Stakeout at High Noon - Cops, Guns, & Excitement at the Office

We'd a ton of excitement at work yesterday here in Santa Clara. Events on Friday afternoon provided a dramatic change from the usual day in the office.

During our weekly all company meeting from 2p, in the midst of a presentation, some of us saw Santa Clara police cars coming in to our parking lot. We could see them from the conference room windows. Cops got out and ran quickly across the lot to take up positions around the building next to ours. 5-O in our backyard!

One police car backed up just by our window. The cop got out, put on a bulletproof vest from the trunk, took out a gun, kept it at the ready, and took up a position behind the car. He was facing the next building, and we realized we were right behind him! There was only a glass window between the cop car and us.

Another police vehicle showed on the wrong side of our road, and stopped right by our office. Someone in what looked like a SWAT uniform got out and ran to the first cop, and took position similarly. There were other cop cars around the building.

In the conference room, we'd forgotten all about our meeting. Some of my colleagues hid behind chairs and furniture expecting a bullet in the cop's direction to crash through the window. Some kept up 'expert commentary' on how the sequence would unfold. Was it the bank in the the next block? Was there a holdup? Were there hostages?

I wondered if it was someone that went postal cos of a layoff at one of the companies next door, and was shooting up colleagues. We imagined scenarios of a lone gunman in our corridors - everything we'd heard or read about for such situations. Some of us called up friends, and tuned into radio stations to find out what was going on. This was a lot of excitement for this neighborhood, unlike some place like Oakland.

The cops gestured incoming cars to park a distance away, and people to get in our building. A bunch of bewildered people ran in from outside. Cars on the road slowed down to see what was going on. We expected gunshots to ring out at any moment - it all felt so possible. Hey, there was a cop with his gun cocked and ready - five feet away!

The vigil continued, until police gestured from a distance and some wireless conversations happened. Then it was all over. The cop cars all left the premises immediately. We had no idea what had happened in the last thirty minutes, but it had put our entire workplace in a tizzy. People had been crouched on the floor! What presentation, and what company meeting?!

We recovered in about an hour, and got back to normal proceedings. At the office bowling outing afterward, it was the topic. Everyone that heard it - bartenders, drinkers, anyone - was agog.

As a coworker said, good for hours of storytelling for days afterward!