A Hiker in Gangland?

Welp… if you have been following my comments feed or my Flickr feed, you may have picked up that there have been a couple more incidents involving guns.

On Monday night (the night after the window shot we slept through), they fired a bird shot at the same bedroom at around 3:47 AM. This time we DID get up. The shot damaged siding but did not make it through into the house. The police were promptly on the scene.

Tuesday night, there were no incidents… but then Wednesday morning when I went to pack up my car, I noticed a peculiarity:

Huh. That bullet hole wasn’t there before….

This shot definitely did not occur Tuesday night. Because I don’t go to the back of my car often, it could have been there for days without drawing attention. Unlike the house shootings, this shot used a shotgun slug and it got quite a bit more penetration than those little bird shots. It went through the entire back door, bisected a Swifter Wet Jet, and then went through the back seat of my car.

The “Exit Wound” for my XTerra door.

The damaged Swifter Wet Jet and the hole going into the backseat

When the police came to check out my car, I opened the trunk and immediately the office asked, “Whose blue bandanna is that?!?”

“It’s mine,” I said, “I use it for hiking.”

“Well,” he said, “That’s a Crips bandanna and that we mostly have Bloods around here. You shouldn’t leave that lying around!”

Yup. That was definitely not something I ever had to consider in Southwest Virginia!

Vicky unknowingly supports the Crips

I don’t think the bandanna is the most promising explanation– it was pretty difficult to see. Nonetheless, I still promptly buried the bandanna at the very bottom of my closet where no one will ever see it, including myself! 🙂 I like green better anyways.

For those who are concerned, do know:

1) It still appears that intimidation is the motive, not harm.
2) We are optimistic the mystery will be solved shortly.
3) Security cameras are getting installed in the house this coming week.
4) The neighbors have been outraged by the incidents. They are very supportive and are keeping their eyes peeled.
5) Ryan reports an formidable police presence on the street now.

If you still wish to worry about me, you can put it on hold for about 10 days. Tomorrow morning, I leave for another trip. Thanks to a very generous relative, I’ll be on a private yacht touring the British Virgin Islands. Throughout the trip, the boat will be moving from island to island.

It’ll be a much harder target than a parked X-Terra.