to get all the pieces on our land without demolishing any of our neighbor's property, a feat in itself considering the tree is tucked away into a corner of the plot with some branches reaching far across property lines.
here's where the drama begins. because some of the branches are extending in the wrong direction, ie away from the 'landing zone' within our property, they engineer the lowering rope with a swing to get it back onto our property. 99% of these go perfectly well, with one branch getting away from them. it hits an overhead power line with so much inertia that the actual power pole itself is swaying. there's no sparks or fireworks or anything, but power goes down for us an a handful of our neighbors. after a few minutes, and verifying that they had hit the line and it wasn't just our home, we call the power company and my wife is waiting out front where she meets up with a few of our neighbors and is just chatting away while waiting for the repair crew.
while this is going on, our next door neighbor is at work. he's asked a neighborhood girl to come by in the middle of the day to walk his dog and she's trying to get into the house to do so. we are not aware of this.
the girl proceeds to enter the wrong security code into the alarm box three times, and that's when all hell breaks loose. the house alarm goes off, apparently powered by a UPS, and the girl freaks out and bolts. my wife sees the unfamiliar girl taking off out of the house and down the road and thinks she's a villain. within seconds a white unmarked van screams down the street and comes to an abrupt stop next to my wife who's standing in front of our neighbor's house with a few other people. the driver leans over and says 'i'm a cop, what's going on?'
at this point, everyone's confused and nobody believes this guy's a cop. but they proceed to tell the guy about the girl when three marked cop cars pull up from both directions with lights on but no sirens. they park their cars sideways to as to block the street. at this time, my wife the the neighbors all slowly back away from the van up our driveway.
(while this is going on, i'm in the backyard with the tree guys thinking the power outage somehow tripped the alarm and what kind of baked goods we should take over tomorrow to say sorry for the inconvenience)
so apparently, the guy in the van gets out and walks over to the cops who are now out of their cars. they all appear to know each other and they're talking about our neighbor's house. so yeah, he's a cop. the guy in van was a couple blocks away and i guess was surreptitiously checking plates on contractor's vehicles due to a rash of daytime burglaries in the area. he motored over when he heard the house alarm go off. meanwhile, the alarm monitoring company called my neighbor at work to see if he was in the house or if it was a real alarm. he said there's no one in the house so send the cops. they call the police dispatch who promptly sends over the uniformed cops who also are aware of the recent burglaries. now all of them are in the middle of our street talking about the girl who took off down the street.
a few minutes later, my wife sees the girl walking up the street who is embarassed cuz she thinks the cops are there for the alarm and don't know the cops are looking for her cuz my wife had ratted her out. she had gone home, and called my neighbor's wife (who wasn't aware that her husband had sent the cops) for the correct code and was returning to turn off the alarm. the police approach her and pull her aside. she's now freaking out cuz she's no burglar and tearfully explains herself. in the meantime, the alarm times out or something and turns off by itself.
after the alarm goes silent, i go inside from the backyard to get a drink. when i come out the front door to see if the power company has arrived yet, i see my wife and neighbors on our front lawn, three patrol cars with lights flashing apparently blocking a getaway van, 5 cops, a stranger, a crying girl, and our neighbor's dog all surrounded by eucalyptus debris and wood chippings covering the street. of course, that's when the power crew pulls up.
i'm thinking '***?'
wow - what an event - CALAMITY ENSUES
first off, i'll say that the licensed and legit company that i ended up hiring was very professional and definitely knew what they were doing. apparently everyone's really slow right now, so they showed up with TONS of equipment. two enormous chippers, two small bulldozers and stump grinder, and about 8 guys.
basically, the tree work was pretty textbook, with the larger trunk pieces sending earthquake like vibrations thru the house. they managed to get all the pieces on our land without demolishing any of our neighbor's property, a feat in itself considering the tree is tucked away into a corner of the plot with some branches reaching far across property lines.
here's where the drama begins. because some of the branches are extending in the wrong direction, ie away from the 'landing zone' within our property, they engineer the lowering rope with a swing to get it back onto our property. 99% of these go perfectly well, with one branch getting away from them. it hits an overhead power line with so much inertia that the actual power pole itself is swaying. there's no sparks or fireworks or anything, but power goes down for us an a handful of our neighbors. after a few minutes, and verifying that they had hit the line and it wasn't just our home, we call the power company and my wife is waiting out front where she meets up with a few of our neighbors and is just chatting away while waiting for the repair crew.
while this is going on, our next door neighbor is at work. he's asked a neighborhood girl to come by in the middle of the day to walk his dog and she's trying to get into the house to do so. we are not aware of this.
the girl proceeds to enter the wrong security code into the alarm box three times, and that's when all hell breaks loose. the house alarm goes off, apparently powered by a UPS, and the girl freaks out and bolts. my wife sees the unfamiliar girl taking off out of the house and down the road and thinks she's a villain. within seconds a white unmarked van screams down the street and comes to an abrupt stop next to my wife who's standing in front of our neighbor's house with a few other people. the driver leans over and says 'i'm a cop, what's going on?'
at this point, everyone's confused and nobody believes this guy's a cop. but they proceed to tell the guy about the girl when three marked cop cars pull up from both directions with lights on but no sirens. they park their cars sideways to as to block the street. at this time, my wife the the neighbors all slowly back away from the van up our driveway.
(while this is going on, i'm in the backyard with the tree guys thinking the power outage somehow tripped the alarm and what kind of baked goods we should take over tomorrow to say sorry for the inconvenience)
so apparently, the guy in the van gets out and walks over to the cops who are now out of their cars. they all appear to know each other and they're talking about our neighbor's house. so yeah, he's a cop. the guy in van was a couple blocks away and i guess was surreptitiously checking plates on contractor's vehicles due to a rash of daytime burglaries in the area. he motored over when he heard the house alarm go off. meanwhile, the alarm monitoring company called my neighbor at work to see if he was in the house or if it was a real alarm. he said there's no one in the house so send the cops. they call the police dispatch who promptly sends over the uniformed cops who also are aware of the recent burglaries. now all of them are in the middle of our street talking about the girl who took off down the street.
a few minutes later, my wife sees the girl walking up the street who is embarassed cuz she thinks the cops are there for the alarm and don't know the cops are looking for her cuz my wife had ratted her out. she had gone home, and called my neighbor's wife (who wasn't aware that her husband had sent the cops) for the correct code and was returning to turn off the alarm. the police approach her and pull her aside. she's now freaking out cuz she's no burglar and tearfully explains herself. in the meantime, the alarm times out or something and turns off by itself.
after the alarm goes silent, i go inside from the backyard to get a drink. when i come out the front door to see if the power company has arrived yet, i see my wife and neighbors on our front lawn, three patrol cars with lights flashing apparently blocking a getaway van, 5 cops, a stranger, a crying girl, and our neighbor's dog all surrounded by eucalyptus debris and wood chippings covering the street. of course, that's when the power crew pulls up.
i'm thinking '***?'