Crime Drama - Incident #2

I've recently been writing about my exploits as an 8th grader during the early 1970's in Goldsboro, NC. If you think that incident #1 was exciting, sit back and enjoy my memories of incident #2.

It occurred just a few weeks after we had a "peeping tom" at our house. I had finally started relaxing a little bit in the evenings when wouldn't you know it, strangers in an unfamiliar vehicle, started driving up and down our street in front of our house in the evenings. They would drive very slowly, and every time they reached the point that was right in front of our house, they would come almost to a complete stop. That went on for about four days. I called the police on the second evening that it occurred, but by the time they arrived, they could not find the suspect vehicle.

As the Friday evening of that week arrived, I remember walking through the living room and noticing that the same strangers and vehicle were at a complete stop right in front of our house. I opened the front door and yelled out to them, asking them what they wanted. The car quickly accelerated and peeled off down the street. For the next few hours, I kept looking out the window. Around 10 pm I heard the now familiar sound of the vehicle and when I looked out the window, it was again sitting in the middle of the road in front of our house. I remained at the window and didn't try to confront the strangers that time.

After a few seconds, the driver drove the car about a half a block down the street and parked along the curb. The engine was then turned off but the two men remained in the vehicle. My gut told me that something was about to happen. I then did something that I never thought I would do, I quickly located the key to my father's gun cabinet and grabbed his double-barrel shotgun from amongst the several rifles and guns that he had locked up within it.

As I grabbed the shotgun, I looked out through the living room window and noticed that the two strangers were walking slowly down the street and right toward our house. My father was very safety oriented, and so that meant he kept his guns and his ammunition locked up separately. I quickly realized that I would not have time to retrieve the shotgun shells from the other locked compartment in the gun cabine. So I improvised. I opened the shotgun up by pulling the barrel down, I then swung the front door of our home open wide and stepped out onto the porch. The two men were startled by my appearance. They were even more startled when they observed what they thought was me loading the shells into the shotgun and flipping the barrel back into place with a very loud "CLICK". I had simply pretended to load shells into the gun since I didn't have access to the real ones.

My pantomime routine actually worked. As I stood there with the shotgun pointed in their direction, the two men did an immediate about face and quickly walked back to their car. The driver started the engine and again peeled off down the road. That time though, was the last time I ever saw that vehicle.

I was very glad, and very relieved.