Family Tradition, And How We Accidentally Got Our Neighbors Deported

Jeff's mom used to have a police scanner. She would hunch over next to it and listen to the wild and crazy*  happenings in little Fruita, Colorado. *If there was a sarcasm font, I would use it here.* When something 'exciting' would happen, she would get in her car and drive to the scene to get a closer look. We always wondered why she would do this. Aside from the obvious bottle-necking, she had no driver's license or insurance and some illegal habits. Why would you put yourself closer to the very cops who could arrest you? That's one I never figured out. When Jeff and I got married, he got himself his very own police scanner. When we weren't sitting around in our camp chairs watching our hotel-hand-me-down TV which had to be turned off every 10 minutes to cool down, we would listen to the scanner. When we were first married, we found a nice-sized and affordable condo to live in. It happened to be affordable because it was in the bad part of town. Now, I will say that the bad part of town in Grand Junction is probably more like Mr. Rodgers Neighborhood when compared to parts of Philly. But alas, it was the ghetto to us. One night we woke to the sounds of an all-out screaming match a few houses down. It was a domestic dispute and sounded quite ugly. Jeff called the cops and then turned on the scanner. We listened both out the window and on the scanner as the cops showed up. (This makes us sound like total rednecks, doesn't it?) The police knocked, and no one answered. Um, duh. You are the only one with lights on at 3am. They know it's you! The police knocked and knocked and finally someone answered. In the meantime, they ran the plates on the truck parked outside. Next thing you know, we head 'Call in the INS van.' Oops. Turns out they were illegal and they got taken away in the van. Can't say I've ever witnessed that  before or since. When we moved here, the police scanner no longer worked. Something about going digital. Fast forward to last week. Jeff got an iphone from work, and guess what it has on it?! That's right, a police scanner. Now we can listen to various police departments along the east coast. Something tells me that 12 years and 3 kids later, we won't be spending much time listening, but its kind of funny that we have it. Maybe we'll have to bust out the camp chairs and reminisce about old times while listening to the scanner, and pass on the tradition to the kids.