An interesting title for this post, matching the interesting day.  To sum it up, the police were looking for a white male, mustache, brown coat, and a hat.  Sound like anyone you know?  Generically speaking, I normally wear a brown coat when outside, so I first thought the officer was telling me to shove off.  Somewhere in the back of my mind, a masochistic demon is laughing.  How did this come to pass?  Read on.

What is a normal day at work?  If I had to make something up, I would say that it's coming in after noon, setting a goal for myself that results in getting some work done on the Advanced Reporting module, and leaving.  I guess I could say, by definition, most days are normal--which is desirable, by the way.

It is not unusual to hear sirens go by on the road outside.  Work isn't in a bad part of town, it's just a busy street.  I've even seen an SUV overturned on the intersection one time, too.  What I'm getting at is that most noises from outside are promptly ignored, though we can still tell when something big happens.

It was during one of these normal days that we kept hearing sirens go by the front door.  One, two, three, on and on, back and forth.  This finally signaled something odd.  While four of us gathered on the sidewalk outside, both out of curiosity and a small desire for something new to interest our minds, we saw all manner of police cars, marked and unmarked, sedans and SUVs, whiz in and out of traffic going every which way, seemingly with no direction in mind.  They came from the coliseum road, they came from UNCG, they came from the right, left, and across the street.  In fact, they came out of the alleys and back ways, too.

Eventually, more than eight police cars congregated some hundred yards down the street and left one or two cars to check passersby, while others continued their patrol and stationed themselves (strategically) throughout the area.  Being the defiant curious one that I am, I ran over and asked the suspect's description, as I had been apprised by someone on the other side of the street the cops were in search mode.  Now, when I approach an officer who is doing something, I am used to receiving a response that is highly unfriendly and would almost tempt me, if I were of the self defeatist lot (or just hated my guts), to continue bugging the officer because of his or her attitude.  Instead, I received the suspect's description and thought first mistook it as a very creative attempt on his part to say, "Bugger off".  Instead, it seemed he was very interested in having anyone help out.  Very nice of him.

Now, you may be wondering what everyone else at work was doing during this time.  Well, they got back to work and locked the doors (I had to knock to be let in).  They were, of course, curious as to the goings-on, of which I could only pass on what I had learned up to that point.  They didn't get the joke afterwards when I said the police were looking for me, which may have been in bad taste anyway.  Still, they wanted to know what the suspect did.  I didn't have the answer, so I moved to go back outside.  Before I did, one person wondered about the danger of it all, and I could not help but make a joke of looking through the disposable silverware until I found a few plastic knives and pocketing them, mentioning I was armed like MacGyver.

By this time, one may be wondering why I was taking this event so lightly.  I was curious, first of all.  I would also be in plain view and not involved in pursuing the suspect, which was the key to why I was taking it lightly.  If I were to go looking for the suspect, I would simply be an untrained civvy in an unknown situation, which could go a long way to making the situation more complicated.  I was not afraid because I knew what I could and should not do, and what I could do did not involve risk.  One would argue, anyway, being outside at all could be a questionable, risky act.  I decline to comment.

To answer my co-workers' question concerning what the suspect did, I approached one officer stationed behind the office building.  He recognized me from before, when I approached the other officer down the street.  I wondered about that, but seeing as how I was dressed like the suspect, I didn't pay it much mind.  The officer told me the person ditched and ran.  I didn't quite know the meaning of that, so I ventured a, "Someone had too much fun with their car" comment and got the reaction I expected.  Therefore, the person did something with his or her car that caused a chase and the suspect then stopped and bolted out of the vehicle.  I asked the officer if I could do anything to help (those who know me know I am a bit too willing to help, regardless of situation).  He asked if I knew the businesses around the area.  I answered in the negative, as I only work at one business and I don't have contact with the others.  I made an offer to go to the businesses and inform them of the situation, of which the officer appreciated.  See?  There's a way to assure the safety of bystanders and get something useful accomplished.

To round out this story, I went to a few unlocked businesses and delivered the message.  Everyone--and I mean everyone--made the joke "Someone who looks like you?" before I could get to it, if I was going to mention it.  After that, my likely usefulness (and fifteen minute break off the clock I gave myself for this diversion) was at an end and I had to get back to work.

Hmm...  An interesting event wrapped in a normal day.  Reminds me of a Twinkie and my fifth grade Christmas play, in which my character hid Twinkies all about his person.  But that's a story for another time...