Casing the Joint

So I drop THEBOY off this morning. His "summer camp" is in a public school in a bad neighborhood.

As I'm leaving this guy in grey sweats across the street catches my attention. His nonverbal communication is the first thing: He's looking around, seeing who's watching him. He doesn't notice me, oddly.

He goes up to this gate on the side of the house and tugs on the latch. It doesn't budge. He looks through the fence and then walks up the street a bit. I follow him in the van. I park across the street at some crappy apartments and watch as he goes between two houses and disappears.

Now, there's an alley back there, and in fact, there's plenty of activity in general, as someone appears to be moving in or out of one of the houses. Maybe he's with them, I think.

He re-emerges and walks back, this time going between two different houses and disappearing again. I move to a different parking lot.

Finally he appears again, and goes back to the house where he tugged on the latch. Before I can catch up to him he's gone, just totally out of sight.

I call 911.

That guy was up to something, man. So my day hit its excitement peak before 8:30am.

***

Happy Friday.