End of January 2022

4 years in Bandon.   Police encounters

In the 20 years I lived in the SF bay area and raised my kids, I had multiple encounters with the police down there.   In most of them it was to receive a traffic citation, and in most of them the policeman would talk down to me as if I was wasting his time, hand me the ticket and walk away.     On rare occasions I would encounter a policeman who was polite to me and treated me like a person.

On one or two other occasions,  it would be because there was a disturbance on our street.    Even then police at most don't really get out of their car to talk to you.   You might get them to crack open their window and ask you  some questions.    Rightly or wrongly, they keep their distance from you.

Bandon encounters have been mostly non traffic related, and mostly I think because I am a single guy living alone, or walking alone.    Like most things with guys, if you are with a woman or a dog or a baby, you are seen differently.    Walking alone makes you more suspect.    It is what it is.

I should also say that in every one of these encounters, the Bandon police officer was always polite and helpful.     After living in the SF bay area, this is awesome.

1. Even before I moved in, I had bought the house and had parked in the driveway to walk around the property and see what needed to be done in regards to fencing, etc.   A police car drives up and stops.  "What are you doing here?",  asked in a pleasant way.   "Well I just bought this house and I am trying to decide what to do with it" "Ok.   well you should be glad that you have neighbors that care what goes on on their street".    No hassle.   The guy was nice about it. 

2.     During covid, one of my self imposed projects was to walk 7 miles a day for a year.   A challenge to pull of in Bandon, but I managed to come up with an odd assortment of circle routes.     Inevitably I would cover a lot of the less travelled roads in Bandon, roads that do not usually see pedestrian traffic.   One day a police officer knocks on my door and tells me that I am being accused of stalking because I was seen walking by someone's house multiple times on a fairly remote road way out behind Ray's.      Another time I had a guy come out with his hand inside his jacket as if holding a gun and asked my why I was on his road, and he called the police on me.   I was just out walking.

3.  When I first moved in I had a woman neighbor drive up and tell me that I would probably get a lot of her mail by mistake and can I just put the mail in her mailbox.   Sure.  No problem.    So whenever I got some mail that did not have my name on it I would walk over and drop it in her mailbox.      One day I some home and find a business card stuck in my front door from the chief of police.    I ask around and I am told that if the chief of police puts their card in your door you call them, so I call.   Turns out someone else in that woman's house had seen me walking up to their house too many times and thought I was stalking them.   Again, something to laugh about but life in Bandon.

4.   One time I am walking back from downtown towards home and I have to stop at McKays, the Post office, Coastal Harvest, all before getting home and I have two cups of coffee inside of me and I am a guy.    Best to find a bush somewhere off the road.    Well the quickest one to find was right by the  police station.   You can guess what happened.     I am in the middle of the process and I hear a giant "WHOOP WHOOP".    I look behind me and there is a guy in a police car about 15 feet behind me and I am caught with my zipper down.    Shoot.     He got me.    I hold up both my arms and say "You got me!" and he says "Pull your zipper up please".  Oops.    He asked me if I was from out of town and I said no, I live here, and he shakes his head at me and let's me go.