enoch150
09-14-2013, 05:08 PM
My parents live on the Eastern Shore, in Accomack County. Some parts got hit pretty hard by Hurricane Sandy, including my parent's neighbor who lost a lot of stuff to flooding.
Beginning in November 2012 and continuing through March 2013, the county was plagued by arsonists. I think they burned around 75 buildings in that time. Mostly abandoned houses, of which there are about a dozen on my parent's street. After a while they had planes scouting the area at night (the fires were all set at night) and the state police were called in to help. It still took months and the state police were starting to take it out on the locals. There was one incident where a guy got out of work late at night and just happened to have an empty gas can in the back of his pickup truck. I was told it was a strip search on the side of the highway kind of situation while they called his employer to verify his story of just getting out of work. My parents, the neighbors, and probably a lot of other people started keeping loaded rifles by their beds and doors.
Around late January my parent's neighbor was still renovating his house. Lot of work to be done. He was raising the floor about two feet so it wouldn't get flooded again. He'd been working on it every night and burning the old, moldy stuff in his front yard as he went along. After about three weeks of burning furniture and whatnot in his front yard every night, the idiots in the plane finally spotted him.
6 cop cars lined up across the front of my parent's lawn to confront the neighbor. He had a fire next to him, a beer in one hand, and a rifle in the other. He was often drunk or stoned when working on his house. I was watching out of a window. A rifle was leaning against the wall, about two feet away. I'm not sure exactly what I would have done if things started looking like one of those youtube videos, except that I know I would have done something. I couldn't hear the conversation, but later he said it went something like this:
The cops told him he couldn't burn anything. Emergency situation.
"It's my property, I can burn if I want anytime after 4pm" (local ordinance.)
The cops asked him if he'd been drinking (obviously he had, he was still holding a beer.)
"Hell, yes! I started drinking as soon as I lit the fire!"
The cops asked him why he was carrying a rifle.
"I'm the neighborhood watch!"
That was it. He didn't get arrested or fined. They had him put the fire out. The next night he was out there burning again. The cops never came back.
I just thought it was a cool story.
Beginning in November 2012 and continuing through March 2013, the county was plagued by arsonists. I think they burned around 75 buildings in that time. Mostly abandoned houses, of which there are about a dozen on my parent's street. After a while they had planes scouting the area at night (the fires were all set at night) and the state police were called in to help. It still took months and the state police were starting to take it out on the locals. There was one incident where a guy got out of work late at night and just happened to have an empty gas can in the back of his pickup truck. I was told it was a strip search on the side of the highway kind of situation while they called his employer to verify his story of just getting out of work. My parents, the neighbors, and probably a lot of other people started keeping loaded rifles by their beds and doors.
Around late January my parent's neighbor was still renovating his house. Lot of work to be done. He was raising the floor about two feet so it wouldn't get flooded again. He'd been working on it every night and burning the old, moldy stuff in his front yard as he went along. After about three weeks of burning furniture and whatnot in his front yard every night, the idiots in the plane finally spotted him.
6 cop cars lined up across the front of my parent's lawn to confront the neighbor. He had a fire next to him, a beer in one hand, and a rifle in the other. He was often drunk or stoned when working on his house. I was watching out of a window. A rifle was leaning against the wall, about two feet away. I'm not sure exactly what I would have done if things started looking like one of those youtube videos, except that I know I would have done something. I couldn't hear the conversation, but later he said it went something like this:
The cops told him he couldn't burn anything. Emergency situation.
"It's my property, I can burn if I want anytime after 4pm" (local ordinance.)
The cops asked him if he'd been drinking (obviously he had, he was still holding a beer.)
"Hell, yes! I started drinking as soon as I lit the fire!"
The cops asked him why he was carrying a rifle.
"I'm the neighborhood watch!"
That was it. He didn't get arrested or fined. They had him put the fire out. The next night he was out there burning again. The cops never came back.
I just thought it was a cool story.