Ever had a gun pulled on you?  It is an unsettling 
experience.

When I was in high school, and during a few 
years of college, my dad worked a second job as 
the custodian of our church.  A lot of times I 
ended up helping out after school, or later when I 
was in college, I'd fill in for him when he and my 
mom went on vacations.

Once while he was on vacation, I was staying at 
my parents house.  As I was apt to do, I spent 
most of my time in my home town of Hanford, 
California visiting with friends and procrastinated 
cleaning the church until Saturday evening.  
There wasn't a lot to be done, just trash emptying, 
dust-moping and vacuuming.  

I made the mistake of paying more attention to my 
Walkman than what I was doing when I arrived 
and set off the alarm system.  I reset it and quickly 
called the alarm company to cancel it before they 
called the police.  Then I went about my business.

About 15 minutes later while dust-moping the 
kitchen floor, I hear a knock at the back door.
I looked over (I was standing about 10 feet away) 
and staring in the window is a black man in his 
early 20s wearing dark clothes.  Up to the window 
is the shining brushed metal finish of a revolver.

"Open the door!" he shouted.  

My mind raced.  There was no where to go.  If I 
was lucky, I could make it behind the heavy iron 
stove before he could shoot, but one kick and he 
could be through the flimsy door, and there was 
no path out of the room with solid cover.

At this point I was really thinking I was done for.  I 
prayed more in that second than most people do 
in a month.  I didn't relish the though of complying 
and putting myself into a hostage situation, but I 
figured he could toast me where I stood, so I 
wouldn't be any worse off opening the door.

I opened the door, and THEN saw his badge!

Well needless to say I nearly collapsed in a 
bundle of nerves at that point.  It seems that a 
neighbor had heard the alarm bell and called it in.  
I don't think it's standard procedure for Hanford 
Police to draw their weapons on unarmed people 
(Oh yeah, I was holding a dust-mop: a deadly 
weapon indeed!), and demand entry to a building 
without identifying themselves as police officers.  
At least I hope it isn't.

Now I have known quite a few people from 
various law enforcement agencies in Kings 
County, and have a lot of respect for them.  The 
two guys who responded to this call however, 
were not the brightest officers on the force.  They 
questioned me for 15 minutes, trying to figure out 
if I really belonged there.  Me, the guy who had a 
full set of keys to the building, knew the procedure 
for calling in a false alarm, including the location 
of the phone number, and was 
*cleaning*the*floor* when they arrived!  Next thing 
you know I'd be out doing drive-by car waxings!  
After questioning, they still didn't believe me.  Of 
course I gave them the pastor's phone number for 
corroboration, but little did I know, he too was on 
vacation that week.  I offered to look up numbers 
from various deacons who could vouch for me, 
but they said that was enough.  

So, with no more information than they had before 
the phone calls, they left, and I cleaned the 
church.

The moral of this story?  I don't really think there 
is one, other than my having no intention of 
putting myself on the business end of anyone's 
firearm.

Never bring a mop to a gunfight.