Wednesday, March 02, 2005

Busy At Work


It's been busy here and I haven't had time to get on the computer much. There has been something to keep me busy for a few nights now. The other night a woman who stays here came home from work and stopped by to pay for the night, like she does every night. My friend/unofficial security was sitting here with me in the lobby. Everything was normal. About 20 minutes later she came back to the door and motioned me over, I walked over and opened the door to see she was crying. I let her in and she said her boyfriend/husband beat her up and choked her. Her neck was all red and she said she thought he was going to kill her, she couldn't breathe. She asked me to call the police and I did.

She was incredibly calm during this whole thing. She went outside to smoke a cigarette and my friend and I were amazed at the way she was acting, considering what just happened. It was very obvious she was telling the truth. It wasn't that she wasn't upset at all, just that it seemed like just another day to her. Very sad. We were afraid she would back down when the police came and not press charges. She was also not afraid to go outside, she knew, I guess, he wouldn't dare do anything in front of us. I've had to save a few women from getting beat up by locking them in the lobby. Usually, after a few minutes they just want to go back with him. They never want me to call the police. This is the first time this happened with an actual guest of the hotel though. And if you show any hostility towards the husband/boyfriend you become the bad guy so I never get involved in that way.

Anyway, the police came and found that he had left. They searched all over but could not find him anywhere. There were about eight police cars here. So they all left and she went back to the room with some friends who came to be with her. I stopped being surprised about the way the police handle things around here. She told us the guy probably went to 7-11 to get cigarettes. We joked that he is probably going to call from the 7-11 to see if he could come back. Sure enough, he called. I put it through and not 10 minutes later she called me and said he was at the door. This was about 1 hour after I called the police the first time.

Now, I called the police again and talked to the same dispatcher, told her who I was and where and that the guy in question had returned. She acted as if she had no clue what I was talking about, so I had to explain the whole thing to her. ?????!! That boggled my mind. A car pulled up and the policeman got out and I had to explain again to him and told him the guy was right around the corner. He drew his gun and went around the corner just like in the movies. Cool. His gun even had a laser sight so you could see the red dot on what he aimed at. It happened to be pointed at the guys back as he told him to get down. They handcuffed him and put him in the car. Five more police cars pulled up - I guess they like to see some action, too.

They sat there for a good half hour. I was looking out the window at the road and suddenly I see a car heading west make a u-turn in front of the hotel. The only problem was he couldn't physically do that because of the median and I guess he was headed west on the eastbound side. Big mistake to make at that moment, what with six police cars sitting right there. Yes, they got him. And it's funny how nobody comes to check in when there are a bunch of police cars in front of the lobby.

The next day the girls face was all black and blue and you could see where the fingers grabbed her neck. She has some marks on her arms, too. She moved out.

The other nights were not nearly as dramatic, just busy.

Thought you'd like to know.

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