My day off is always uneventful.

[froglet]

This story is worse: video clip from fox news.

Someone even takes a cellphone picture, but doesn't use said cell to call 911.

[smileyeagle1021]

Psychologically this is called the bystander effect. Someone else will call, so i don't have to. The more people around in the area who don't call the more likely it will be the next person along will not either. Yay for pack/crowd mentality.

In laymen terms we call this being lazy

yeah, didn't a study several years back say that they could actually graph the probability of what percentage of people would call emergency services?

I think the most famous example is the apartment complex in new york where there was over 100 witnesses to a murder and not a single person called the police because they all assumed someone else was calling and didn't want to overwhelm the dispatchers...
remind me not to get killed in new york.

[One-Fang]

A Molotov cocktail they decided not to throw at the house after all and set down nicely on the hood?

We set fire to a BBQ once. The wooden part of it. We had two people at this party call emergency, plus the fireguys told us the neighbours had called too. Obviously we don't suffer from the same inflictions in that neighbourhood.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Setting a car on fire by setting a bottle of something on the hood and lighting it? That seems a bit odd way to set something on fire.

But then again, my former next-door neighbors had their boat torched by some punks who tossed a bunch of paper inside (don't ask me where they got it from) and lit it ablaze.

I tell you, I hardly slept for about a week after that. And the neighbors left the burnt-out hulk in front of their house for a few days to stink up the neighborhood.

[RetailWorkhorse]

Wow, EQ. I'm.....uh.....slightly horrified. Glad I don't live where you do.

[Crazeyal]

Yeah well, the average person also suffers from "someone else" syndrome. They all figure there are FAR less lazy people than them out there...

[Evil Queen]

They can't be that lazy, can they? I mean, the fire was less then 10 feet from the apartment building!

[Chanlin]

Psychologically this is called the bystander effect. Someone else will call, so i don't have to. The more people around in the area who don't call the more likely it will be the next person along will not either. Yay for pack/crowd mentality.

In laymen terms we call this being lazy

[Evil Queen]

Until this past day off (night before last).

I got off work at 11PM and met BF at home. Since I hadn't eaten all day, I decided I wanted to go out. We both went out to Denny's, where we got a new waiter who did a very good job and tried his best (For a newbie, he was great!) but the fun didn't really begin until we were less then a block from our townhouse.

I was driving while BF was in the passenger seat watching the city go by when something bright and shiny caught my eye. Not the "Ooo, pretty!" kinda shiny but the "Something's not right" kinda shiny. When we got closer we quickly learned what it was; a bottle set aflame on the hood of someone's car. We pulled off at the drive next to it (I had slowed to nearly a stop since it was only 2am, no one was around) and called Emergency. Who knew Houston used a switchboard? So both BF and I are on the line with Emergency; he's talking to the police and I'm talking to the Fire Department. When we got off the phones (Thank Heaven and Hell for cell phones) he went in search of the owner of the vehicle; banging on doors and trying to talk to the locals in the apartment buildings. I waved down a cop, who blocked off the road and just stood there to watch. Now the flames have engulfed the entire hood.

It had maybe been 10 minutes at this point, but it felt like an eternity. Someone with Volunteer Fire stopped by and kept us company and helped BF search for fire extinguishers. I didn't find any, but the two of them found three, which helped control the fire a bit until the Fire Department showed up. They did their thing and the cop left. No questions or anything. Odd, I thought, but who cares right now?

BF and I hung around to see if the Chief (whom BF called Poindexter because he carried a clipboard and inspected the damage) wanted to take statements since the cop didn't. I told Poindexter that it had looked like there was a bottle when we first came onto the scene, but BF was unsure since he didn't see it himself. Sure enough, there was a bottle of somesort melted to the vehicle. Poindexter asked if we would hang around until the Arson Guy showed up. Since yesterday was my day off, we said sure. Arson Guy shows up, and talks to a bunch of people. By this time, we've found the owner of the vehicle and he's talking to her and her family. Too bad, too, since it was a nice looking little car. (Manderine Orange coloured Neon, maybe a year or two old) Arson Guy asks what we'd seen, if we had seen anyone walking around in the area (he assumed we had been walking too; BF quickly corrected him) and said after pointing out where I had seen the bottle, we were told we could go home.
BF and I gave our info (both cells and address, including work info) to Poindexter and I told him that since he and his guys where on the scene a lot faster then I had expected, I would bring them cookies. He told me the addy for their station and said to make sure Shift A got the cookies and we went home.

It wasn't too late; nearly 4am when BF and I finally got home, showered and crawled into bed. The worst thing was... there was a pile of people there, we helped them move their vehicles and it turns out BF and I were the only people to call Emergency. What's up with that?!




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