Sunday, January 24th

Today was much more interesting than I planned for it to be. I woke up for church, got ready, went downstairs, and realized the two girls I was going to church with decided to leave earlier and not tell me. I didn’t know what tube station I needed to get to! Another girl was coming to my ward with me for the first time, so she didn’t know the tube stop either. Luckily I remembered it was on the Northern Line, so I made a guess. Thankfully I guessed right!

We made it to Kennington Station and began our walk to church. On our walk we passed some trees, some children, a park, some pigeons… oh, and some guy breaking into a car. The two of us are walking down the street when we approach a man bent over a car. Hearing our footsteps, he quickly jumps up and turns around nonchalantly. As we pass, I notice the rear triangular passenger side window is smashed in. We quicken our pace and walk in silence for a while. After walking a few meters, I turn to my companion and whisper, “That guy was breaking into that car!” She agreed with me. After a few more seconds of silence I said, “I think we ought to do something about it. I’m not comfortable not doing anything.” We approach the church and find two missionaries standing outside the building greeting everyone. I timidly approach them and say, “This may sound stupid, but I just saw a guy break into a car, and I feel like I need to report it.” They look at each other and tell me that this happens all the time in the neighborhood, implying that I should think nothing of it. I then ask what I should do, and if there is a police station nearby. They point me in the direction of the police station that is just a block away, so I head in that direction. I felt pretty lame, because they didn’t seem to think anything of it. I didn’t want to be the “law abiding” American if I was making to big a deal over it. We reach the police station and I addressed the officer, “Excuse me. I don’t know the proper way to do this, but I just saw a man break into a car down the street.” The police man was nice and took our report of the information. We described the car and the man as best we could. It’s surprisingly hard to recall these details. Luckily between the two of us we were able to piece together a description: Teal Toyota, black man, slender, 5’8”, sides of head shaved with black hair on top, tan jacket, dark pants. We left the station, and as we exited the man walked right past us down the street. We stopped, turned around, and went back into the station. The police officer was in the middle of radioing a car when we told him that the man had just walked past. We then told that we had got some details wrong… Teal Toyota, black man, slender, 5’8”, sides of head shaved with black hair on top, black coat, light grey jeans, black shoes. He was also talking on his cell phone as he walked past. No glasses. Not carrying anything noticeable. The policeman took our names and the Centre’s phone number. As we were leaving we heard that they had stopped the man and were questioning him. From the scattered details we heard from the radio, he told them that it was his car and that he had broken the window to get something out, because he had locked himself out and didn’t want to call a locksmith because it would be more expensive. If you ask me that is the biggest bologna I have ever heard! Why would you smash your car window instead of calling a locksmith… a locksmith is much cheaper! If it was so important that he get into his car immediately, why then was he only there for five minutes? We saw him break into the car, and then shortly walk away in a matter of minutes. It would make more sense if he needed to drive the car or something. Sketchy business! While at least I feel better about myself for being the dutiful citizen of society.

Good Night!