Blue Light Special

It is somewhat disconcerting to walk out of one’s office to find the parking lot bathed in flashing blue lights. That’s what found myself faced with this evening as I left work to come home.

There is a company that builds custom vans for people with handicaps in the building across from ours. There was a car carrier parked on our corner and three police cars which I figured had something to do with that until I turned the corner in our lot and saw six other police cars with blue lights flashing in the lower end of our office complex.

There were three more parked in the complex across the street. One man was in handcuffs in our lot.

I quickly tuned my radio to the local News/Talk station, WSB-AM, to hear nothing but Sean Hannity. I can only take so much of him any more. No news about what was going on. Neither was there anything on the local TV news. I plugged the name of the street my office is on into Google Alerts. I guess I’ll find out if anything is published about this between now and the end of the week.

About Larry D. Burton

I'm a 55 year old controls engineer who just likes tinkering with stuff. Finished high school at a local institute of learning. Decided it wasn't a good time to be a healthy, physically fit 18 year old with no college experience. Entered college and started working toward a degree in animal husbandry. 1975-1976 Discoverd that I was not going to be a very good husband of animals so I left school to figure out what I might be good at. A local beverage company took pity on me and paid me to go from place to place making sure their on tap beverages were maintaining their high quality. 1976-1979 Got out of quality control and into vending. Learned about control systems and refrigeration also learned that vending machines are heavy and vending doesn't pay all that well. In 1977 I found myself married 1979-1981 Dedicated myself to installing and maintaining commercial refrigeration equipment. Found myself on the roof of a local grocery store one night in the middle of an ice storm replacing a compressor and figured it was time to get back into school. 1981-1986 Got my but back into school at night and changed jobs to keep the mechanical and electrical systems of a local coporate hospital in working order. The job expanded to unstopping drains and burning lab samples and amputated body parts. 1986-now Finished school and took on a job designing, installing and maintaining industrial control systems. Along the way I picked up a bunch of computer skills that became very useful connecting various industrial controllers to one another and moving the data into coporate databases. I now operate Dallas Bay Technologies, a one man shop specializing in technology solutions for industrial problems.
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3 Responses to Blue Light Special

  1. Dan Lyke says:

    I don’t know how to get over the initial hump with this project, but a collaborative news weblog seems like a great idea. A local news web site that gives us each an excuse to call up the PD after seeing an event like that and getting an official statement or whatever.

    I don’t need to see every traffic stop that happens in my town, but when there are more than two police cars I think it’s worth a mention.

  2. I’ve thought about that also, Dan. I think I know how to do it I just don’t have the time to invest in something like that. Get to know the local Police Information Officers, at least through email, and get on their distribution list would be a start. That would be your point of contact for times you did see the half dozen or so police cars or hear multiple sirens and wanted to know what happened.

  3. I wrote an email to the Gwinnett Police Department PIO about the incident and got this reply:

    RE: Wondering about police activity at my office complex

    from: “pdpio@gwinnettcounty.com”

    ViewThursday, January 15, 2009 3:53:15 PM
    To:————-
    Our officers arrested 5 persons involved in stealing a motor vehicle.

    Corporal David P Schiralli Badge 650
    Public Information Officer
    Gwinnett County Police
    Office 770-513-5209
    Fax 770-513-5006

    From: Larry Burton [mailto:----------]
    Sent: Thursday, January 15, 2009 3:52 PM
    To: Police Public Information Officer
    Subject: Wondering about police activity at my office complex

    Yesterday, 1/14, about 5:30 I stepped out of my office to find about a dozen police cars in the parking lot, most with blue lights flashing. This is at 5555 Oakbrook Pkwy , Norcross, 30093. One man appeared to be in handcuffs.

    What was happening?

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