Police cruiser ends up on the rocks... LITERALLY!!! (UPDATED)...

ALL ABOARD... The Rambling Train is about to leave... TICKETS... Get your tickets ready... you're in for a long ride!!

At about 5:00 p.m. yesterday, a police car went air born & end up on rocks near a memorial... This happened near where I live. And it just so happened we had the scanner on when it happened. (I'll get to that in a moment.)

Anyway, one of the comments from an officer as it was all settling down was to have the dispatcher tell the tow truck company on call: "Let them know they'll need to get one off the rocks."

I had to laugh at that image. I was hoping that the local newspaper sent someone to get photos of it... Especially since they're only 2 - 3 blocks away!!

Sure enough, the News Journal has the story!

(UPDATE: Here is a link to the gallery of photos from that accident!!)

Now, keep that image in mind while you read this... We had just heard the scanner saying there was an injury accident downtown & they were calling for barricades to block traffic from the area. Then my cell phone rings & it's my sister Gina... My 1st thought is "OH NO! She's not involved. Please Lord."

Funny thing was she was calling to see how I was... because she & my son were sick yesterday. But she was on her way home from work going towards downtown. So, I told her to be sure to avoid downtown... but because her hubby drives that area quite often, she had to go down to be sure it wasn't him. (Because I didn't hear what kind of cars were involved.)

She calls me back & says, "You told me not to go downtown, but I did. She said no it wasn't Aloys. It was a silver Honda that hit a Police cruiser & sent it flying. The cruiser ended up on top of the MLK memorial." (or something like that she said.)

I asked if she got any pictures & she said no, she didn't think of it. (I guess getting photos is my 1st instinct... guess it's the photographer / journalist in me!!)

Anyhoo... I had that image of the car setting on top of the memorial when I heard them request the tow truck driver to get on off the rocks. I'm like: "Yeah, off rocks... wait until they see it's the memorial!!"

Well, as you can see by the article AND the photo it was NEAR the memorial... So, I'm wondering what my sister was referring to. She said someone told her that it was on the memorial... so, now I have to find out if she went & saw it... or just left after she heard it wasn't her hubby in the other car. (When I find out, I'll comment below this blog.)

Needless to say, after reading the article, I am glad to hear it seems everyone is ok & has been treated & released!

So, why did we have the scanner on in the 1st place... WELL... hubby had just gotten home from work & went upstairs. I was laying on the couch (trying to relive a bad headache) with cloth over my eyes... when we heard what to me sounded like something crashed into my truck out back... Because there were storms rolling around... I first thought it might have been the start of a nasty one... but that thought lasted only an instant when hubby hollered down, "What the h*** was that??"

"I don't know, but it didn't sound good." So, I jumped up (ok, not really jumped... I physically can't do that!) & opened the back door. Everything looked just fine. So then I opened the side door to the garage & nothing was wrong that I could see.

So, I go back to the couch & hollered up to hubby & said, "I don't see anything wrong. It may have just been thunder."

"No! It sounded more like a train wreck." (Which is in the opposite direction from the sound where I heard it... & is downtown.)

I then reached over & flipped on the scanner to see if there is anything going on. At this point it's about 4:25p.m. & there was just normal traffic things going on.

I'm laying there & listened to it for a little while & drifted asleep... a little. I awoke to the scanner going nuts & hearing sirens in the background of the officers & at one point I heard one come across & ask, "Where's the 10-4 at?" (10-4 in our area is code for "an injury accident"). The dispatcher answered back with what is known as the square of downtown Mansfield.

Being half asleep I didn't realize what time it was, so I thought maybe this was what hubby & I just heard. But then I sat up & saw it had been over a half hour & knew it could not have been. (You know what happens with that story.)

Well, after hubby takes the doggies out & we sat (ok, he sat in the recliner & I was laying on the couch) & listened a little longer to the scanner, to see if we could figure out what happened.

It's then time for hubby to go to his "Off Road Club" (not sure of official club title) meeting.

I could hear him opening the garage door & shutting it & opening it again... I'm like what in the world?

So, I get up & find him trying to open it... & each time he pressed the button, it would start but then go back down. He looks around & then finally pulls the cord to open it manually. Well, he couldn't open it that way either!

He looks around & finally said, "Well, I know what the sound was." ..................

It was the spring AND cable on the garage door! The spring is a BIG thick one & it broke clean... & the cable had snapped.

So, then I go back in & call my sister & tell her we found the source of the sound we heard 1/2 hour before the accident downtown... I told her that I was grateful that my hubby wasn't under it when it snapped... because he had only been home a couple minutes & it's not every day he closes the door & goes upstairs.

(Side note: We've been keeping our garage doors closed when we're not out back or outside because things have been getting a bit "odd" (to put it nicely) around our neighborhood.)

So much COULD have gone wrong had it been just a minute earlier that the spring & cable broke!! I thank the Lord it didn't!!!

Ok, to help you visualize this I went out & took pictures... The 1st two are of the spring... however, it's AFTER hubby fixed it. I just wanted you to see it's not some flimsy spring.

The next two are of the broken cable. (The rest will have captions below them.)

If you look closely you can see the cable coming down off the spool. This is how it is SUPPOSED to look!! Onto the other side now...

See something missing???

While I was in the garage, I thought I'd take a couple pictures from something that happened a long time ago...

 

Hubby told me it's was when a wild raccoon got trapped in the garage. (Side note...This happened in the time frame of my memory block, so I don't remember it.) He said it chewed through the wire to the garage door also. Note the picture... The raccoon had to have been in the garage for quite some time to have gone far enough to chew up the insulation too! Poor thing...

I can only imagine what Coleman & Sunny were thinking! LOL... Hmm... this sounds like a good story for THEIR blog. I'll add a link later if I do so!! (If you go to their site... keep in mind it has been a LONG time since I've posted anything for them. As a matter of fact, the blog that are there are imported from their Yahoo 360 blog.)

This one is just a close up of the damage... & NO, this had NOTHING to do with what happened last night. Because the raccoon was trapped YEARS ago!!

One more little tid-bit before this train comes to a full stop...

While listening to the scanner we hear some funny things that people do... or try to do. Last night was no exception...

At one point the dispatcher requests an officer to go to a location where "2 subjects were trying to stuff a person in a trunk."

Keep in mind this is in the BROAD DAYLIGHT!! LOL... A few minutes later an officer comes back & says "They're just trying to retrieve keys that were locked in the car."

Hubby looked at me & asked... "How did they get in the trunk?"

Unfortunately, we didn't hear the rest of that story... because it was then when hubby had gotten up to leave & he found the problems with the garage door.

Well, I hope you enjoyed your ride aboard "The Rambling Train". I sure hope you will come back for another ride!!