Hi, I live in the ghetto.

(21 July 2006)

And if anyone doubted the ghettoness of my metropolitan area, let this prove you wrong.

So, Wednesday night I always go climbing, and this Wednesday Chrissi and I met in Rockville and climbed our little tails off. We are getting much better at bouldering, but that is not the point of this story. After climbing, we got food and headed our separate ways. I reach home around 11pm, pull into my parking lot, and notice an unfamiliar car. Given that I live in a building with only 7 apartments, I know all of the cars, but I'm thinking that someone might just have a visitor.

Of course, I can't be that lucky. This car is a big black SUV and it's suspiciously backed into my parking lot (i.e. ready for a quick get-away). There's a sketchy looking hispanic guy sitting in the car, just looking at me. I am an intelligent girl, and I was like "there is no freaking way I am getting out of my car with that sketchy stranger in my parking lot because I know he's here to mug somebody (because my street is a hip place for muggings thanks to metro proximity)." So I turn around and go back out onto the street, thinking I should head to the police station. At the end of the street I'm thinking "ok, you're being paranoid, take a lap around the block and maybe they'll be gone and you can go to bed." Meanwhile, another hispanic guy yells "amiga!" as I pass him. So I take my little lap and lo and behold, the car pulls out of my driveway. Now there's 2 sketchy hispanic guys in it.

Of course, they don't leave, noooo, they decide to FOLLOW ME. It is completely obvious that they're following me, because I'm weaving through neighborhood roads that no one in their right mind would be weaving down, and I pull an illegal uturn in the middle of College Ave, and they stay close behind. (I feel like I'm in some cheesy action movie...except I am not heavily armed and who knows what they have in that truck).

So, thankfully I live like 0.6 miles from the police station (yes, I have google mapped it, it's fun to run that way), and I high-tail it over to the police station, run in, give the officer my completely panicked rant, fork over the license plate number of the truck, and go on my merry way. On my way home, I pass the sketchy truck parked in another poorly lit student housing driveway, and freak out because I'm convinced they're going to either follow me or back into me. Passed 2 cops on the way to my house, too, so they got out there fast. So I call the cops and let them know where the guys are, and then I decide to take another lap around the neighborhood because I don't want sketchy guys on my tail. Then I pass them AGAIN. (At this point, I feel like I'm in a three stooges episode, only scarier). Called the cops again, freaked out, told them where the guys were this time, and headed back to police station. When I arrive, I find out that they finally got the guys pulled over.

Went home, got my stuff, and went to Marc's house for the night because there was no freaking way I was staying alone at my place. Freaked out to him for a while and finally went to bed after listening to him rant about how I should not live in my neighborhood. Whatever, my apartment is awesome and the cops are responsive. Didn't go back to the police station to find out what happened, but I did check their website, and this is what I find in the incident log for 11:55pm on the night of this particular drama, a mere 2 blocks from my house:

"1 male arrested for possession of suspected cocaine, paraphernalia, and traffic violations."

TAKE THAT criminal scum. That's what you get for parking in my parking lot. Go try to mug someone else next time, you freaking useless members of society.

Now I just hope they don't come back and slash my tires.