one more reason to fence in the backyard.

here on 16th Ave, we don't have a fenced-in backyard. occasionally this results in random people wandering through our property, small Mexican neighbor children treating it like their own public park, small Somali children yelling at us from their jungle gym two houses over, or squirrels using it as a break room where they can eat whatever they've scavenged from the apartment complex's dumpster. (truth- i once came home to a squirrel chomping on an entire Sbarro-sized piece of pizza in my backyard. also, flour tortillas and chicken wings.)

last night around 10:30pm, when i was doing my night-time routine and checking to make sure the back door was locked, i saw lights dance across the backyard. 'oh good, Matt's home,' i thought. as i turned to walk up the stairs, i glanced out the back window and realized that those lights were not headlights, but in fact, a flashlight. the only people i know who trespass with flashlights are cops, so i open the back door and say, "uh, can i help you??"

it was indeed a cop, who by now is in the middle of my backyard. he replies "oh no, thanks! we're just doing a little K-9 training tonight." i look down and he's, like, dragging his feet across my grass... like he stepped in dog poo and is trying to scrape it off. he points to the alley and says, "my partner's back there with the dog, he's going to try and follow my scent into that abandoned house [pointing to a home that recently suffered a fire and is slowly being restored] and hopefully bite me."

it all happened so fast i didn't have time to think, so i just said, "uh, okay.... good to know." he cheerfully responds, "Thanks though!!" i suppose i'm glad he thought i truly wanted to help him, even though my "uh, can i help you??" was really more of a "uh, what the hell are you doing in my backyard??" i guess i should also be glad it was just for a doggie training. last time there were cops in my yard with flashlights (at a different address, years ago) it was because they were chasing a suspect who had fled the scene of the crime through our yard.

however, this morning as i was leaving for work, i could very clearly see where he was "scraping" his scent- it looks like someone teed off in the middle of our backyard and didn't replace the divot. thinking about calling the precinct and requesting that no more police trainings take place in our backyard...