So, Michael, tell us what you did over the weekend.
It was 3:00 am on Sunday, I was sleeping nicely after getting home only an hour earlier from Powerhouse Bar. I heard a noise as if someone had dropped something followed by shuffling. It took me a second to emerge from the fuzzy-headedness of sleep to register that those sounds didn’t seem to fit, especially with what I experienced about 30 minutes before. Often times, especially late at night or during the weekend, people will randomly push the door buzzers at the entrance to my apartment building, tonight was no different as someone had done just that. I generally ignore the buzzer when it is so late (or early) in the day. What worries me most about when this is if someone in the building presses the “door” button on his or her intercom without thinking, therefore letting anyone into the building. A few minutes after my door buzzer went off, I heard someone try to unlock my door with a key. The sound of a key entering a lock is unmistakable especially when it is about 2:45 am. I was too groggy to think too clearly about this until I heard the “thump” noise and the shuffling sound. It was when I heard the “thump” and the shuffling my head suddenly cleared and I started to remember the door buzzer and the sound of someone putting a key into my lock.
Because the way my building acoustics are, it is sometimes difficult to pin point direction a sound is coming from. I couldn’t figure out whether the noise was coming from my neighbor below, to the side of me, or my neighbor in the adjacent building. Like I said, it is difficult to tell. After I had shaken the grogginess from my head, I turned over to peer out the window directly above my bed thinking my neighbors in the next building might be up. No, their light was off. Then looked out the center window (my apartment, like all the apartments in my building, have bay windows), nobody on the street below; nothing looked unusual. Then I slowly pulled back my curtain and looked thorough two slats of my blinds of the other window, and I saw someone on my fire escape!My heart skipped a beat and, surprised, started to feel sweat trickle down my back. Standing in my underwear, looking at this stranger, I remembered what I heard just 15 minutes before: the buzzer going off, and the sound of a key in the lock. I quickly ran for my phone with the intention of calling the police, but I couldn’t read the numbers of the keypad (the lights were still turned off.) I didn’t want to turn on the lights because, this is what ran through my mind, I didn’t want this guy to get away, I wanted him arrested for…whatever it was he was doing! I spun around and went to get my cell phone. After locating it, I dialed the police. I was put on hold at first but was connected to the dispatcher quickly
.
“SFPD. What address are you calling from?” the dispatcher inquired.
“____ __ Street, number__,” I whispered.
“Is that on the _____street side or the ___ street side?” she asked.
Impressed with the accurate detail the dispatcher had of my location, I said, “the __ Street side.”
“What is the problem?”
“There’s a man standing on my fire escape and I don’t know who he is,” I whispered back, surprised by how much I was sweating.
“Can you describe him? How tall is he? How old do you think he is?” She asked.
I described how tall, how old I thought he was. She told me to stay on the line until the police officer arrived. After a few moments, a police car passed below. I told the dispatcher a police car just past on the street.
“You’ll need to let the officer into the building,” the dispatcher informed me.
I ran over to the intercom pushed the “talk” button and whispered, “hello?” A voice came over the intercom, “SFPD.” I buzzed the officer into the building and waited for him to come up the stairs but before the officer got to my floor, my cell phone rang; it was the dispatcher. She asked me if the man was still on the fire escape. I ran back to the window and carefully peered between the blinds. The guy was crawling through my neighbor’s bathroom window.
“Oh my god, he’s climbing into my neighbors bathroom window,” I whispered loudly.
“Okay, you need to go to your door and show the officer which apartment he went into,” she informed me.
I ran as quietly as I could to my door, when I opened my door, a police officer was coming up the stairs with his gun drawn just like the cops on NYPD Blue! I told the officer the guy just crawled into my neighbor’s bathroom window; I pointed to neighbor’s door. The officer waved me into my apartment. As I walked down my hall, I heard the officer bang loudly on my neighbor’s door, “Police, open the door!” he shouted three times before my neighbor, or someone, opened the door. I could hear the officer tell ______ (my neighbor) he needed to get into the apartment because there was a report of a prowler. As I was listening to this, I was shocked to hear my neighbor refuse to allow the officer entry into the apartment. I thought, “Shit, _______ knows the guy that was on the fire escape!”
“Sir, I have to get into your apartment,” the officer said sternly.
“You can’t come in here!” _______ told the officer sternly.
“Listen, there is a pro…”
“He was just having a cigarette out on the fire escape!” _______ said loudly.
“He’s not supposed to smoke on the escape, sir” the officer informed _______.
This is where I couldn’t really hear anything but muffled talking. A few moments later, I heard my neighbor’s door slam shut. The officer, I guess, left.
After all that, I couldn’t get to sleep for about an hour.
Now for some time I have had my suspicions ______ hired escorts!
What I'm wondering is what I will say to ______ the next time I see him!
-Michael
Because the way my building acoustics are, it is sometimes difficult to pin point direction a sound is coming from. I couldn’t figure out whether the noise was coming from my neighbor below, to the side of me, or my neighbor in the adjacent building. Like I said, it is difficult to tell. After I had shaken the grogginess from my head, I turned over to peer out the window directly above my bed thinking my neighbors in the next building might be up. No, their light was off. Then looked out the center window (my apartment, like all the apartments in my building, have bay windows), nobody on the street below; nothing looked unusual. Then I slowly pulled back my curtain and looked thorough two slats of my blinds of the other window, and I saw someone on my fire escape!My heart skipped a beat and, surprised, started to feel sweat trickle down my back. Standing in my underwear, looking at this stranger, I remembered what I heard just 15 minutes before: the buzzer going off, and the sound of a key in the lock. I quickly ran for my phone with the intention of calling the police, but I couldn’t read the numbers of the keypad (the lights were still turned off.) I didn’t want to turn on the lights because, this is what ran through my mind, I didn’t want this guy to get away, I wanted him arrested for…whatever it was he was doing! I spun around and went to get my cell phone. After locating it, I dialed the police. I was put on hold at first but was connected to the dispatcher quickly
.
“SFPD. What address are you calling from?” the dispatcher inquired.
“____ __ Street, number__,” I whispered.
“Is that on the _____street side or the ___ street side?” she asked.
Impressed with the accurate detail the dispatcher had of my location, I said, “the __ Street side.”
“What is the problem?”
“There’s a man standing on my fire escape and I don’t know who he is,” I whispered back, surprised by how much I was sweating.
“Can you describe him? How tall is he? How old do you think he is?” She asked.
I described how tall, how old I thought he was. She told me to stay on the line until the police officer arrived. After a few moments, a police car passed below. I told the dispatcher a police car just past on the street.
“You’ll need to let the officer into the building,” the dispatcher informed me.
I ran over to the intercom pushed the “talk” button and whispered, “hello?” A voice came over the intercom, “SFPD.” I buzzed the officer into the building and waited for him to come up the stairs but before the officer got to my floor, my cell phone rang; it was the dispatcher. She asked me if the man was still on the fire escape. I ran back to the window and carefully peered between the blinds. The guy was crawling through my neighbor’s bathroom window.
“Oh my god, he’s climbing into my neighbors bathroom window,” I whispered loudly.
“Okay, you need to go to your door and show the officer which apartment he went into,” she informed me.
I ran as quietly as I could to my door, when I opened my door, a police officer was coming up the stairs with his gun drawn just like the cops on NYPD Blue! I told the officer the guy just crawled into my neighbor’s bathroom window; I pointed to neighbor’s door. The officer waved me into my apartment. As I walked down my hall, I heard the officer bang loudly on my neighbor’s door, “Police, open the door!” he shouted three times before my neighbor, or someone, opened the door. I could hear the officer tell ______ (my neighbor) he needed to get into the apartment because there was a report of a prowler. As I was listening to this, I was shocked to hear my neighbor refuse to allow the officer entry into the apartment. I thought, “Shit, _______ knows the guy that was on the fire escape!”
“Sir, I have to get into your apartment,” the officer said sternly.
“You can’t come in here!” _______ told the officer sternly.
“Listen, there is a pro…”
“He was just having a cigarette out on the fire escape!” _______ said loudly.
“He’s not supposed to smoke on the escape, sir” the officer informed _______.
This is where I couldn’t really hear anything but muffled talking. A few moments later, I heard my neighbor’s door slam shut. The officer, I guess, left.
After all that, I couldn’t get to sleep for about an hour.
Now for some time I have had my suspicions ______ hired escorts!
What I'm wondering is what I will say to ______ the next time I see him!
-Michael
posted by Michael at 7:12 PM
3 Comments:
Living in the Castro must be bizarre. I don't know how you handle it.
Oh my lord that was damned funny ... definitely wouldn't happen in my neighborhood.
Was he cute?
My bedroom window faces the sidewalk and one day my neighbor told me that twice he saw a guy in the bushes trying to look inside my window at 2 in the morning. This concerned me. "What did he look like?" I asked. I was hoping that if I had a stalker that at least he was cute. "He was a tall lanky fellow with a long beard" my neighbor replied. Charming. "I told him to get lost" he added. Perhaps I shouldn't be leaving my window open, especially with no screen. I was recalling what might have transpired on any given night at 2 am. *blush* And I am kind of loud. Well, that's as exciting as life gets here in Seattle, at least in the area of having stalkers.
I told my roommate Gudrun and she said: "Sugarcube, I think we need to start locking our windows. I don't want you to get molested by a streetperson with a long beard. That would be not good."
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