When I first rolled in there was not only one cop sitting within eyesight of the parking lot, but two. Apparently where I am is on the boarder of two cities so both city cops park nearby and patrol the area. Now, this could be a good thing or a bad thing, right? Should I feel protected? Or is there a ‘reason’ they are here? Later in the afternoon an EMT truck even parked in the parking lot near my truck. I walked over and introduced myself to both of the cops and the EMT guys and let them know that I will be sleeping in the box truck. I asked if they thought I would have any problems. They were all fairly confident that I would be ok, and none expressed concern or issues over me being here as long as I had permission from the gym, which I did of course.

At 1:30am I received a text from one of the guys that helped me fix up the truck. He needed to borrow some money to help his brother, who ran out of gas, or something or other. I agreed to meet him at a grocery store nearby; I had to pee anyway. I was a little freaked out by the crowd in the grocery store parking lot. There were several people purchasing alcohol in the store and it appeared they were consuming it in the parking lot despite how ‘not permitted’ that is and also despite a cop substation being in the same parking lot. Ya, I must say, I was a little nervous about the location I was now in. The low flying planes, being near the airport and the cars whizzing by all night being by a busy road also made me a little uncomfortable. However, I slept like a rock the rest of the night and have nearly every night since.

The only real negative disruption I have had in the middle of the night so far was actually a cop who pushed on my truck to rock it at 3:30am. He announced himself as the police and was shining a giant flashlight in my one and only window. I got up, asked him if I could help him. He question me in a total rude manner as to why I was here, sleeping in a truck, etc. He asked for my ID and rather than say “Have I done anything wrong?” and refuse to give it to him, since people sometimes end up getting tazed and die that way, I handed it to him cooperatively. After a few more rude questions that I really didn’t need to nor should have answered, he walked away. No, ‘good night’, no, ‘be safe/careful’, no, ‘you’re lucky I don’t arrest you for SOMETHING…’, nothing. I have since met two other cops that hang out in this parking lot and other than that one dude, they have all been extremely nice.  The only other disruption I’ve had in the middle of the night, actually turned out kind of cool.

I was awoken at about 2am by the sound of continuous screeching tires. Loud screeching tires, that went on for a long time. I jumped down from my elevated bed that has all my crap stored under it, opened the door that leads to the cab and looked out the windshield. There was a very nice sporty convertible car just to the left of my truck, maybe 50-70 feet away. A young man got in the passenger seat and they just sat there for a bit. I kept watching. The passenger then got out, walked over to the driver’s side but about 15 feet away, held up his camera phone and yelled “GO!” The driver began driving in circles and figure eights while the camera guy looked like he was gliding himself around the car, in what looked like a dance between the two. I was sure I was going to witness the cameraman dying, but like a train wreck, I kept watching. He didn’t die because he was obviously extremely lucky and/or the driver was extremely skilled. Because of this combination, I had to smile because what I witnessed at 2am that morning, was actually pretty Ken Block-ish Cool! As I laid back down, I remembered the gym has cameras in the back so the next morning I ran into the gym to ask them to pull up the video from the night before but they said they couldn’t unless there was a police report ordering it. I was a little sad I couldn’t watch a replay but felt fortunate that I did get to witness the harmless action first hand.