So Norman scored our posse some fine Marlins seats, and he and his boy Ben, Barry and his boy Josh, and Eric and I mustered on hallowed ground (site of the old Orange Bowl) for a banner Sunday. It was a great atmosphere, as I said what I always do at a Fish game: "I really love it here -- I need to come more often." And the Marlins won with a walk off grand slam -- first time I've ever seen one of those in my 60 years of baseball fandom.
After we dropped Ben, Norman and I were headed to Villa Wifey so Norman could get his whip, and I saw a Channel 10 News truck parked doing a story. I stopped to ask what was going on -- last time news crews were in Devonwood was for the FBI raid on a house where a young murder accomplice had lived -- ended up getting launched by Judge Altman for 30 years in a scheme for revenge against a car pimper in Kendall. Because: Miami.
Anyway, the nice young reporter named Byron walked over, with the nice cameraman ALSO named Byron, and told me that at 2 am, a stolen BMW had stopped there, and tried to steal some stuff out of a parked car, at the house where a 3DCA judge lives. A Pinecrest cop was on scene, tried to arrest the young fellows, and instead they jumped into the Beemer, backed into the police cruiser, and took off.
The cruiser gave chase, but was told to abort on the Palmetto near Sunset Drive on account of they didn't want to kill anyone over a petty larceny (though hitting the cop car elevated things to a felony). The young knuckleheads ended up crashing on I-95 in Broward, where the most knuckleheaded of all got arrested, while the more fleet of feet knuckleheads scrambled away.
Nope -- told the reporter -- no idea -- I was asleep at 2 am. Turns out, so were the occupants of the targeted car. Would I be interviewed? I would, and so wearing my vintage Marlins cap, a gift from Norman years ago, I said how quiet was our 'hood, but stupid stuff happens everywhere. It truly does.
I told the young reporter last time I was on Channel 10 was to explain the OJ verdict differences -- how one jury could say he was responsible for murder whilst the other acquitted him. I got that unpaid gig from my then roomie Mark, whose then wife Gail Bright was a reporter. They sent the truck out to our Falls house at like 10, and I was interviewed for the 11 pm news by spiffy Dwight Lauderdale, who lived in the 'hood and turned out to be a playa for real.
They liked me and asked would I come to the studio the following am to be interviewed by Doug Dunbar for the early news? Who was I to deny my public starving for legal analysis? Alas, my career on TV ended there...until yesterday!
So we all got laughs, including politically incorrect ones regarding the demographics of the criminals. My neighbor Gloria, a REAL smart Italian from The Bronx, actually believed me when I said the suspects were Chasidic Jews...
And then, as we called the Ds, turned out there was ANOTHER incident. D1 and Lemon the skittish Spaniel were visiting D2 and Jonathan and Betsy, the enormous dog. Lemon alerted Betsy to something outside, and Betsy joined in barking, and Jonathan looked out to see the spec mansion across the street was being toured by a couple of young men who didn't appear to be real estate investors -- especially at 9 pm Sunday driving a Nissan Altima.
He called the cops, and the fellows left -- so no harm, no foul, but again the political incorrectness in my mind soared. A Nissan Altima? The Wayan Bros taught me that was THE car of the Inner City...apparently since so many car rental companies buy them they are amazingly cheap to buy used.
Since I tend to follow the advice of the great Python Eric Idle from "Life of Brian" and always look on the bright side of life -- the positive here is that these annoying crimes generate interest.
Wifey and I remember a Miami back in the day, where the coke guys slaughtered each other routinely, sometimes getting bystanders in the crossfire. Later, there was a spate of German tourists in rental cars who, given Germans' aversion to paying tolls, would exit and try to navigate through the worst Miami 'hoods in their identified rental cars, where locals would carjack and mug them -- a few even got killed.
It was so common that one of our law school softball teams was named "Dead German Tourists." Yeah -- that name wouldn't fly today, any more than "Korean Airlines Pilots" did after THAT tragedy.
Later still, folks would get robbed of their Rolexes in their driveways -- pretty scary.
So on the crime scale, casing vacant spec mansions and stealing from opened parked cars are pretty minor. Annoying -- but minor.
Sunday turned out to be a VERY active day. Today, Memorial Day, I reflect on our lost servicemen and women -- other than leaving early for my workout --I'm laying low.
And for the record, I do NOT lock up my leased SUV -- I can handle the less than $10 in cash and coins I keep in it as a loss. May all life losses be this petty...