police chases and busted dolls

The other day Melissa and I were walking from work to our bus stop through some neighbourhoods and not the high street way. We just had a couple of blocks left to go; when all of a sudden we hear this thudding hitting the pavement and it was getting louder. Melissa got off of the sidewalk and got onto the pavement on the other side of a car parked there. I then realized that there was some 17 year old booking it, and was on a path that would have sent him colliding into me. So, I sidestepped onto the pavement and literally just waited for him to get past.

A few yards behind him was a cop on foot, running after this guy. He was saying into his radio something like he was chasing the suspect into whatever the neighbourhood is called. Melissa and I stayed in our spots, her on the other side of the car and me waiting right behind the car. As he ran past, the cop kind of looked at us like, "why didn't you do anything?"

Now, if I weighed about 50-100 pounds more I might have. Being that I don't, I think that guy would have ran straight into me and knocked me down. Self-preservation folks. Melissa said she considered trying to trip the kid, but then was afraid that it would potentially break a bone. Again, self-preservation.

After they passed, we got back on the sidewalk, continued walking, and obviously talked about that randomness. I heard across the street some chuckling, and when I looked over there was a lady getting some things out of her car and she caught my eye. She could hear what Melissa and I were saying. She yelled out at us, "That boy wasn't even running that fast! " We laughed, and carried on. Further up the road, there was a lady cop who had detained about 4-5 of this kids' friends. I guess they figured there was no point.

We finally got on the bus, and suddenly it dawned on us that we just experienced our first Thornton Heath police foot chase. Good ol' Thornton Heath. I'm sure there will be more to come.

Now, this isn't the greatest quality picture in the world, but I was trying to take it on the sly. I had to go to this training today since I'm a new employee...it was an induction to Croydon. I could have been doing other things. Oh well! As part of this training we had some out of the room activities. Thus, I got paid to go to the Croydon museum as part of the day. Amazingly enough, this was one of the displays. Naked, busted, broke down dolls...