20 June 2013

Heuvos

Some people have them.

Maybe it is just my my recent brush with theft, but I seemed to be noticing things more of late.  I went in to the office early yesterday.  I am way behind on my office chores, working on another system validation and getting ready for my road trip next week.  

I was running some reports when the guy in the office next door came in asking if I had any binoculars (Sure - they were in my trailer).  Curious thing to ask one while at work.  We work in a 6 story office building and my office is on the 5th floor and looks north towards Houston.  Nice view.  With the airfield a few miles to the north, we get to see the occasional Space Shuttle or Air Force One or Squadron of WWII planes cruise by.   



Normally, you don't see a lot of action going on out of my window.  The occasional accident or congestion or fire engine.  But every once in a while something catches my eye.  Early yesterday, we spotted a guy on the roof of the local strip center (red wall) just north of us.  Now, we are used to seeing guys up on the roof on occasion working on the A/C units, but this guy just seemed, to quote a good friend, "wonky".  Being on the roof didn't catch our attention, it was the ninja stealth, low crawl movements he was making that seemed out of place.  He would crouch low up to the edge, peer over, then go back to the cluster of A/C units.  We spotted he had a pair of bolt cutters and seemed to be working on the A/C units.  Made sense to us - the building next door has been undergoing some roofing work and has guys up there for most of last week.  We thought they were doing renovations to the restaurant that had closed, but the more we watched, the stranger he got.  We alerted our security officer downstairs and he contacted the local police.  After about 20 minutes, the police rolled up on the building and started investigating.  Turns out that he wasn't supposed to be up there and was stealing copper piping out of the A/C systems.  When they rolled on him, they figured he had roughly $50 - 100k worth of copper in his truck.  We thought it was pretty ballsy for somebody to do that during the middle of the day.  I guess he didn't figure on people from adjacent buildings spotting his antics.  

The good news is the cops busted him before he could make off with the copper.  The bad news is the Japanese restaurant right on the corner was closed for the day because they had no A/C.  Sorry to see them closed - they are usually packed for lunch every day.  Hopefully, they can get it fixed quickly and get back to serving sushi.  

5 comments:

ShadowRun300 said...

What would make this story even better is if 'Wonky' was the same guy who broke into your trailer. You didn't happen to notice if he was covered in a rash, did ya?
Glad you acted on your instincts, but sorry that it was a little too late for the Japanese place. Hope you weren't planning on sushi for lunch.

ShadowRun300 said...

oh..... and I had to look up Huevos. Here I thought it just meant eggs. :)

terri said...

Nice work catching the wonky dude up on the roof! I know copper theft is a BIG problem. That guy got just a little too comfortable in his thievery!

meleah rebeccah said...

Whoa! I can't believe you spotted a rooftop theft in progress! I'm glad the cops caught him before he made off with all of that copper piping.

BTW - is that a rainbow in the far distance?

Abby said...

Hmmm... ballsy or STUPID?

And look at you going all crime fighter! As if you don't wear enough hats already!