Who you gonna call?

I live in a small neighborhood of only 4 streets, each a single block long. It’s the kind of neighborhood where it’s easy to recognize something that might be odd or out of place. In the close to 30 years I’ve been in my home, I’ve observed some unusual things, some more disturbing than others.

Let me give you a few examples…

A couple of years ago, I watched a man previously associated with the house across the street from mine as he dragged what seemed to be an incredibly heavy, black garbage can down the street to the sewer drain. Once there, he proceeded to stuff black bags into the grates attempting to make them disappear. The stench was beyond foul. I phoned the police to bring this to their attention and they eventually determined that the bags contained excrement from the trendy French bulldogs they had been breeding.

Gross, right?

Years prior, this very same property was the scene of a murder/arson, a case which brought me in front a grand jury and, eventually, to a murder trial as a witness. That was an experience I hope to never repeat.

I’m a staunch believer in “if you see something, say something,” which is why, on occasion, I have phoned the police to report something out of the ordinary which I’ve noticed. The guy and the poop? I called the police. When I recalled hearing an argument between a man and a woman prior to waking up to find the house across the street on fire? I called the police to share the information.

A couple of weeks ago I noticed another weird thing on my street. There was a car I’d never seen before parked at the end of the block. Obviously, that’s not a big deal, but the fact that the trunk was ajar (with items in there and exposed), caught my eye. On Saturday when the car still there in the same position, I took a closer look at the vehicle. It wasn’t inspected, although there were plates on it. The registration was expired. The doors seemed to be unlocked and there was a bunch of stuff in the car. None of it added up. So I called the police.

Now, it obviously was not an emergency so I called South Station directly using the number I found online. No answer. Hmmm. I tried again and was met by the same lack of response. Ok.

I reached out to a friend who is an elected official and asked her for advice. She provided me with an alternate phone number as well as contact information for my ward representative. Again – no answer. I decided to try a different precinct, opting for the Pine Hills station. No answer.

I couldn’t help but wonder what might have happened if my calls had been of a more urgent nature. Is it really possible that with an annual operating budget of $63 million no one answers the phones over the weekend? Isn’t there a dispatcher or someone fielding calls?

If you were inclined to report an unusual observation, who would you call?

Three days after I originally noticed the car it was, like the person I expected to answer the phone at the police department, gone. My unease with the situation, however, remains.