Of Guns and Men

Recently, the husband of a customer went after our foreman with a loaded gun.

It would be amusing if this were some kind of soap opera and he believed his wife had been fooling around and assumed the good looking Argentinian who parked his painter’s truck in the drive was the villain.

But it was no such thing. My boss had come back from meeting the interior decorator and told me to tell the foreman to go pick up a cupboard door to make a paint sample. I thought it a bit strange, but assumed my boss and the designer had made arrangements. I told the foreman to check the details with the boss, but that man is sometimes difficult to talk to.

The foreman assumed it was a house under construction and was surprised to find himself in a neighborhood. He called to confirm the address. At the time I was watching torrential rain send water over the curb to within 6" inches of the building I was in. I was wondering how I would know if our carpet was flooded.

He pulled into the drive to wait out the storm.

The people inside weren’t expecting him, and started imagining the worst. When the rain finally stopped, the man of the house went out with the gun and aimed it through the window at the foreman’s head.

The foreman called asking for the number of security. I gave him the one for the development home owners, rather than the county sheriff. I figured they really needed to know about his man.

According to my boss, who got called over, the security person had to treat the residents as the aggrieved party, but he felt she really thought it was all way over the top. As he said later, what kind of thief is the one who calls the police?

I suspect it was a case of an isolated man in his 50's who listens too much to scare media because he believes it’s a dangerous world, but doesn’t know the threats. Illegal immigrants are everywhere the bogeyman.

He and his wife recently moved from the city of Santa Fe to one of the exurban developments that advertise one acre rural estates. Like many such places, it’s been hard hit by the real estate crisis. Many houses are vacant, many more are for sale. Problems with break-ins at night are common. They, no doubt, got their house at a good price.

I recently talked to another resident there who had just spent the morning out with her dog looking around the owl nests for a missing puppy. When she got back, the seriously traumatized puppy was home.

We continued to talk about the dangers of living on the edge of wilderness here in the southwest where no one lets a small animal out unsupervised. Hawks are the worst problem.

She said she never goes out without a large stick. She said one time a pack of coyotes came at her and her dog. She was lucky to find a broken juniper limb which she swished at them until they left.

More recently I talked with another customer who lives in a slightly less isolated exurban area and installs electronics. He’s been experimenting with surveillance cameras. He put one in his yard to see which neighbor’s dog was messing with his trash.

The first time he caught a coyote. The second time he filmed a fox in his yard. The last time a bear was tearing into the garbage.

And this man’s worried about someone who parks a truck in the drive in daylight.

I live in rural strip development where my property abuts unsettled reservation land. I hear coyotes at night and once came upon a rattle snake in my neighbor’s yard. My neighbor’s dogs bark all night at wandering threats.

When I see someone suspicious I watch and try to remember the vehicle description. If I ever felt threatened I’d call a neighbor or 911. If I felt even more threatened I would try to find a way out of the house and onto the reservation behind the wood fence where I could walk away unseen. Or maybe I’d just try to get into the car, lock the doors, and lay on the horn.

These are things you do consider when you live in these kinds of places

I do know, even if I had gun, I certainly wouldn’t go out to confront a stranger with it.

And, I would never, ever go out at night to see what was disturbing the dogs. It’s been a dry year and food must be scarce.

This man has a lot to learn about real life.