oooh CP!!!

Walking back to my car from work tonight after the people at the rehearsal fiiinally left, I saw a whole bunch of cop cars and police talking to some guys on Knox. This can't be good, I thought, but I figured, hey as long as there's all these police out, I'm safe.

So I continued to walk across the street to my car, when this cop pulled in front of me and stopped me. He got out of his car while his dog in the back seat was getting all angry at me.

serious cop: Someone just got robbed down there, so you can't go down there.
me: Oh, wow. Well...my car's right there.
in my head: It's seriously like 10 yards away.
serious cop: Well, you're just gonna have to stand here and wait for 10 minutes.
me: You want me to stand here and wait?
in my head: Wouldn't escorting me those 5 steps to my car be safer than making me stand here?
serious cop: Actually, you should probably wait up there. The dog gets a little fired up. Someone just got robbed here.
me: Oh no, I understand. Thank you.
in my head: Sooo...because someone got robbed on that street, you are going to block off that street to look for the suspect, assuming that he is hiding out on that street and has not run away yet and is going to rob me 5 steps away from you and your devil dog while 12 cop cars are surrounding him? That makes sense.

So I walked away and stood there. Where was I supposed to go? I suppose I could have hung out in my apartment and come back to my car...later at night...when all the cops were gone and no one was out. Oooh PG County police. You just don't make any sense. They had their cars facing each other in some sort of football huddle. How is that going to help you find a criminal? How is that going to help you protect innocent civilians trying to stay safe? I bet they were standing in their football huddle, writing the upcoming crime report. They were there for a long time, so it should probably be a good one. Check your inboxes in the morning.

Anyways, I realized, hey...instead of whining about how ridiculous the police are, maybe I should just be thankful that it wasn't me who was robbed. I would have left work earlier if the wedding people hadn't stayed late...so that would have been me walking by and getting robbed.

Sometimes I imagine what it would be like if I got robbed in College Park...
robber (pointing gun at me): Give me your money!
me (calmly): Dude, I don't have any cash. You can have my Bank of America card, but it won't do you any good, cause I'm just gonna go home and cancel it.
robber: Dang, you're right. This isn't worth it. You can go.
me: Thanks. Think about what you're doing with your life. Do you really want to live like this?
robber: No, I don't. I don't wanna be just another crime report.
me: It's okay...you don't have to be.
robber: Hey...thanks.

So clearly, I am much more prepared than the police. Yeah, I know if I was actually mugged I'd probably just stand there and give him everything I had and then call the cops if I hadn't already been shot. I really am thankful that I got there when I did. But as thankful as I was standing there in the semi-cold, I still didn't want to be there all night.

So...I walked up to a new cop who was driving up and explained how I needed to get to my car and did not want to stand there and wait all night. After telling me that there was a robbery (yes, I understand), he said to hop in. He drove me up to my car and all was well. Actually, I'm pretty bad at recognizing my own car in the dark, so I made him read me the license plate.
him: LZR?
me: No, the one behind it.
him: Oh, s---. MRA?
me: Yeah, that's it. Thanks!
And then, just to add a little awkward Anna flair to the situation, I dropped a bunch of quarters on the seat and had to pick them up before I got out.

The End.

Is it weird that I'm so nonchalant about this? I probably won't be deterred from parking there again, as dangerous as I know this place is. I mean, que sera sera, you know?

Oh, and not that this was on my list before, but...ride in the back of a cop car: check.