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Court is in session. I’m checking names on the docket and screening folks in as they show up. Casually chatting I said to one guy
“Yep you’re on this sheet here…looks like you have date with destiny,” and he replied - in all naïve seriousness – “No, I’m here
for court.” Then another defendant walks in and I notice she’s wearing fleece Star Wars pajama pants. Which actually kind of
matched her sweatshirt. Surprising? Nope, not at all. You’d be surprised (maybe?) how people dress for their court appearances;
very few bothered to put on “nice” clothes; the vast majority walked in wearing regular street clothes, to include baseball caps.
Lady called 911 to report a suspicious bag. On top of the community mailboxes stand. I called her back. “My husband is in the
military, and we’ve been told that if we see something, we should say something.” Long silence on my end. As I considered
thanking her profusely like “Yes! Yes! Thank God you called because that bag could absolutely most definitely be a bomb!
Planted there by Al Qaeda! They snuck in a terrorist to Western Washington and have targeted your neighborhood mailboxes
in Poulsbo!” – I didn’t say any of that out loud, of course. I went to the mailboxes and found the Suspicious Bag gone. I guess
the Al Qaeda terrorists had changed their minds.
A guy got caught shoplifting from a local store; the security guard called me and I responded to the loss prevention office in the
store where the accused thief was signing the standard civil forfeiture form, acknowledging the state law that allows the store
to assess a hefty penalty fine to the alleged thief. I then gave the guy such a stern talking-to that he started to cry. He deserved
it though. I didn’t feel too bad. Until he wouldn’t stop crying; I actually began to think I had pushed him too far and then I even
started to worry that he was going to get all suicidal on me – he was that distressed. So I had to tone down my lecturing at that
point for him and tell him tomorrow was going to be a much better day.

