Monday, April 30, 2007

Fashion emergency

What could have caused all the police activity in downtown McMinnville OR last week? It began with a gentleman observing a man wearing nothing except a pair of women's shoes, seated on a bench at a nearly vacant medical building. Instead of using a cellphone, he walked across the street to the county court house and reported his sighting, which led to the officers there to call 911.
It seems that this was quite an event for a town of approximately 30,000, 30 miles from Portland in the northwest corner of the state. Not only did two McMinnville police units respond but they had assitance from the Oregon State Police and County Sheriffs deputies. The building was surrounded, locked down and searched thoroughly by two teams of officers. Officers were however, unable to find the man,

"He was last seen fleeing the scene wearing black women's high heels, running down the hallway of the building," according to Capt Rob Edgel of the McMinnville Police Department.

McMinnville may sound vaguely familiar to some people, quite possibly from the publicity it garnered in the 1950's or it's continued place in a decades old debate. In June 1950, the city newspaper published photographs by nearby residents Mr. and Mrs. Trent of a "flying saucer", which were quickly published nationally in Life magazine. As well as the continued debate of whether the pictures are a great hoax or are they real, McMinnville annually hosts the second largest UFO festival, smaller only to the one held in Roswell NM.
All this led me to wonder.............. what was such an emergency to have required not only a call to 911 but all those officers attempting to capture this man? The city hosts a UFO festival and must have plenty of "odd looking people" wandering it's streets in the off festival times. The man seated there wasn't observed with a weapon, either openly or hidden on his person. Lastly, from what I remember, black goes with almost all fashion choices and since it is not past Memorial Day, his not wearing white high heels shouldn't be that much of an issue. I will make a note though, if I plan on visiting that fine city to check which shoes I plan on wearing there while I'm packing.

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