| Not long ago, while working diligently on something or another, I suddenly heard a voice on the office police scanner instructing all units to be on the lookout for a black pickup bearing several distinguishing characteristics. Apparently, one of its occupants had just been observed tossing a large bag of trash out a window and into the street.
That’s right, trash … into the street … here, in the Twenty-first Century.
At once, I felt flushed, as my pulse quickened and the hair on the back of my neck snapped to attention.
“Who are these people and what are they thinking,” I quietly asked myself.”“How can anyone be so ignorant and insensitive?”
In short order, though, I realized they simply weren’t thinking, for whatever reason. Perhaps they’d spent most of their lives in complete isolation, or a terrible accident had rendered them mentally incapable of rational thought.
Regardless, they did ultimately collect their due.
Within a few minutes of the dispatch alert, a law enforcement official reported the exact whereabouts of the pickup in question. After pulling the vehicle over, the officer provided dispatch with a plate number, a routine check of which showed “clear and valid.”
Nevertheless, following several minutes of radio silence, the astute officer suddenly informed dispatch that he and the two young occupants of the subject vehicle were on their way back to the alleged scene of the crime, “to pick up trash.”
Perfect, I thought. A dose of justice for an absurd act that, all too often, is overlooked.
Now, if authorities could just nab those responsible for dumping all the garbage in Martinez Canyon.
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