Another laugh or cry experience, The Magistrate’s Blog, otherwise known as The Law West of Ealing Broadway, gives an amazing perspective on human life, as seen through the eyes of one branch of the Law. It is one of those sites I find myself dipping into on a very irregular basis, but then spending ages reading all the posts, heading back in time until either i) I feel I really ought to do some work, ii) the phone rings, iii) my eyes start to glaze over from staring at the screen too much or iv) as happened today, all the above occur simultaneously.
By strange coincidence I witnessed crime just South of Ealing Broadway on a visit to Kew Retail Park at lunchtime today. As I was walking along a security guard was evicting a young bloke (yoof?) from Boots. The first thing that struck me was just how calm and serene the whole event was. In fact I don’t think there was any physical contact, and hardly a word spoken. The guard then reached over and undid the bloke’s tracksuit top, at which point all the bootie fell out. Carrying on the surreal nature of this experience, the offender walked calmly off across the car park, as if he had done his shopping and was heading back home for a nice cup of tea. The security guard was left to clear up the reclaimed goods, which amounted to nothing more than a pile of tooth brushes, albeit about 30 of them.
After that, all that was left to remind me of the incident were the bisbelieving faces of the onlookers, myself included. Did that really happen?