Police at the CVS...and When It's a Big Deal

Because I live off of a busy highway right outside of Washington DC, 5 minutes from both the Pentagon and a national airport, I've become accustomed to seeing police cars everywhere. Last summer there was a police chase ending in the suspects crashing in to a gas station, abandoning their car, and finally two of them being caught and one getting away after a helicopter-led manhunt. A few months ago there was another chase that caused the highway near my house to be blocked off while I was driving home, and my first thought was, "How annoying that I can't turn right on this road and I have to go around!"

Anyway, one becomes accustomed to police cars in this part of the country, I guess. So when I saw two police cars parked in the middle of the parking lot of CVS last week, I wasn't too concerned. They were blocking cars but their lights weren't on, so I figured I would be safe going to the Redbox to check and see if Frozen was available (because I still haven't seen it, y'all!). And miracle of miracles, there were two empty parking spots right by the door! As I pulled in to one of them, another police car pulled in right next to me. I started to question my choice, but after checking for signs stating that this parking spot was reserved and seeing none, I backed up a bit to straighten my car. Looking up, ready to pull forward into the parking spot, I saw two officers leading a handcuffed man out of the store, walking toward my car. Seeing that the man was struggling to walk, I looked down and saw that while he was wearing sweat pants, his jeans were down around his ankles, impeding his walking.

Well, I quickly decided that maybe I should choose another parking spot and backed out. Only then did I notice a whole crowd of people gathered outside the store, watching as the police led the man over to the police car, with him moaning and wailing "They're gonna kill me!" the whole way. 

I found another parking spot, jumped out to check Redbox (still no Frozen!) and got back in my car. The man was still shouting as I drove away.

As I drove away I made a mental note to myself: next time I see several police cars in a parking lot, I won't park right next to the door.