You know what’s crazy? I’ll tell you what’s crazy™
working 4 stories at once.
It’s starts at 7:30 am.
I’m not scheduled to come to work for another 6 hours, but already the news is coming to me.
I should be asleep. I’m awake.
I should be drinking coffee dreaming of unicorns and rainbows.
Instead, I’m talking about crimes gone bad.
The deputy on the other end of the line is telling me about his morning.
He’s on a stake out looking for a top dog in the Gangster Disciple gang.
That’s a big deal. The GD’s as they are known are a nationally known group of terror responsible for countless murders and acts of violence.
“He’s killed a bunch of people,” he’ll tell me. “He’s the guy who decides who lives and dies.”
Even though it’s 7:30 am, I know this is a big story. Will it last till 10pm at night? That’s the problem with this shift. My contacts are like this guy. My shift is for night owls and vampires.
I would love to tackle this story, but the real problem?, they don’t have eyes on the guy. They are looking for him. I got a courtesy call. So for now, I just gotta lay low.
Later in the day I will get a tip about a deputy who is lucky to be alive. He is cresting the hill on routine patrol when suddenly a 23-year-old probably high on something crosses the center line and hits the law man practically head on.
A deputy almost killed, a DUI suspect runs from the scene?
That’s good stuff.
I get in the car and I’m on my way to this story when my phone rings.
It’s another cop. “What?”
“We arrested a guy for dragging a dog behind his car.”
“What?”
OMG. 3 crazy stories coming at me like the Millennium Falcon flying through hyper space.
“Pull over,” I scream at the photographer driving.
“Why?” he questions.
‘Because we gotta figure this out,” I say.
We suddenly have a smorgasboard of stories. Some days news is dry like Sarah Silverman’s wit. Today it’s wet like a Sports Illustrated Swim Suit shoot.
I call the cop about the dog dragging.
“Can we get the video?”
“no,” he says.
“Can we get the dog which miraculously survived?”
“I don’t know,” he says.
“How about a mug shot of the perp?”
“Not sure.”
It starts to sound as uncertain as Woody Allen – teen chaperone.
“OK, I’ll get back to you,” I say hanging up.
“What you want to do?” the kid asks me.
“Continue on. Let’s get the deputy smashed story.”
“Why?” he asks pulling onto the highway.
“Because at least we got the squad car, the PIO will talk, I got a mug shot of the drunk driver and a picture of the hurt deputy. And I bet we can get the deputy to talk. Maybe a phoner.”
We start settling in, letting that highway grade blur through the tires, mix with the radio, that lulls you into a trance.
I’m relaxed, at ease, then Ringgggg.
I get a call about a gun in a high school in Franklin.
“You’re like a news magnet,” the photog says laughing.
I turns out a kid hears a rumor about a gun in school. He ends up thinking it’s BS, but he texts his buds anyway. Somehow a teacher sees the text, the SRO is notified and what do you know, they find a gun in the school.
OMG?
I send this breaking info to the newsroom.
I continue on, talking to the injured deputy by phone. He is home recovering. He tells me that he is lucky to be alive and he only had moments to react. He has a hurt hip and a sprained wrist.
I go to the wrecker yard. I see his squad car and it is twisted like cooked spaghetti. The metal has dings and holes like swiss cheese.
Metal is bent, tires are flat, glass is shattered.
It’s amazing anyone survived.
The 23 year old’s car is right next to the deputy cruiser. It’s even more demolished.
I will come to learn that she hit the deputy, almost head on. Instead of stopping, she floored it through a fence in a church parking lot. Then she got out and ran away.
She was later captured, but man oh man.
How stupid do you gotta be?
The deputy is a husband and father of 3 teens.
Normally he works at the school as an SRO. But kids are on vacation this week so he was working the roads this morning.
Tough start.
Lucky stars he tells me.
Just then my phone rings again.
It’s my stake out deputy.
“We got him,” he yells. “He’s the leader of the Gangster Disciples and we charged him with 1st degree murder. He’s probably wanted for a bunch of other murders in Nashville and Clarksville.”
Wow.
Too much.
It’s over load.
I need an extra reporter to hand these extra breaking news stories to.
I hang up and send the newsroom the information on the Gangster Disciple arrest.
“They don’t even know what to do with all this news.” My photographer laughs. “Man you’ve been off a week. And the news gods are smiling upon you.”
He’s right. Sometimes that is the way it works.
Some days it is empty like a banker’s heart.
Then there are days when 4 stories come at you like flaming bowling balls. Sometimes news is a cold swim against the current in a river filled with angry jelly fish.
Today it is a surf board hanging ten on a perfect break of news options and energy.
Life’s Crazy™