Wed, Aug 11, 2004
Amber Alert in Action
#
On Monday, I found myself in the middle of a car chase. More
importantly, I saw AmberAlert working first-hand. (23L)
I was driving south on 101 to Campbell from RedwoodCity for lunch and
a slew of meetings. As I drove through MountainView, I saw an
AmberAlert on an electronic billboard, which said that a girl had been
abducted in a blue Land Rover. I noted the first few numbers of the
license plate in my head, then thought about how great AmberAlert was,
and how interesting it would be to see it in action. I was thinking
about how AmberAlert could potentially use InstantMessenging? in cell
phones when I saw the second notice on the sign at GreatAmerica in
SantaClara. (23M)
In SanJose, I merged onto 17 towards Campbell, and a few minutes
later, I saw flashing lights in my mirror. I was running a bit late
for my lunch appointment, so I glanced at my speedometer to see if I
were in trouble, and to my relief, I discovered that -- thanks to
traffic -- I was right at 65 miles per hour. (23N)
Checking my mirrors again, I noticed the blue SUV behind me change to
the fast lane. I remember thinking, "That's strange. Makes more
sense to switch into the slow lane." Yes, I can be slow at times. As
the SUV zoomed past me, I noticed "Land Rover" on the tire cover and
recognized the first few letters of the license plate. The three
police cars in pursuit confirmed what had slowly dawned on me. That
was the kidnapper. (23O)
I fully realize that if I were truly cool, I would have captured the
chase on my cell phone camera and moblogged it immediately. Folks
would have seen the chase snapshot live, rather than having to wait
for this account two days later. In my defense, I was calm enough to
do it. As I watched all of this unfold, I actually called my friend
and told him that I was in the middle of a car chase and would be a
few minutes late. Unfortunately, my cell phone is four years old. It
doesn't have a camera, and it won't connect to the Internet. (23P)
I can happily report that the police did eventually
catch the culprit (in SanLuisObispo, about five hours south of
SanFrancisco), and the girl is safe and sound. (23Q)
/personal |
Posted at 11:22am
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