Monday, April 28, 2014

on the wrong side of the police tape

Came rushing through a large airport with a friend. Suddenly found ourself surrounded by stressed-looking police who were putting up police tape in a hurry and commanding people to get out of the area immediately.

My first thought was, "Shit. There's a bomb here and I'm probably standing right next to it."

Was quickly shooed out to the other side of the tape. When the area was cleared, the police left it too. One lonely policeman, with no protective equipment, pulled on latex gloves and walked back in, right to a small bag that had been left unattended next to a bench. He opened it carefully and started to go through it.

And there we stood, not more than 20 metres away, staring in morbid fascination. Also felt that we really, really would like to put a bit more distance between us and a bomb, preferrably something like ten miles. But we were at the check-in desks and really needed to check in so as not to miss our flight - and then the way to our gate was of course on the other side, so we had to circle the entire perimeter of the police tape to find it.

It took forever and ever,  walking next to a bomb.

( In the end, there was no bomb. But that feeling. )

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