Playing the what-if game

I was surprised when my wife pulled into the driveway. She was supposed to go to her gym, right after work, but when she checked the class schedule, she saw that the gym was closing. I was going to go for a walk, but I thought better of it too.

Why the changes in our plans? 

We live in Southeastern Pennsylvania and a convicted murderer who escaped prison was loose for the past two weeks and there had been sightings of him as close as twenty miles away from us. Fortunately, Pennsylvania State Police announced Wednesday morning that they had captured Danilo Cavalcante ending a manhunt that drew hundreds of law enforcement officials to the area.

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Escaping notice

The inmate, who was convicted last month of first-degree murder for killing his former girlfriend and sentenced to life in prison, escaped from Chester County Prison, west of Philadelphia on August 31. 

He managed to evade authorities for 13 days, hunkering down in wooded areas, moving at night, and surviving off stream water and whatever he could find, authorities said. During that time, he slipped through search perimeters, broke into homes, stole a dairy van, and changed his appearance.

I had to admit that when I saw the news of his capture, I let out a little sigh of relief. 

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Taking precautions

When he was loose for the past two weeks, it was kind of a strange feeling. We went about our normal lives, we really didn’t change much, but things were still off. I found that I checked twice to make sure that we had locked our cars each evening. When I had lunch on Tuesday, I naturally dead-bolted our front door before going into my office. Yes, we have our attack dog, all 20 pounds of her, securing the premises and patrolling the perimeter of our house, but I know not to count on her doing much to help in the event of an emergency.

The crisis manager in me — I found myself playing the what-if game. What if in the middle of a video conference call, I looked out the window and saw someone suspicious-looking traipsing in the woods? What if we saw him in the back woods in the evening, what would we say to 9-1-1 and where would we run? Where might we hide? 

Oh, he was found, but it’s odd when things like this happen close to home. I’m happy that it ended without incident. I’m still caught off guard by the absurdity of it all: a days long manhunt in my little neck of the woods. Oh, I’m definitely ready for a quiet weekend.

I’m done playing FBI agent/US Marshal!