Let me take a few steps backward and explain my journey into hero-dom!!!
Although I don't work full time in the Deaf Education program at MSU any more I do still teach a course on Friday afternoons. I love to teach in the program, it keeps me fresh in the field and I love to be on campus! CAMPUS...a place where I know there is some degree of crime, but in all of my undergrad, grad and working years, I've never been a part of it. Until my last class of the semester, Spring 2010!
I teach a class in a technology enabled classroom in the tech center of the education building on campus. It's a pretty bitchin' room, if I do say so myself! And it's connected to a main center with some really bitchin' tech! We're blessed! My class is made-up of 9 young women. We sat in this glassed-in tech room, with our laptops open and making their final presentations and all of a sudden......BBBBBBUUUUUUUUUUUUZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ! The fire alarm is buzzing at a decibel I cannot begin to describe!
We all begin to run out thinking that it's after building hours, so either it's a bomb threat or a real fire and one of my students says, "Take all of your things! 2 years ago this very thing happened and it was fake and my purse was stolen!" So we rushed to pack our bags, computers and purses to head out to the courtyard behind the building. SHHHHOOOOO-WWEEEEE, we were all out safely with all of our things...my students were safe and I did my job!
Then, strangely enough, as we are huddled together outside wondering if we will be able to return to class (which I was so not wanting to at that point) a man went wandering down the hall INSIDE toward our tech room and made EYE CONTACT with two of our students. Can you say creepy? We didn't think much of this until the police who arrive said, "Hey, if someone runs out these doors, can you call 9-1-1?" What the eff? Are you kidding me?!?! 10 chicks all on their cells calling as a big dude comes out with computers and tech in his hands...aaaah, no! Yep, that very dude that made eye contact with my students pulled the fire alarm to clear the building so he could go into the tech center and take what he wanted. I have NO DOUBT that if we didn't take our laptops those would have been easy pickin' first and foremost. I guess he's been doing this all over campus for a long time.
So, nevertheless, in the end, the bad guy was caught. He wouldn't admit to doing anything so they were going to dust for prints...sooooo cool! We had to ID him. I had to show the police our room and how he got into the tech center...I saw the damage he did to the tech center. Why the hell do people dig through the trash when their main point is to steal a computer? That part STILL confuses me?! And the other thing I don't like was that our class, full of women was being watched by this guy. CREEPY and not OKAY!
But, I came home, had a drink (a fruity, yummy one) and have a great crime stopper story to tell! And my students ended their undergrad program like heroes!!!!