Fugitives

Saturday night Carrie and I and another couple went to Paducah to eat and go see Stomp. Stomp was amazing by the way. The show was over about 9:30 pm and we proceeded to drive across Paducah so we could drive 20 more miles to our home in Mayfield. I immediately noticed a policeman following me so I checked my speed limit and made sure I used my blinkers when switching lanes. After catching 4 red lights across town I noticed he was still following me and really driving close to my bumper. I also noticed that every time I switched lanes, he switched with me. I wondered if he thought I was drunk and trying to catch me swerving.

As we were approaching the last grocery store in town (which would be approximately 5 miles from our origin) I was discussing with Carrie if she needed to stop at the grocery store. The cop flipped his lights on and she said we had to stop now. I calmly pulled down the side street and decided to pull in the grocery store parking lot and then pulled into a parking spot ( I figured I coasted through a right on red 5 miles ago, or I was driving 40 in a 35). As I was pulling in the parking spot I noticed 2 more police cars barrelling in with lights blazing. They immediately fanned out behind us, blared the spotlights in our mirrors and windows, and proceeded to get behind their doors with their guns drawn. I'm scared now so I turn the vehicle off, check my drawers and start wondering what was going on. Next they get on the loud speaker and tell the driver, me, to open his door slowly and get out with his hands up. The only thing that flashed in my mind was maybe their was a stolen vehicle report of a white Tahoe. I did exactly as he said. Next he said to turn my back to them, keep my hands up and back up slowly towards them, which was about 20 yards behind us. Now I notice their are 10 police cars and every one of them had guns drawn and pointed at me and my passengers. I'm starting to freak out a little bit, but I still think I'm going to see Asthon Kutcher jump out and say, "you got punked".

I slowly back up to them and when I reach them they grab me, throw me on the car, and proceed to frisk me. He asks who is in the car, I say my wife and 2 friends. He asks where have we been, and I say the Carson Center. He informs me their has been an armed robbery at Taco Johns and the suspect fled in a vehicle like ours. I tell him there's a ticket stub in my pocket to Stomp, just check it. I calm down a little bit now and think, ok he'll realize it's not us and let us go and we'll have a funny story to tell.

He opens up his back door and tells me to wait in the car. I immediately look around and see that the police still have all their guns pointed at the car with my wife and friends in it. They immediately start shouting TURN AROUND, DON'T LOOK BACK, TURN AROUND OR WE'LL SHOOT! I immediately start panicking. Carrie and them have no idea what's going on and of course are turned around to try to see what's happening to me (later I find out they thought the police were talking to me, so they were turning around even more). I noticed the policeman on the passenger side of the patrol car I was in, had his gun pointed at the Tahoe's back window and his hands were shaking un-controllably. I thought, someone's going to be shot. I immediately get really scared and check my drawers again.

Finally, they tell the passenger in the front seat (my wife) to get out of the car slowly with her hands up. My passengers still don't know about the armed robbery or why we're pulled over. I keep thinking, Carrie please don't get smart with them because this cop with the shaky hands mind shoot you. They go through the same ordeal with her about backing up slowly, etc. While she's backing up I start hearing something on the radio about a white suburban (we're in a Tahoe) and a black male (we're all white). I immediately start shouting, we're not black males, we're not black males, we're in a Tahoe, we're in a Tahoe. They get my wife to the car and make her lace her fingers behind her head. They grab her by the hair and turn her around to face the car. I'm thinking you're going to get it now, grabbing my tender headed wife by the hair. They ask if she's got anything in her pockets and she says candy. He is just about to start frisking her when someone comes over the radio and says you have the wrong people, let them go.

Whew, sigh, I check my drawers again and I immediately feel the heat rushing to my head and I'm getting furious. The policeman lets me out of the vehicle and says we got the wrong people. I tell him this is ridiculous and how would you feel if you had shot one of us. He says, "This is what we do". This is what you do, are you kidding me. This is totally uncalled for and I tell him again that he could have shot someone. He asked for ID, I gave it to him, he wrote my name and phone number down and asked if I lived in Mayfield. I said yes. Several of the police are leaving now and we're just standing there. The cop gives me my license back and says nothing. I start walking to the car because I assume we can go.

Very weird situation, no apology, no explanation except this is what we do. We get back in the car and explain everything to our passengers as most of the cops leave. I tell Carrie she might as well go in the grocery store and we are all wired to the max now. By the way, there is quite an audience in the store and the parking lot to witness this ordeal. One policeman is still behind us and I hoped that he would come ask what the problem was because we weren't leaving. I was going to say that they scared my wife, she pooped her pants and had to go in and clean up. No such luck, he left shortly after this.

We are sitting in the parking lot, still trying to analyze what just happened. People are stopping and asking us if we're ok. Carrie gets mobbed when she goes in the store by people wanting to know what's going on. Paducah is not that big, so when 10 police cars pull a Tahoe over at gunpoint, use the loud speaker, and take 10 minutes to diffuse the situation, it's a big deal.

Another post coming shortly about his ordeal.