A possible break in, six police officer and I

Let me begin by saying everything ended okay and I am fine.

Duplin County in North Carolina is a huge county. Each reporter at the newspaper where I work has a certain area and things to cover. I cover the southern end of the county, which includes several towns. One of those is Wallace. And in Wallace, my newspaper has a satellite office that is not open to the public. In the past, the building used to house another newspaper. 

My Wallace office.

So when you walk in there is nice area up front with a nice desk, computer and phone. If you head toward back of the building, it is a huge cavernous space filled with various desks, shelves and other stuff. It leads to the warehouse where the circulation guy sorts newspapers on Tuesday night. There is huge metal door back there that rolls up. I am pretty much the only person who uses this building.

Sorry to be so wordy but these details set up the story. So fast forward to Thursday evening after 6. I am at the office taking a break while waiting for a 7 p.m. meeting.

I hear someone or something rattle the metal door in the back. I get up to look through the door where I am up front all the way to back to see if it is my publisher coming to get something. I hear the noise again.  There is a long pause. And I hear the noise again. I called the police. Then I grabbed my camera and fled the building as I heard the noise a fourth time.

I ran to my car, unlocked it, jumped in and locked it. I wasn’t in it a minute when all of a sudden three cop cars show up and race toward the back of the building. Then two more police cars show up. Then an unmarked car came. And the Police Captain showed up.

Their response time was amazing. Now, did they respond like this because I was a citizen who needed help or because I’m the reporter who covers their town. Either way, they arrived. No was there. The building was checked out and no perp was found. The police do think someone was trying to get into it because it looks abandon.

Some lessons learned:

--I will no longer be at the building when it is late.

--WPD has an excellent response time.

--There is no shame in calling the police.

DAILY DOSE

1. A good piece of dark chocolate!

2. Orange soda in a glass bottle!

3. Attending a Gala on Saturday night!