Neighborhood VIPs

In my neighborhood we have something called VIPs- Volunteers on Patrols. It's neighbors who have gone thru some training with the Dallas PD that slap some sticker on their car occasionally and drive around the 'hood looking for suspicious behavior. The premise is a good idea, however, given a small amount of "power" some of these VIPs can become quite overbearing.

Yesterday I was standing outside talking to a neighbor while he took a break from mowing his lawn. We saw our across-the-street-neighbor drive by with his 16-year-old son in his car. His son has his driver's permit and was practicing driving.

Shortly after they passed us and gave us a wave, another car drove up quickly, rolled down his window and yelled out, "Do you know the driver of that car?"

"Yes..."

He told us he had just called 911. "Why?" we asked. "Because a CHILD is driving that car! And they're just CIRCLING the neighborhood!"

When we esplained to mr. VIP altho yes, he was a child, he WAS with his parent, and he DID have a permit, it was clear he doubted us. The conversation quickly turned ugly as my lawnmowing neighbor made some comment like, "I think you just need to go on about your day, sir"-

It was really so gross to see this slobbish guy driving around just looking for "trouble." And thinking he had found it in a 16-year-old boy practicing his driving in his neighborhood in the middle of the day with his dad. I'm pretty sure 911 has bigger fish to fry.

Based on the way mr. VIP reacted when we told him it was a neighbor that we knew, and that it wasn't anything suspicious, he didn't seem to want to drop it. It seemed more about being in a power position than wanting to make our quiet, safe neighborhood even safer.

I called my neighbor to alert him that he and his son had the fuzz on their tail. We all had a good laugh over our neighborhood VIP. Sorry 911. Hope you had a slow day.