Headlights at Night - Part 3

And now we begin to come to the conclusion of our tale. Before we jump back in, and finish this story with what is the craziest part, be mindful that this really happened. Some things are slightly exaggerated, but not to the point that makes it fiction. As likely as you are not to believe this, it really did occur. We'll pick up the next week after the late night chase, in which the mystery caller most likely had the unmentionables scared out of him as Jonathan and Brian ambushed him. Yet, even after this, the guy continues to come to the driveway and back out during the wee hours of the morning.

At this point, Jonathan is becoming concerned about this guy. He's questioned his neighbors, who haven't even seen this guy because it's so late at night. They don't know a thing about him, or what he's up to. It sounds so crazy, they probably thought Jonathan was simply making the whole thing up. So he decides to take manners into his own hands. After yet another week of this guy coming to the driveway, he decides that he's going to catch this guy red handed in whatever it is that he's doing.

So he gets a gun. Well, let's rephrase that. He gets a "dummy" gun. I don't remember exactly, but it's either a toy gun, or an unloaded gun. Jonathan decides, that on his own, without Brian, he's going to camp out in his sister's yard and trap the guy. See, since Jonathan's house was at the end of this dead end road, he'd more or less have the guy caught. Apparently, he'd planned on standing at the outlet of the road, gun drawn. But it doesn't really go down like this.

So he actually does this. You'd think he'd have to be insane to try this. Whoever this is, we didn't know who he was, what he wanted, what kind of person he was, or whether this mystery guy would be armed or not. Jonathan doesn't even tell anyone that he's going to do this. Not me, not even Brian. We'd probably have told him that it was a crazy idea and would have convinced him not to do it. But he's nuts and does it anyways.

In doing this, he's waiting, lying down on his front side in his sister's yard. And the guy actually comes. Again. And it would seem that Jonathan actually has this working. He can see him turning around in his driveway at the end of the road, and he's planning to trap him and finally ask him what in the world he's been doing. But there's a problem. As I mentioned, Jonathan didn't mention to anyone that he had planned on this. Not even his sister or her husband.

As you might guess, this is where the crap hits the fan. And remember, he's lying down in their yard with what appears, to the naked eye, to be a live gun. The door slams from their house, and his brother in law, who happens to be of Hispanic heritage comes out. This guy's favorite show is COPS, and he's memorized all of the CB lingo that the police officers use. He sees this shady character lying on the ground with a gun, not knowing that it's Jonathan, and starts screaming things like "burglary in progress" in this high pitched, accented voice. This inevitably wakes up Jonathan's sister. She immediately dials 911. During this confusion, Jonathan gets up and tries to explain to his brother in law what is going on, but it's too late. Not only have the cops been called into this, but the mystery guy pulling into the driveway has gotten away while this was going on.

About twenty minutes later, the cops pull into the yard, confused as everyone else is. Jonathan has to explain to everyone involved, even his parents who have now come, what exactly happened. He gets a scolding from everyone involved, even though inside, they are probably rolling with laughter at the situation.

Now, back to the origin of our story. Jonathan has just finished telling this to Sharla and myself in her car, on the way to go see Return of the King. He's a master storyteller and has taken around a half hour to get to this point. Of course, he's neglected to mention one thing, and we are asking him about it. What happened to the guy who was pulling in to the driveway? Did they ever find out who it was? What was he doing?

"Well", he says. "Two weeks later we found out that it was the paperboy."