This morning around 2:00, the telephone rang.\u00a0 There was no message when it went to the answering machine.\u00a0 We were thinking how inconsiderate someone was to call at that hour.\u00a0 I finally got up after hitting the snooze a couple times, which was around 5:00.<\/p>\n
I was working at my desk when Rick came wondering out at 7:00.\u00a0 He mentioned something about 4 shots being fired somewhere in the neighborhood and mentioned a street.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t a street in this neighborhood.\u00a0 I just passed it off and didn\u2019t think anymore about it.\u00a0 Then the phone rang.\u00a0 I checked the number and saw the same one from around 2:00 this morning.\u00a0 What the heck?\u00a0 It was only 7:00.\u00a0 I let it go to the answering machine, but no one left a message.\u00a0 I was pretty sure it was some sort of dialing machine that was off its clock.<\/p>\n
Rick and I had breakfast.\u00a0 Then he came back out and said that there was a shooting in Holiday Hills.\u00a0 I was stunned.\u00a0 The neighborhood isn\u2019t that bad, but you never know.\u00a0 I went on the Internet and saw a story about the shooting of two McHenry County sheriff officers in Holiday Hills.\u00a0 WHAT?!?!?!<\/p>\n
The story said that they had a phone call asking the sheriff to check on a woman and her daughter at this house.\u00a0 When they arrived, a guy shot at them from the door.\u00a0 Luckily, the officers weren\u2019t fatally shot.\u00a0 Both went to the hospital.\u00a0 However, a standoff started.\u00a0 While it was still dark, the mother and daughter got out of the house.\u00a0 Then they lost track of the guy.\u00a0 Somehow, he got out of the house.\u00a0 The only place open to him was the lake.\u00a0 From there, they locked down around that house, our neighborhood, and the neighborhood on the other side of the lake.<\/p>\n
Now to clear up some information.\u00a0 This was not in Holiday Hills proper.\u00a0 There is a small subdivision that is separate from this village called Vaupell.\u00a0 They don\u2019t consider themselves a part of our village and even have a wrought iron fence between the two villages to prove that idea.\u00a0 So actually, the shooting took place in an unincorporated part of McHenry county.<\/p>\n
Rick was worried that he couldn\u2019t get out to go to school.\u00a0 He decided to try and see.\u00a0 They let him out and he went to class this morning.\u00a0 Unfortunately, they will let you out, but you can\u2019t come back.\u00a0 So Rick is outside of the neighborhood.\u00a0 He went to lunch and waited to see if things cleared up.<\/p>\n
At 1:00, it was still locked down.\u00a0 He decided to go to his friend\u2019s house and see if anyone was home.\u00a0 Luckily, the lady of the house was there and gladly took him in.\u00a0 At 2:00, we talked by phone and agreed that he would stay the night there if things did clear up.\u00a0 A big thanks to the Gregory family.\u00a0 By the way, his friend is away at school in Utah.<\/p>\n
Rich is home sick today.\u00a0 Yesterday, he was coming down with a really bad cold or sinus infection.\u00a0 By 3:00, I went by his desk and found him in agony.\u00a0 He just refuses to quit though.\u00a0 I went to a meeting and then tried to drag him home early.\u00a0 He spent most of today in bed.\u00a0 The sleep will help.<\/p>\n
We started watching the Internet for news updates.\u00a0 Around 11:00, we got another phone call from the McHenry County Emergency Call line.\u00a0 This is the number that has been calling and not leaving messages.\u00a0 Voice on the answering machine said that the suspect was at large.\u00a0 A search was underway by officers.\u00a0 We were told to stay inside with our doors and windows locked.<\/p>\n
A little while after that, I looked out the kitchen windows to see a couple of officers with guns drawn looking around the yard.\u00a0 There was a police dog as well.\u00a0 I waved and walked out to see if they needed in the garage or to look anywhere.\u00a0 I got the keys and they went into the detached garage.\u00a0 He assured me that things were good, but to stay inside.\u00a0 No problem.<\/p>\n
About noon, a plane began making a search pattern over the neighborhood.\u00a0 It was soon joined by a helicopter.\u00a0 This continues until well after 3:00.\u00a0 They went back and forth over the entire area and then returned to search it again and again.\u00a0 At times, the helicopter was so low that it rattled the windows.<\/p>\n
The neighbor across the street came out to leave.\u00a0 He talked to the group of officers standing in the street at Hickory and Oak outside of our house.\u00a0 They were keeping watch for anyone or anything moving.\u00a0 I could see that they told him to stay home, but he seemed to insist on leaving.\u00a0 The one officer nodded.\u00a0 I assume he left for work.\u00a0 It\u2019ll be seen as to whether he can come back soon.<\/p>\n
Sascha has been restricted and she\u2019s not happy about that.\u00a0 I\u2019ve let her out, but then make her return as soon as she is done with the current business at hand (or is that foot since it is an equivalent).\u00a0 She went out after the police officers and their dog had left.\u00a0 She had her hackles up over the scent of the other dog.\u00a0 She continues to sniff the area and try to determine who was here.\u00a0 As I said, she\u2019s not happy with the current situation.<\/p>\n
At 3:00, I feed Sascha and she wanted out right away.\u00a0 I was out in the yard waiting for her to complete all necessary tasks.\u00a0 I thought about the fence line and started over that way.\u00a0 Hold on here, I didn\u2019t need to walk over and check this out by myself.\u00a0 About that time, Rich came out on the deck.\u00a0 I had him wait there while I checked.\u00a0 There is a space between what\u2019s left of an old fence on our property and the new fence the neighbors had put up.\u00a0 Luckily, there was no one there.<\/p>\n
I should have known something was wrong when I went to get the paper this morning and couldn\u2019t find one on the driveway.\u00a0 I checked a couple of times before Rick gave me the news about the shooting.\u00a0 That would explain no paper.\u00a0 At that point, they were already restricting access to the neighborhood.\u00a0 Rick confirmed that they were not letting the school bus come into the neighborhood.\u00a0 A few kids managed to get to River Road and got on the bus.\u00a0 We received another phone message about 1:30 telling us that children at school needed to be picked up by a parent since no bus service would be running down to the restricted area.\u00a0 Problem is:\u00a0 If you went out after your children, you could not come back.\u00a0 Where would you go?<\/p>\n
I fed Sascha and took her out around 3:00.\u00a0 I realized at that time we wouldn\u2019t be having any mail service either.\u00a0 Wow, this was even going to stop the government.\u00a0 One guy with a stupid idea shutting down my entire day!<\/p>\n
We had haircut appointments for 4:30 today.\u00a0 I told Rick he could go, but I was calling to cancel Rich and I going out.\u00a0 With Rich feeling bad and the need to stay with Sascha, I didn\u2019t want to risk going out and not getting back in.\u00a0 I called and canceled.\u00a0 I feel a little trapped.<\/p>\n
With the planes going overheard, police vehicles circling the neighborhood, and the eerie kind of feel around here, it\u2019s a little unnerving.\u00a0 I\u2019ve been trying to work, but I keep looking out of the windows.\u00a0 The noise of constant air traffic is getting to me.\u00a0 I image this is what it is like on a good day in a war area.\u00a0 I gave up all pretense of trying to work.<\/p>\n
However, I could still write.\u00a0 Now it was just going to be this blog and what was going on.\u00a0 I checked the Internet again to see what progress there was and if there an all clear yet.\u00a0 I assume the phone will ring and a message will be dictated into the answering machine when it is clear.<\/p>\n
One of the neighbors across the street had just returned.\u00a0 Maybe they were letting people returning from work back into the neighborhood.\u00a0 I texted Rick to let him know and tried to call, but it goes to voicemail.\u00a0 Just one more thing to worry about.\u00a0 I\u2019d rather he were home with me.\u00a0 After December, that will be different.<\/p>\n
The helicopter started up again.\u00a0 Earlier, Rick said it was parked in the McDonald\u2019s parking lot when he went by.\u00a0 I bet they took over quite a few places.\u00a0 I watched a video by the sheriff\u2019s department on the situation.\u00a0 There were standing at Sunset Dr. coming into the village.\u00a0 I saw the houses up there as they were searching with the dogs.\u00a0 I noticed in the story with the video that the suspect is a former Green Beret.\u00a0 This just gets better and better.<\/p>\n
Now the helicopter is stationary out just north of the house.\u00a0 I wonder what that means.\u00a0 Rich got up because it sounded strange of the thing to be hanging in the air like that.\u00a0 We watch out of the kitchen window and it just continues to hover.\u00a0 It\u2019s too much for my nerves and I return to my computer.\u00a0 I\u2019m trying to call and text Rick to see if he can try and return.\u00a0 It just goes to voicemail and no answer to my texts.<\/p>\n
Finally!\u00a0 I realized that the cell tower might have been busy.\u00a0 I was getting a channel assigned to my call.\u00a0 I reach Rick and he is getting ready to drive home and see if he can get in.\u00a0 With a couple of the neighbors returning, there is a good chance he can get in.\u00a0 He had his phone on airplane mode since he was running out of battery.<\/p>\n
It is 4:30 and Rick made it home.\u00a0 They checked his ID and then let him in.\u00a0 I\u2019m so glad to have my son back!\u00a0 Well, the helicopters continue, but I\u2019m done.\u00a0 I\u2019ll try to ignore them.\u00a0 Maybe movie night down in the basement and at the bar will help.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This morning around 2:00, the telephone rang.\u00a0 There was no message when it went to the answering machine.\u00a0 We were thinking how inconsiderate someone was to call at that hour.\u00a0 I finally got up after hitting the snooze a couple times, which was around 5:00. I was working at my desk when Rick came wondering […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3370"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3370"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3370\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3371,"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3370\/revisions\/3371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}