Blue-light special

"Who the heck was that?," Nate asked.

Who the heck was who, I answered.

"Short black guy, dreadlocks, came up the street, turned here and ran down the side of the house," Nate said.

Not 10 seconds later, Jimmy Lee came up on his bike, saying he'd followed the guy from Whitehead running flat-out along Olivia.

Not 10 seconds after that, the beefy bike cop who'd responded to our roof-crapper call pulled up, leaped off, said "Which way did he go?" and lit off down the side of the house.

Then it started looking like a meeting of the Police League. One, two, three cops down the side of the house or through the front door and then on to the deck. They told us to get to the front porch and stay there. I showed a K-9 cop with a big black German shepherd where the guy had moved through our property, and the dog sniffed and then charged east.

The street was blocked by seven or eight police cars from north, west and south, and cottage guests came out to gawk. Nate groused that the cops hadn't even asked permission to go through the house.

A few minutes later, there was a series of barks from around Petronia and Simonton, and soon the officers returned to their cars -- a whole lot slower than they left them.

If the Citizen has anything in the blotter tomorrow, I'll let you know. I'm kind of curious myself.