2 Year Old Missing in Florida

Cadaver dogs have begun a search for the body of a 2 year old girl in Orlando Florida who has been missing for more then a month.

The girl’s 22 year old mother was arrested on charges of child neglect and criminal obstruction because she told investigators she dropped the child off at a babysitter last month but hadn’t seen her since.  The woman did not contact police until this week and then only because relatives were becoming concerned that they hadn’t seen the child in awhile.

While the authorities hope the child is still alive, they are not overly optimistic.  They fear the child was murdered by the mother who then came up with this fantastic story after family started severely questioning her about the child’s whereabouts.

I get really tired of this topic - I wish that God restricted child birth to mother’s he knows will be worthy of the honor.  That may be harsh but it would put an end to child abuse, child endangerment and murders.

Baby Snatchers

What is up with the current rash of baby snatchers? Not only are people snatching babies, but they are cutting them out of the womb.  Kind of disgusting.

The first case takes us to PA where a woman’s body was found at a suspected baby snatcher’s house.  The baby snatcher, who stabbed a woman in 1990 in a plot to steal her unborn infant and tried to snatch an infant out of a hospital days later, showed up at a hospital with a newborn baby who still had the umbilical cord attached.

The woman, Andrea Curry-Demus, tried to pass the baby off as her own but tests revealed the baby was not.  She then claimed she bought the baby for $1000.  A search of the subject’s home revealed a black woman’s body bound with duct tape.  As of yet, they are unable to discern whether the dead woman is the mother of the newborn but there was enough blood at the scene to make them lean in that direction.

According to reports, she pleaded guilty in 1991 to various charges stemming from both incidents then and received 3 to 10 years in prison.  She was paroled in 1998 and began serving a probation.  Guess she should have had to stay a bit longer in jail or been paroled to a mental facility.

Two pregnant black women had been reported missing lately so families were waiting for the body to be identified.  That still leaves one missing…makes you wonder if Curry-Demus has been busier then they think.

The next story derives from Missouri where a woman pleaded guilty to kidnapping a pregnant teenager she met online.  She convinced the girl that she would take her to buy baby clothes but then bound and gagged the girl.  Officer’s responded to the hotel the pair were at for a welfare check only to find the teenager.

They believe, though the kidnapper denies it, that she intended to cut the baby from the teenager’s womb because they found tools to do so in the room.  The kidnapper, Lauren Gash, had registered at “Babies R Us” and had even held a baby shower where friends said she appeared to be pregnant.  She then told relatives a few days later that she had given birth to a baby boy.

The victim gave birth to a healthy baby boy two days after being rescued.  I assume that, during their correspondence online, the victim had mentioned to Gash that she was having a baby boy.

Then I read about a case where a woman tried to snatch a baby right out of the nursery at the hospital.  She actually got away with the baby but authorities caught up with her at her home.

Doesn’t it seem this world is getting stranger and stranger?  Maybe it is just me but between girls throwing their babies away like they are trash, and others kidnapping pregnant women to take their babies…it seems like things in this world are just way too out of whack.

Second Four

The second four have started out with a bang - just what I wasn’t hoping for.  First there was an alarm at one of our facilities, then a vehicle accident with injuries, and trying to scramble to get all the paperwork finished for the evening shift.

The night shift guys are much more patient and more laid back - most of them are veterans though whereas the evening shift has newer people.  We just hired three new officers so don’t know what shift they’ll get going on.  One of the new officer’s is one of our dispatchers so here we are short again.  That really is going to stink once students come back full time and football starts.

Hopefully the rain will keep it quieter then last night - the guards are pretty much finding buildings to wait out the rain so they shouldn’t be calling in every five minutes.

Now He’s Dead

Person was riding along on his motorcycle, probably thinking about beating the severe thunderstorms home so he wouldn’t get soaked when out of nowhere, KABLAM!

I don’t know yet whether the person was wearing a helmet or even whose fault the accident was. I sent my officer’s out to help with traffic control as the City works the crash at a popular intersection. The mc driver was DOA - probably, hopefully, died instantly so felt no pain.

What is so scary to me, and so much a reminder of how fragile life is, is that he had no idea even a split second before hitting that intersection, that he had just used up his last moment on Earth. The bell tolled for him, his account for life canceled, the owl called his name, and the Grim Reaper was there to collect him.  That quickly a life can be extinguished - a person who had hopes, dreams and concerns about his life suddenly has no ties to life here at all.

Granted, we can’t think constantly about how this could be our last moment here but maybe we should take time every day to realize a lot of people won’t be alive by midnight tonight and that we never know when we might be included in that group. Appreciate the day, always. Appreciate our blessings and even our trials because having problems is a sign that we are still alive.

Fort Bragg

It is not a good year to be a female soldier or wife of a soldier stationed at Fort Bragg.  Since January, Marine Lance Cpl Maria Lauterbach was found buried in the backyard of a fellow Marine who was then charged with her murder.  Last month the body of Spc Megan Touma was found in a hotel near Fort Bragg, a victim of foul play with her killer still being at large.

Earlier this month Army 2nd LT Holley Wimunc, a nurse at Fort Bragg, was found dead and her husband was also charged in her murder.  Now, Pfc Jeneesa Lewis and her husband have gone missing from their apartment.  When officer’s arrived there, called after the Pfc failed to report for physical training, found evidence of foul play and fear the Pfc will become the fourth woman this year to have met an unsavory fate.

One would think that these women, being combat trained, would know how to handle their spouses - but remember, most of the spouses were also combat trained.  Besides, aren’t you suppose to be able to trust your mate?  Of course, we can’t know yet who killed Touma but they seem to link her death with the fact that she was pregnant.  As a matter of record, both Touma and Lauterbach were pregnant - maybe they mention this fact more to outrage us then to suggest a link to their deaths.

At any rate, I’m thinking all the women stationed at Fort Bragg and those married to servicemen stationed at Fort Bragg, might want to have mental health checkups done on their significant others.

It’s Friday Night in Iowa City

Ohmygod! What a night so far!  We have had traffic stops, a couple of fights, several drunks, a naked man running through downtown, a man who was hit in the head who had a concussion, two people struck while in the crosswalks right outside our building, and a suspicious guy hanging out down by the river.  City has called us several times to back them up because they were so busy that they couldn’t handle it all either.  What a mess!

I really don’t know what the city is coming too.  I guess it is a sign that things are returning to normal after being so repressed by the flooding.  Students are out in force living it up on a Friday night but if they could use a little common sense, that would be nice.

It is after 3am now and the bars should be getting the last of their customers out.  The streets have cleared, the rain has stopped, and one would hope it means things will slow down now.  Our campus has become a non-smoking campus - meaning people can’t even smoke outside anymore.  It isn’t overly enforced and we haven’t had time tonight to even think about dealing with people violating the policy.  The City has also gone smoke free but they are not writing citations for people who still want to smoke.  Guess most people feel about it the way I do, if the smokers are outside, who cares?  I get tired of “big brother” always out there trying to dictate our civil liberties.

No, I don’t smoke either - never have.  The policy makes me angry because, as I said, it is just one more thing government thinks they can force on us as if we are not capable of making decisions for ourselves.  It is reminiscent of Sarasota trying to enforce a “no cussing in public” ruling.  If I want to cuss in public, then damn it, I’m going to.  It is ridiculous.  I feel like lighting a cigarette and walking around just to rebel against the idiots who think they have the right to dictate my rights.

Whew, I’ll climb down off my soap box.  Just irritates me.

Assisted Colonization

Well, we knew it would all come down to this eventually. Afterall, we humans are the smartest of all God’s creatures and thus, colonizing the animal world in our own way should be how it was meant to be right?

Not only should we colonize the creatures how we see fit, we should also decide in an animal kingdom triage sort of way, what species we should let become extinct in favor of keeping other species around in this world of shortening animal habitats. Doesn’t that seem normal to everyone?

Scientists have advised that the species of Sky Island in Arizona is basically “toast” because they don’t know where they would move them so might as well let them go extinct. Who needs them anyway?

“When deciding which species to save and which to watch die, Root said one key is uniqueness. That’s why she said she’d save the odd-looking Tuatara of New Zealand, a lizard-like creature with almost no living relatives, over the common sparrow.”

“The risk of extinction has to be balanced by the potential hazard to the community where a species is relocated as well as the time and cost of making the move, Parmesan says.”

“Ultimately, the decision about whether to actively assist the movement of a species into new territories will rest on ethical and aesthetic grounds as much as on hard science,” she said in a statement.

“Passively assisting coral reef migration may be acceptable, but transplanting polar bears to Antarctica, where they would likely drive native penguins to extinction, would not be acceptable,” she said.

“Conservation has never been an exact science, but preserving biodiversity in the face of climate change is likely to require a fundamental rethinking of what it means to preserve biodiversity,” Parmesan said.

Wow, doesn’t it just make you proud to be a human? And, by the way, whose to say penguins are more unique then the polar bears? I think that is subjective and totally unfair. Let’s relocate the penguins to Alaska or Canada - let the bears have the Antarctica.

Somewhere I’m sure someone has a nice little chart with nice little diagrams of how every thing would benefit if we took over nature. Let’s make the world one big zoo. Does it irk anyone else as much as it does me??

I understand that some species are endanger of becoming extinct but is moving species around a good idea? Shouldn’t we let Mother Nature handle, well, Mother Nature? Have we done much good when we have “accidentally” relocated things in the past? Fire ants spring to mind - they came over from Africa or some such place - now look at how they’ve become an epidemic in the south.

Pretty soon I won’t have to watch the Sci-Fi channel to get my “b” movie horror fix - the reality of what we’ve done to our world will far out due what they can come up with on TV.

Dishes

By the way, I’m most happy to report that since moving into my apartment - my dish obsession has completely vanished.  Don’t know what it was all about but I’m glad it is gone.  Now I don’t care what kind of dishes I end up with - just as long as they don’t break or chip and a person can eat on them.  {sigh}

I must also say, I don’t want to have anymore obsessions like that again because it was truly mind-boggling.  No, maybe mind-numbing would be a better description.  But, thankfully, I’m back from the edge of the abyss pretty much none the worse for wear. 

Busy Night

What a busy night! So much for a nice quiet one - this one was anything but.  We made three arrests, went on two fights, and did countless other things in between.  I’m worn out.

I got a little ticked at one of the newer officers tonight and talked to the LT about it.  The officer went “out” with a vehicle but gave no license plate information.  I got backup going right away but had the driver of that vehicle decided to shoot my officer before backup got there, I would have had no information on the vehicle the officer pulled over.  Yes, backup arrived quickly but still - it is standard operating procedure for the officer to give the license plate BEFORE even approaching the vehicle.  When I asked him for it, he told me to “standby” and then never gave it to me.  The second officer gave me the information when he arrived - he happened to be the LT.

Sure, chances of something happening are slim but isn’t that usually when disaster strikes? When we are least expecting it? Just irritates me.  The officer hadn’t even ran the plate himself yet soooo…had he been gunned down they couldn’t even have looked at the last plate he had ran.  Just disturbing to me.  The LT agreed and said the officer made several other mistakes too that he would address with him - one was letting the scene get out of control, something this newer officer has struggled repeatedly with since finishing the academy and training.  He is new but again, isn’t that when bad things can happen? He has to be able to maintain control or he has lost the battle.

Now I have all three officers out on a suspicious person at one of the ramps.  Such an eventful evening.

The city should start waking up here shortly - already the street sweepers are out sweeping the main streets clean for another day of hustle bustle.  It truly is amazing, when I have time to watch, seeing the city go to sleep and then wake back up.  It is two so totally different crowds too.  At 3am it is the college students headed home in their skimpy outfits, walking none to steady.  At 5am it is the business crowd in their suits, walking briskly and with a purpose totally lacking in the younger groups.

The rain seems to have retired though forecasts reveal it will be making a comeback all day today.  So much for it being too rainy for people to get into trouble.

I must say once again, it sure would be fantastic to be so rich I wouldn’t have to go to work each day.

Spinning

Where in the world did my days off go? I certainly don’t know.

The first one was spent moving into my apartment - made two trips to WL and one trip to IC to pick up items.  My gas tank is on empty - something that hasn’t happened in quite awhile as I’ve been keeping it up around half a tank.

When I arrived at the unit there was no refrigerator but that came later while I was picking up the TV from my son.  It is nice and new - can’t ask for much more then that.  I almost bought ice cube trays but when I found out I was getting a brand new refrigerator, I decided not to as a new refrigerator almost always comes with ice cube trays.  Well, wrong.  Yes, my new refrigerator in FL did come with two ice cube trays but this one had nada so I will have to grab some sometime.  Not a big deal, mind you, just a little irritated when I got home as I didn’t have anything cold to drink then but such is life.

Got the TV and DVD player hooked up so have been putting on my movies when I need background noise.  I almost got speakers for my computer, having left mine in FL, but I couldn’t remember if my computer had a built in speaker or not.  It doesn’t.  Just means I can’t listen to my music until I get computer speakers which I will do on the 1st.

The maintenance man came over on Wednesday because the toilet water hose was leaking.  He thought he had it fixed but it still leaks a little every time I flush.  I put a rag under it so that takes care of that problem.

Baxter and I have gone for walks twice a day since being there.  He loves going and I love that it gets me out exercising.  We haven’t gone far - though today we did go farther then previously.  Part of it is not knowing my way around town that well but the biggest reason has been the heat.  We didn’t get a walk in tonight before work due to the rainstorm.

Yesterday my nephew and I moved the loveseat and entertainment center my sister gave me.  It is so great to have some furniture in the apartment! The loveseat is almost comfortable enough to sleep on - something I might have to do because my air mattress keeps losing air.  Another sister has a bed in her basement that I might see about using if they can bring it to NL for me as I don’t have a way to transport it.  I’m not in any rush, I can sleep on the floor if I need to for awhile.

Several of the ceramic and glass pieces I sent up from FL were broken.  I was disappointed because I packed them in bubble wrap and everything.  A couple of other pieces were chipped or broken but not so badly that I can’t glue them back together.  Ah the joys of shipping things.

My beautiful skirt that I was looking forward to wearing to my nephew’s wedding next month was left down in FL too.  I was upset to find that out.  But I left a bag in my closet there that I meant to grab - it had all my favorite clothes in it so I should have guess the skirt would be in it too.  Oh well, I will have to find something else to wear.  I’m going to plead with my neighbor down there to send me the bag - she can take the whole bag to the UPS store and they will do all the boxing and shipping. She hates to be put out but I’m hoping she will take pity on me and do it.

I have been asked by work to switch my hours this coming Monday and Tuesday from 7pm-3am to 3pm-11pm because the trainer on that shift needs a hand with the trainee.  I agreed to do so though it means getting off at 7am on Monday morning and having to be back at 3pm the same day.  I will also have to do it the following week.  On Wednesday they are putting out OT requests for the other days as well, I may sign up but changing shifts like that makes sleeping so much harder again.

It continues to rain outside which is good, it means we won’t be doing many traffic stops and, hopefully, the guards will be staying longer at each building.  I really could use a quiet night.