You threatening me?

My second week of training has come and gone. This time, my Officer in Training was evaluated every day on his performance. He is learning quickly but will need to spend some time improving his 'officer presence.' It's not easy to issue commands to strangers (especially when you're 21 and the big, mean 45 year old responds with "What for!!??") I'll be working on boosting his confidence and assertiveness this week.

One of the calls we received was from a frantic woman. She came home to find a threatening message and was fearful for her safety. She directed us to a piece of palm tree bark lying on the ground of her front yard. How would you react if you found this terrifying omen in your yard:

She then explained a tree in her backyard fell down taking a power line with it. There was no damage to anyone else's property but she was convinced the neighbors were upset about the utility company fixing the power lines in her yard. She was certain the coming and going of utility vans were threatening her very existence.

I did my best to assure her people are not typically killed for having electrical workers in their own backyard. I pointed out most assassins are decent spellers and prefer to use more conventional media types than palm trees.