My roommate and I are sitting in the room producing and directing our own laser show in the dark. He got this super powerful red laser to gift to one of his high school teachers, and it also came with various kaleidoscopic lenses that give off trippy patterns. When we’ve thoroughly entertained ourselves in shining the laser on every crevice of the room, we decide to expand.
We (or I) decide to shine the laser outside. Peeking the pointer through the blinds, we see the red dot wavering in the streets. A Caucasian boy walking through the night doesn’t seem to notice. Quite frustrated that he is missing out on such a unique phenomenon, I edge the glowing red dot closer to the sidewalk. He starts and swivels his head to and fro, seeming to search for the source. The dot is now inexplicably and inexorably drawing closer to his body, now it is on his body. He seems to look directly at me. To escape being seen, I withdraw from the blinds and collapse with my roommate on his bed, both chuckling heartily. Ahh the wonders of youth.
After reveling in our mischievous actions for about 15 seconds, I get another bright (haha) idea. Moments later, the laser pointer is again pointed out the window; this time, however, with one of the trippy kaleidoscopic caps on the laser. Ladies and gentlemen, let me present to you the first public street light show.
As soon as I am about to initiate this grand opening, my eye catches the urgent dazzles of a siren. I instinctively question the legality of such a light show on Whitis Street. Probably not a good idea. So I retreat.
A minute later I’m peeking out of the blinds again. An unusual sight greets me. Five police cars have blocked off the intersection half a block away from our window. Cops are up and about, standing sentry. Crowds are beginning to gather…what is going on?!
“Oh shoot what’s going on?”
“Dang…wow”
“Is there a shooter again?”
It is important to note that at this time our imaginations are headed off in the wildest directions, full speed ahead. Long story short, we somehow (irrationally or rationally, very likely exceedingly irrationally) surmise this series of events: A police officer had seen our laser, mistaken it for a gun sight, and recruited other officers as backups to an emergency. Supporting evidences for this position included, 1) The event occurred less than a minute after our initial laser exploits. 2) The event occurred way too fast. 3) Whatthefrick do we do?
At this point we are seriously freaking out. I am freaking out. My laconic roommate is freaking out (“Dude, are you nervous?”…”Yes, I am nervous.”) But I can hear the fear in his voice. We are beside ourselves. After some deliberation, we decide to notify authorities if they declare there is some shooter over the PA system. We are seriously freaking out I tell you. This story does no justice to how utterly terrified we were.
blahblahblah more details about how scared we were. (you really don’t need to hear this)
We later were informed that it was a fake bomb threat. Another source reports it being caused “by that guy who harassed those girls in West Campus.” I guess we’ll never know if it really was us. ;)
Then I broke a friend’s bed by sitting on it. It had to be fixed by professionals.
Then our fire alarm started going off. We ended up tampering with it like weed-smoking miscreants. I wrote the post “What a day.” Fell asleep to the chirping of crickets (aka the fire alarm being angry at being tampered with by weed-smoking miscreants).
