Thursday, June 26, 2008

Crossing the line

So I had secretly thought it was strange that I had never seen any real police activity for the 4 months I had been in London. It's strange considering that there's a pretty dense population, lots of alcohol and a wide social & racial strata. ...There was just that one time when I saw a pair of intoxicated men fighting, and one tried to push the other in front of the oncoming bus.

Last night, Roomie decided to make a trip to the grocery store and offered to get me something while she was at it. I asked for milk and olive oil.

A bit later, she came back in--empty-handed. She sat down and told me the story:
She walked two streets over to Somerfield (the little place where I'll be getting my eats for the next 6 months) and it was all covered in police tape. Somehow, she walked under the tape unchecked and walked up to the closed glass doors and peered inside where employees were packing away items. They frantically gestured that they were closed so my roomie turned to go back home. Before she could get too far, a police officer stopped her and asked what she was doing.
"I wanted to buy some milk." she answered.
"Were you here during the crime?" he asked.
"Uh, I didn't know there was a crime. What happened??"
"This is a crime scene. Now go...Go!" he ordered.

She was shuffled back on the other side of the police line and confusedly walked home to relay this story to me. We're still wondering what happened. I think I'll go today and get my milk and oil; maybe I'll find out.

I don't make this stuff up, folks.

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