Loadstar 236/236.d81/t.maurice

Text File | 2004-01-01 | 5.9 KB | 213 lines

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          LIFE AT CLICK HERE
          by Maurice Randall

  Written to the Homestead Maillist


    I know I've upset a lot of people
over the past few years, but I plan to
fix that problem and make things right
for everyone. I plan to start over and
make 2005 a very good year for myself
and anyone else I can help.

    2004 was not a very good year for
me. Perhaps the worst part of the year
occured on November 9. My wife and I
had an awful experience we'll never
forget.

    I was in my shop finishing up
working on a customer's car and was
ready to take it out for a road test.
I walked over to the overhead door and
opened it and was immediately greeted
by two police officers pointing their
guns at me and yelling at me to get my
hands up! I was stunned.

    My first reaction was that they
were chasing someone and maybe someone
was around the corner of my building
that they were after. But no, they
were after me. They must have yelled
'get your hands up' at least 3 or 4
times before it finally sank in. Ok,
so up went my hands. They handcuffed
me and then 5 or 6 more officers came
running around the corner of the
building. They must have had my shop
surrounded.

    I had no idea what was going on.
They proceeded to serve me with a
search warrant to search my building.
I was being accused of robbing the
local bank. This had to be some sort
of a joke. But no, they were dead
serious. Bank robbery... I couldn't
believe it.

    With all the police cars out in
front of my building now, anyone
driving by must have thought I had
just been murdered or something.

    They wanted to search my shop for
the clothes that the robber wore, the
note he presented to the teller, and
the marked bills that were given to
him.

    This was a very stupid escapade.
They thought my shop was also my
residence. That's how poorly their
initial investigation went. So, they
also got a search warrant for my
house. I've discovered just how stupid
police can be, yet they have so much
power to destroy people's lives.

    I've been in my current building
for over 11 years, in my house for
over 10 years, and have never had a
burglary or any vandalism yet. The
town my shop is in is quite safe and
has a lot of decent people living in
it. I trust the community, but no
longer can I trust the local police.

    I'll admit my shop is quite
disorganized, but to have a half-dozen
police officers who don't care about
anything go completely through it, it
became an even bigger mess. Stuff got
rearranged and shuffled around. They
went through stuff in my desks. I've
found 5.25 inch disks misplaced and
stuff laying on top of them. They have
no clue as to what a 5.25 disk is,
obviously.

    They went through customers cars,
shuffling stuff around in their trunks
and gloveboxes. I had to explain to my
customers what happened. Nobody can
believe how stupid the local police
can be.

    They dumped trash cans on the
floor. They opened up boxes and
emptied them. I'll be straightening
out their mess for quite some time to
come.

    It just isn't right.

    This all started when a bank
customer walked into the bank and
noticed the pictures of the robber
hanging on the wall. He thought the
pictures looked like me. This person
didn't even know my name, but
mentioned to the teller that the
pictures looked like me. The teller
notified the detectives and they took
it from there.

    This bank is about 300 yards from
my shop next door to the local
McDonald's. The robbery happened just
before noon. Any day of the week,
there could be several people eating
in McDonald's who would know me. The
detectives are stupid enough to think
I would come running out of the bank
when there's so many people in this
small town who would recognize me.
They must think I'm stupid, but
obviously the police are the stupid
ones here.

    They figured out that it wasn't me
after all, naturally, but what my wife
and I had to go through was absolutely
unbelievable. It will affect us for
many years to come. No longer will I
have any respect for the local police
in this town.

    I've never had a loaded gun
pointed at me, let alone two of them.
Imagine what could have happened if I
had been holding a wrench in my hand.
They could have easily mistaken it for
a gun. They could have easily shot me.

    I'm not looking for any sympathy
from anyone. All I ask is that I be
given a chance to make it up to those
who I have upset. This experience has
made me sit back and think about what
I've worked for over the years and
what I have and how much I should
appreciate what I can still do, and
how many friends I've made over the
years.

    I'm going to finish up the
outstanding JiffyDOS and software
orders sitting here first since they
are the easiest to do. Then I'm going
to get cracking on filling all the old
orders that have been waiting for way
too long. There's some hardware here
waiting to be repaired also. I'll work
on those items one at a time in
between other jobs and get each one
working and shipped back to their
owners.

    If anyone has been paying
attention the past several days,
you've noticed some changes to my web
site. That alone is a big indication
that I'm ready to get to work in a big
way.

    I'll try not to be as quiet as I
have been for the past year or so.

    Thanks for listening, everyone,
and Happy New Year.

-Maurice


[DAVE'S NOTE:] Maurice hand-builds the
CMD hardware he provides. A SuperCPU
takes about a day, a feat he displayed
at the Chicago Expo in 2003. And his
C= work is a secondary business. He
has a [real] job fixing cars.

We at the Tower know how it goes.
Orders come in and wind up (if we are
lucky) in the In Box. And we promise
to take care of them on Monday. So
come Monday, some local need arises
and we are swamped until...

We, too, promise to be more diligent
in taking care of you, loyal and
patient LOADSTARites. Like our Policy
states:

It's easy when you leave the lawyers
out of it. Give us some slack, and we
will make it right.

 DMM