Loyal readers of this space will recall that just a few days ago I related my paranoia about having our place broken into and our stuff stolen. Lest you think this is merely the demented thought process of a mistrustful mind, think again!
EVIDENCE THAT YT IS NOT DEMENTED:
Last night, I was engaged in some idle late-evening puttering, when suddenly there is the sound of a high-speed chase outside and a car coming to a screeching halt. This is rapidly followed by loud noises, most notably shouts in which someone yells, “Lie down! Lie down!” and somebody else yells back, “I’m calm! I’m calm!”
Huh?
Now you can be sure that this did a good job of jolting YT out of her absent reverie. Making a beeline for the closest window, this is what I observe: police cruisers lining the street, another car driven onto and parked diagonally across the sidewalk, a kid lying face-down on the ground with a plainclothes cop in the process of snapping handcuffs on his wrists. So I hang my ear out the window, as one does, and try to absorb through it as many factoids as possible as to what the hell is happening in our serene Happyville neighbourhood. Through the crackle of police radios I manage to piece together that the Young Man on the ground (who looked perfectly nice – I wouldn’t have blinked had my daughter brought him home to meet mommy) had done something bad (duh!) like rob a store or something, and that this club-like thing the cops kept waving around was the weapon he used to perform the dastardly deed. In fact, he reportedly slammed it on the shop counter so hard that he managed to break the end off it. (Talk about jolting someone out of a reverie!)
Whell. Reported on the Morgunblaðið website this morning are the plain facts. The suspect, a 20-year old man, burst into a convenience store a few streets north of here and, armed with a cricket bat, demanded cash. Having got away with a sizeable sum, he then proceeded to the next store (which happens to be a video rental place) and tried to pull the same stunt again. Only he clearly failed to think before he acted, otherwise he might have deduced that the police would have been alerted after the first robbery and might just already be in the neighbourhood looking for him.
One can but shake one’s head.
In any case, though Reykjavík is not a Large Metropolis, clearly it does have its share of cops and robbers drama. Meaning that YT will continue to exercise the utmost care in the robbery-prevention department.
AND NOW, THE WEATHER
Increasing northerly winds and showers or wet snow in the west. Temps dropping to near freezing later today. Currently 5 degrees in the capital. Sunrise was at 11 am (1 minute ago, according to my clock!), sunset scheduled for 15.38.