Usually I stumble in to work at 7 A.M.,bleary-eyed and a little stunned. Then, the usual routines: disarm alarm, bring in paper, check heating systems, etc. There are days,however, when you have a bit of a surprise,usually not a good surprise, that takes over your day. For instance, the day that I arrived to find plywood covering the front window, glass all over the floor and a shopping cart inside. Apparently someone had thrown a shopping cart through the front window.
Today when I got there, there was a note for me to call the police because we had been graffittied. The story on the news was that the caretaker on duty last night at College Park school heard kids outside, called the police and caught one of them in the act of painting graffitti on the wall. He caught the little twerp(Did I say'Twerp' ?I meant to say 'Perp') and held him until the police came. They checked other schools in the area and found the same tags on our school and Greystone. The fact that they caught this guy(He's 14, I'm sure he'll rat on his friends too) brings immense satisfaction to me. It's pretty much the same kids every time. You can tell by their writing. The painter that goes around and paints over the tags in the Cathoilic school system was pleased to hear they'd been caught. He gets very very frustrated with these kids."If I ever caught them, there'd be nothing left" he's said.
Anyway, here's to a fellow caretaker, the one who caught that guy. You're my hero!
