Wednesday, February 20, 2013
The Night of the Living Jaws
Two posts in one day, wow I must be bored.
Due to my job as a security officer, I'm not allowed to talk about my job very much. However, every now and then I have a good story. This one I call "The scariest night at the studio" or "The night of the living Jaws."
Since I started working here over a year and a half ago, I have worked every Friday night from 5 pm to 4 am. One afternoon last year, I show up to work like normal at 5 pm. The guard in the booth asked me if I had seen the police bulletin, which I had not. He shows me an official document from the police department. They're searching for a man that is 6' 8" tall, mid 30s, schizophrenic, off his medication, looking for guns, and I quote "intending to kill someone." To add to this lovely mental image, the bulletin had his mug shot and he literally looked like Jaws from the old James Bond movies.
I'm not very heavy, in fact I'm pretty light weight, but I do have a height advantage. Because of my height, I'm fairly confident in my ability to defend myself. Things don't typically scare me. Schizophrenic off medication... a little scary. Schizophrenic that's off medication and bigger than me... pretty scary. Oh yes, forgot to mention, he was reportedly hiding out in the woods on the studio property. Scared? Heck yes! I had to spend 11 hours at night by myself on the property making regular checks through the forest area. I'm pretty sure I didn't even blink that whole night out of fear that he would jump me. While making my rounds I would imagine(?) seeing him at the end of a dirt road or imagine him jumping out from behind a tree to attack me on my little electric cart. Fortunately, I made it through the night alive. The next guard came on duty at 4 am. I told him about the bulletin and the night's events. He just thought that I was joking. After changing out of my uniform I noticed that he had already left to do his hourly rounds. Completely relaxed I headed out to my pickup to go home. I opened the door. Suddenly there was a loud "thud" on the outside of my open door. My thoughts: something fell out of the tree and the wind pushed it horizontally into my door (no wind)... well maybe the other guard is playing a trick... why take the chance?... get in, get in, close the door! I quickly turned on the headlights and saw nothing but the grass and trees. I quickly left for home to attempt sleeping.
I returned that evening for my next shift. The guards told me that a couple hours after I left, a few police cars showed up full of officers to do a manhunt. It took them about two hours to find him sitting on the side of the Provo River (the studio's property line).
It has been proven that he was on our property throughout the night. The guard wasn't playing a trick on me, so did Jaws throw something at my door to get my attention or was it something else?
Anyways, that's probably the most eventful thing that has happened to me as a guard. Fun stuff.
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