Highly Suspicious
Sunday, December 04, 2005
Something strange is afoot in the Upper West Side!
Last night, after having a lovely night of conversation at Tanya’s apartment, I returned home to a jarring sight. As i rounded the corner, I found 11+ emergency vehicles ranging from fire trucks to NYPD patrol cars to NYPD EMS vehicles.
And they were surrounding MY building!!
As i approached the front door, i found about 30 firemen, police officers and other uniformed men milling around outside and in the lobby. I found a bystander and asked him what was going on. He replied, “Huh? Oh, i have no idea,” as if he didn’t even notice that he was surrounded by a bunch of men with heavy equipment and stern faces. I wasn’t even sure if i should try to enter the building.
I crept toward the door, unsure of what to do. A group of firemen were just exiting at that moment, and i took the opportunity to ask one of them what was going on? “Why do you want to know?” he asked me gruffly. “Do you live here?” I nodded yes. Then his face underwent a strange transformation into what i will call “calm-the-resident peace mode.” He smiled broadly and looked as relaxed as possible. “Oh don’t worry about it. Go on it! Everything’s fine.” And with that he walked on.
Bewildered and not altogether sure of whether i believed him or not, i entered the lobby and made a beeline for the concierge. I prompted, “what is going on?!?” He just shrugged, and said, “i have no idea. They said they’re doing an investigation or something, but they’re on their way out.” Still confused, i decided to let it be, and just go up to my apartment.
I watched for nearly an hour afterwards, as slowly the emergency vehicles began to disband. Some stayed for more than an hour. My roommate came home later and said that another women in the elevator had overheard the police saying something like, “I wonder how they cleaned that mess up!” Her first thoughts were a homicide. But that can’t be the case. We wouldn’t all still be in the building with that kind of thing going on...would we?
The only thing that i can think of that would call everyone over to my apartment so late on a Saturday night is a bomb threat or something where they have to search all over and the threat is not confirmed. (shudder!)
Well, whatever it was, i hope it doesn’t repeat!