Suspicious objects

Yesterday was a cold, rainy day and I wanted to get Doggie's morning walk over with quickly. As we entered the park, I noticed two big, dark, full backpacks underneath the slides in the playground. I thought it was a bit strange, but I turned up my music and continued walking. Hang on a minute, I thought to myself. This is Jerusalem. Full backpacks in the playground and there isn't anyone but me here on this miserable day? Something's not right. I called my husband and not wanting to take a chance, we decided he should call the cops and report the bags as a suspicious object. When this happens, the bomb squad comes out and a cute robot blows up the object.

After ending the phone call with my husband, I dropped my phone and the battery fell out. As I'm picking up the pieces, I was stopped by the doggie police and was reprimanded because Doggie wasn't on a leash. Greaaat! I'm cold and wet and there are bags at the other end of the park that may blow up and today's the first time in 2 freaking years I have to get stopped by one of these guys, even though I'm the ONLY PERSON in the park! After resolving the dog issue and avoiding a hefty fine by playing dumb, I reassemble my phone in time to get a panicky call from my husband as to why I didn't answer my phone. Oops! "The bomb squad's on their way so stay in the park," said my husband. At this point I'm thinking I'm gonna catch a cold but hey what's a few more minutes?? As I'm rounding my 3rd lap in the park, I see two teenage boys head towards the bags. It turns out the bags belonged to them! I told them off for leaving their bags unattended and told them I called the police. They apologized, picked up their bags and started walking away, when I noticed one of them forgot their umbrella. HEY!! I called after them. "You forgot your umbrella. Come on already guys!!" =) My husband cancelled the bomb squad and thankfully that ended without incident, but I felt a little foolish for having called the cops. However, after thinking about it I realized that I did the right thing, because you just never know.

My reaction to yesterday's suspicious object was very different from one of the first few times I was around when a suspicious object was found or blown up. A few months after our wedding, we were walking home from the supermarket and as we rounded the corner to our apartment, we see police cars and officers blocking off the area. Once I realized what was going on, I started to cry. The whole thing just hit a little too close to home...literally! There I was holding a pack of 40 rolls of toilet paper and blubbering to my husband that there was no way in hell he was taking a bus to work that day. I got a few glances from police officers but I didn't care.

Unfortunately, suspicious object call ins are very common here. Thankfully they often turn out to be nothing but a forgotten bag or other personal item.