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Nancy V.

Owner of White Book (PR & Marketing); Project Manager/Diversity & Events Specialist

Hmm…about me, well, I am always and never the same, which makes for my own interesting world where I constantly recruit individuals to join my planet. Take myself very seriously, but prefer not to, so I dress in outfits that often do not match and say things that I shouldn’t under the guise of �...

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Why the big gun?

Nancy Vaughn

OK, here’s what I know...around noon, I was driving down this very busy road in Tampa, singing to Mary J. Blige, and enjoying my day. I’m approaching the four-way stop, when all of a sudden, a cop car in the opposite lane turns on its sirens. The police car comes across the traffic on my side of the road, and cuts across the car in front of me who slams its breaks – causing me to stop singing and slam my breaks. The police car drives into the median on the right hand side, and turns off its sirens.

I’m looking around, trying to figure out what’s going on. As he turns off his sirens, I get to thinking, “That’s a horrible abuse of authority, he just wants to get to the other side of the road?” Now mind you, I’m processing this very slowly, but all of this is happening very quickly.

The police officer who has u-turned from the opposite lane into the grassy ditch on my right-hand side, hops out of his car and goes to his trunk. I’m at a red light now at the four way stop, and everyone who is in his/her car, EVERYONE, is breaking his/her neck to see what’s going on now.

The police officer proceeds to pull out this large, silver and black-rimmed case. It’s flat like a briefcase, but bigger and looks like the ones they carry in movies – the ones they open that either have guns or money inside. He opens the case and out comes the largest gun I’ve ever seen in real life. At this point, I’m looking at EVERYTHING around me because all I can think is, “Someone has royally #@*^!* up. That gun is way too big to be brought out in broad daylight.”

He puts together the grenade-launching, sniper M-17-650 (I have no idea what it was, but it was deadly), and gets into a stance behind the trunk of his car. So I widen my scope of vision to take everything in and see the bank at the corner.

The police officer’s gun is pointed toward the bank. Then I notice the other cop car on the side of the bank, and the officer moving quickly to get into a similar stance...smaller gun. And then the cop toward the front side of the bank, also with a small gun drawn.

Near this cop, was a gentleman (innocent bystander) who had just realized that he was in a “situation” and he hopped into his white van, and just wanted to get out of there.

I was FREAKED! I called my husband and rambled out everything I saw in less than 10 seconds. I’ve never seen anything like that in real life before, and it is NOT COOL. I actually crouched down in my car a little. Cop cars, guns pointing toward a bank, plus one sniper-looking piece of a equipment...in the middle of the day?! All that is NOT COOL.

My light turned green and I was happy to get out of there. Screeeeech! I knew the cops weren’t coming after me, they were...occupied.

My mind was racing, and all I could think about was the current state of our economy. Was someone desperate enough to rob a bank? It’s hot in Florida. Stupid hot. And I think that can sometimes encourage stupid behavior. Based on what I saw, if it was a bank robbery, the robbers weren’t looking like they were going to make a grand escape.

If you’ve been following my blog, you know I often focus on shopping, spending and saving money. Robbing a bank has never crossed my mind during these difficult times, but circumstances can be different for every person. In all of my efforts to acquire and save cash, I am grateful that bank robbery is not one of my options.

Not that my decision was solely solidified based on my strange “cops with guns around a bank experience,” but that big *ss gun helped.