Saturday, November 05, 2005
creepy
So yesterday, i was at the intersection of Burleson and 290 in south Austin. It was about noon and I was driving back to campus after I getting off work.I started to hear sirens and was really hoping that they weren't coming up behind us because the intersection at that light gets backed up and there was no place to go. Sure enough, though, they were but then they switched into the other lane and braved oncoming 18 wheelers in order to get quickly through that intersection.
So far, this was not an atypical occurence. What was strange were the cars themselves. They were not firetrucks or ambulances but unmarked cars. And I don't mean the semi-sneaky unmarked traffic cop cars which are still labeled but you have to look for it.
These cars are really sneaky. There is no give away "radio operator" sticker near the license plate. They have to flashing light that they stick on the dash. Instead, the flashing lights are built into the lights that the car already has. The windows are darkly tinted so that you can't see anything about who is inside.
So four of these cars went by. They were white and I had never seen white ones before. Mostly they were creepy. Then another two went by a couple minutes later. They were followed closely by a final dark blue one. I wonder where they were going so hurriedly, or even what cars like that do. I didn't see them again on my commute to UT.
I've ridden in one of these cars before, when I was babysitting for the police chief of San Antonio in my pre-car days and he drove me home. They were super creepy even then. It was night so I didn't see everything in the car clearly, but there was a lot of equipment-- radios, sirens and the like. He turned the radio way down so I couldn't hear what they were saying :( I wonder if the car was bulletproof.
I was under the apparently mistaken impression that apparently only police chiefs got cars like that. (Unless there was as police chief conference in town?) I wonder what else they are used for. It seems like they wouldn't be very good for undercover work because once you know how to spot them, they are fairly easy to pick out.
My first impression was that they were moving a dangerous prisoner and were using the other cars as decoys. But I think I've seen too many action movies...
Kim at 9:16 AM