Rookie Cops of Oakland (2009.02.09)

Its 11pm and I'm cleaning my place up while trying to hold down a conversation with Bodhi in my apartment. Bodhi is one of the many people that make 1502 Alice a home and not just a place to live for me, his mind is constantly analyzing himself and trying to figure our the world around him with a fervor that it rarely seen out in the open. We were talking about the possible neuronal associations between MS and epilepsy when my phone rings. At 11pm it can only be handful of people. "Hello this is Damon," I cough into the receiver, since I live where I work my life is constantly business and a name is always a good entry point. To my surprise it not Jessica, Adam, Erika, Tony, Doris, or Luke; my late night callers. Instead I hear, "This is officer Perez." I forget to tell Bodhi whats going on and run out my door and downstairs where there are two Oakland Police Department officers on my front porch. All possible scenarios go through my mind; domestic violence, criminal act by a tenant, or maybe just someone filling a report on a stolen item. None of my guesses hit the mark as per usual when it comes to the law. The officer tells me that they received a call that a woman from unit #26 was having visual hallucinations and not feeling well. First I find it strange that OPD gets sent and not the fire department or an ambulance - someone with some medical training. As we drop down to the basement where #26 and #27 are, I realize that #26 is where Marko lives and the only woman I have living down there is in #27. I ask the officers if they have the right apartment and they confirm that yes #26. I knock on #26 and get no answer. Marko is probably still returning from work. I then knock on #27 and the tenant comes out and she is doing just fine, besides being waked up in the middle of the night by me and two police officers. I run back upstairs get the keys for #26, brief Bodhi on the situation with a panic in my voice from concern that someone might be unconscious from said visual hallucinations. I drop back down to the basement ready to enter, when one of the cops gets this blank look on his face as I can hear a muffled voice coming from his radio, he says, "Oh, uh Oh, we're at the wrong place." The hurry back outside and then spend a couple minutes at their cars trying to figure out where they are suppose to be. I'm glad that no one in my building was in trouble, but hope that who ever needed the help got it in time. Rookie cops of Oakland.