Sept. 9, 2022 — At 3:30 in the morning on Wednesday, Sonny started barking like a maniac. His nose was pushed against the screen at our open second floor bedroom window. We tried to calm him down, but then Steph put her ear out the window too, and heard a voice calling out. “Bobby,” she said, “someone is hollering for help.” I jumped out of bed, put on a sweatshirt, and full of mid-sleep grogginess stumbled out the front door to rescue whoever was calling.
“Wait, Bob, do you think that’s the right thing to do? Who knows what’s going on?” I put a leash on Sonny and together we went to the end of our dock and started calling out. It was a very dark moonless night. Everything below the star-filled skyline was one giant shadow. The calls back were coming from the swamp. Our neighbor’s car zoomed by our house. Steph jumped in our Odyssey and very tentatively pulled down our driveway. She made it to the end of our property and yelled from the car window, “I called 911 and the dispatcher said a patrolman was on his way and told us to go back inside our home.” We went inside. Steph said, “You know, the police really wanted us to go inside — they said it twice.” We locked our doors and turned out the lights.
We sat in the darkness on the couch looking for shadows running by our windows. The woods never seemed so close to the house. Sonny patrolled from front door to side door. Eventually, though, our big guard dog laid down at our feet with a loud thump. Steph called 911 and the dispatcher said, “Everything is under control.” Sleepiness drifted into my mind like a fog. I looked outside our bedroom window just before climbing into bed. The lake, the creek, the stars — everything seemed so peaceful once again. I went to bed that next night feeling even more safe knowing I have a very sharp spouse, a top-notch watch dog, and a neighbor who is a former police officer who hasn’t lost a beat.
Note #1: A summary of the police report stated that at 1 a.m., Leelanau deputies were called to an incident at the beach off Bohemian Road. The assailant escaped into the woods and trudged three miles through rough swamp and injured himself several times in his attempted escape through rough wilderness and swamp. The assailant was apprehended at 4 a.m. and then escorted to Leelanau County Jail.
Note #2: A text from the spouse of our retired policeman neighbor, Todd. “Okay, so Todd is home and I got the full scoop. He went down there and saw the guy, called the police and sat with him, and he was drunker than @#$%^, soaking wet and all bloody. He gave Todd a bogus story, and Todd knew he was full of crap. Todd gave him a coat cuz he was soaked and cold (and so he wouldn’t run off). Then the cops showed up and Todd headed back home to bed.”
