My Lunch Hour

It began as any other Santa Monica lunch hour. I sat in the Park across from the beach, ate a sandwich and read a book. Two O'Clock came way to soon. I packed up my things and walked back up Broadway towards my office on 5th Street. There are a lot of homeless people in Santa Monica. I don't mind them too much, as long as they don't bug me too much. I've stopped feeling bad about not giving them money, though I will never stop feeling bad for them.. But money doesn't help. So anyway.As I'm making my way up the sidewalk, and people are walking around everywhere, I look across the street... I see a homeless man with his hands on a bicycle thats locked up, and a woman stuffing BOLT CUTTERS in his oversized backpack. Seems odd, yes? That's what I thought.. My nature is to generally not draw conclusions quickly to any situation. And I tend to give people the benefit of the doubt when it comes to their innocence or guilt.. (This is a nuisance sometimes, but is probably better than the opposite.) So I'm standing there, watching this lady zip up the man's backpack across the street, wondering exactly what they are doing. Then I see the homeless man PULL the bike away from the post, unwrapping it from the nylon-covered coily bike lock. Ok.. I thought.. He didn't unlock anything, he just stole that bike.. Not something you see everyday.I continue walking, reach the corner and cross the street towards him. He continues down Broadway, walking slowly with his new bike. I inconspicuosly pass him on the cross walk, but keep a watchful eye of his position in my periferal vision while I look around for a police officer. COP CARS! Down 2nd Street! I walk towards the cruisers while still keeping an eye behind me on where the criminal homeless man and his girl friend walk. They clear the corner and I run to the cruisers that are parked outside a Police Sub-Station (hmm. I never knew it was there). I walk in and report the incident to the desk clerk who writes the details down on the newspaper he is reading. I quickly exit, knowing that's all I can do there, and also knowing it will be very difficult for the police to locate a homeless guy in Santa Monica with a bicycle.. especially if he made it to the densly populated Third Street Promenade.. needle in a haystack.. Since I know what he looks like, I am the best person to locate him. And while I would probably have been content with my effort so far, I wanted to make sure I do not let this guy get away with someone elses bike if I can help it. I don't spot him down the sidewalk on the Broadway; I was in the substation for one minute, maybe two. And the guy was walking pretty slow (attempting not to appear suspicious, I gather) so he couldn't be far. I stop at the Third Street Promanade and look through the swarming crowd. No.. No.. I start walking on.. though still looking.. No.. N- wait.. Step back a step.. There!! That's him.. about fifty yards down, walking smack through the middle of the Promendade. I follow him. There's cops everywhere in Santa Monica, I knew it wouldn't take long to find one. I am briskly closing the gap when I spot an officer. I approach him and see he is a Fire Department Officer. "Damn!", I thought, but I spit out what happened anyway. I pointed out the culprit with the bike, and the Fire Officer quickly approached him and stepped in front of him to interrogate. I didn't know if I should hang around but remain anonymous, go back to work or what.. I walk casually towards them, and watch for some kind of sign from the Fire Officer as to what I should do. We make eye contact and he asks me "Is this who you saw?". "Yes, sir" I said, "that's him". I walked to them, stood next to the officer and looked the homless man in the eyes. Oh, the resentment that he shot me.. but it didn't bother me at all. I have sympathy for his situation, but it gives him no right to steal someone's property.. and his arrogent attitude, and stealing a bike with boltcutters in broad daylight in front of hundreds of people- I had no remorse making sure this guy goes to jail. The Fire Officer called on his cell phone for the Police while the Homeless Man came up with a string of lies excusing his crime.. "This guy sold it to me, he lost the key to the lock and told me to to cut it" .. and referring to his shirt reading "LAPD": "I'm a cop." "You're a cop?" the fire officer asked. "Yeah, I'm under cover", he replied. "Where's your badge?" "I don't have one" riiiiight..
Then the homeless man decided he didn't want to wait around to get hauled off, so he left the bike and walked away. The Fire Officer followed him but obviously could not detain him, as he tried to stop him with words and called again on his cell phone. They walk away and down the sidewalk of Santa Monica Boulevard.. And there I am.. Standing next to the stolen bike.. I can't follow them, someone is sure to walk away with an unnattended bicycle on the Promenade. So I wait.. Someone will come back.. three minutes pass, maybe.. I walk to the sidewalk to see if I can spot the homeless couple or the Fire Officer. Nope. Hmm.. Then a Bicycle Officer comes down the Promenade. "Guy that stole a bicycle? He went that way", as I pointed down the sidewalk. I wait another few minutes, thinking what I should do. I finally decide to take the stolen bike back to the sub-station and go back to work. On my way, I see the same Bicycle Officer approaching and I wave her down. "Is that the stolen bike?" she says. "Yeah. Did you find him?" "No, I followed the directions the Fireman gave me down an alley but he was gone." "Huh.. Well I was going to walk this back to the station." "Yeah, I'll go with you" .. We chat a little about the homeless man chase, and the growing problem of stolen bikes from the area. We get to the sub-station "I'm back!" I announce to the desk clerk who's eyes get big when I walk in the bike. As the Bicycle Officer took down my info, we hear the progress of the chase on the radio. The Homeless Man ditched the backpack, the girl, and they found him in a dumpster. They had to threaten him with mace to get him out.Another Officer pulled up in a Cruiser, came in and asked me to come with him to identify the suspect, and to show him the cut lock the bike was taken from. "Absolutely" I said. He made me get in the back of the Cruiser. Hard plastic seats, and no leg room. But whatever, situation could have been worse in the back of a police car.
I take him to the bike pole; we have to wait for an officer to arrive with a digital camera. I thought about calling my mom and telling her I'm in the back of a Police car, but decided to take the few minutes to read more on my book: "The Seekers, A Bounty Hunters Story" I guess reading about a bounty hunter chasing down fleeing criminals inspired me to catch a culprit. wuhahaha!!!
The officer drove me to the Police Station where they took the homeless man out of another car in cuffs. "Is that him?" the Officer asked. "Yup, that's him" VROOM!! Back to the sub-station. I was beginning to wonder how long this was going to last. While not in a huge rush to get back to work, it had been another hour since I first started back from lunch.
But that was it. They gave me a business card with the case number and the Officer to avoid any doubt while explaining my two hour lunch and I went on my way.
I felt damn good. It didn't make me happy that I sent someone to jail, but I was glad that I stopped a crime from going unsolved, as minor of a crime that is was. But my true satisfaction comes from thinking about the person who walks out to the pole where their bike used to be, walks in to the sub-station around the corner, discouraged, knowing they probably won't get their bike back, and have the desk clerk say, "Ah yes, we have it. A strikingly hansom man saw it being stolen and helped us catch the guy and retrieve your bike. Here you go."
It was a good lunch.