10 February 2007

Gotta love the city!

Today, I heard someone yelling at the top of their lungs. Of course, I am so jaded it took a good 15 minutes for me to acknowledge it. Out of my window, I see a shirtless, coatless man walking up and down the street, in front of cars, running people off of the sidewalk, screaming "uno, dos, tres, cuatro, cinco, seis!" over and over. Okay, first problem- shirtless & coatless in the middle of a Chicago winter. Second, he was walking in front of cars and hitting them as they drove by. The delimma, should I call the police? (I often refer to myself as the neighborhood watch). Let's just say, I get good use out of my binoculars.

I decided to wait on calling the police. But I started to get nervous when our neighborhood homeless guy who sits outside of the convenience store started acting alarmed by this apparently insane individual. Within minutes there were 5 cop cars and 2 paddy wagons in front of my building. THe officers tried to talk to the guy, but he started getting aggressive. They took him down... It was like watching Cops live.

Immediately, my nosiness took over and I ran down 8 flights of stairs as fast as I could so I could stand in the safety of my lobby to see what was happening. By the time I arrived on the first floor the action was over. All that remained was the man screaming from the back of the police car. So, I returned upstairs; the action was over.

That was my afternoon.