Chase Seen

Saw an odd thing the other day, while waiting curbside for my bus home: I saw a car chase! There were two vehicles: one was a convertible red BMW driven by two middle-aged men, and their pursuer was in a white Mini Cooper Turbo.

They caught my eye when I saw them sloppy-driving down 60th Street, weaving and zig-zagging. Then the BMW took a hard left (all skidding tires and what-not) and waited at the stop sign, with the Cooper hot on their tail.

The BMW guys were fairly serious in demeanor, weren't laughing it up or anything -- one of them looked like he was huffing and puffing, like he was scared. Not sure WHAT the deal was.

When the traffic let them, the BMW took off, with the Cooper right on them, honking and racing after them. I lost sight of them as they shot off toward Lake Shore Drive. No idea what it was all about.

This older woman was waiting there with me at the stop, and she said "Huh. I thought Mini Cooper drivers were supposed to be all mellow and stuff." and I said "I don't know; I think maybe they're secretly cauldrons of rage or something."

No idea what the heck was going on, but I wish I'd had a camcorder handy to record the weirdness, the stop-go car chase.

Scene: Shoplifters of the World

I was waiting in line at CVS, a long line, since they only had two registers going, behind this cute young thing buying herself a knee brace, and I heard a commotion behind us in the store. Apparently some guy had been caught stealing eyeliner, and was being confronted by someone -- this sharp-voiced Latina. I wasn't sure if she was an in-store Loss Prevention type or what, but she confronted the guy about the eyeliners, told him to empty his pockets. We're all turned in line to watch this fracas, and the guy, who looks to be perhaps Latin, himself, or Italian, or some other olive-complected soul, with a heavy black coat, a ball cap, and a black goatee-type beard, walks slowly out of the store, with the woman on his heels, telling him the cops were coming, and that she got a good look at him. She was on a cell phone at the time.

The babe ahead of me looked at me like "Huh?" (I could see she had braces on her teeth, which was a nice accompaniment to the knee brace she was getting) and I just said "Busted."

Nobody stopped the guy from leaving the store, although the Loss Prevention people (?) kept after him, watched him slowly walk down Armitage, busy trying to be inconspicuous. After purchasing my stuff, I went to the curb and last saw him near the Irish bar down the way, the River Shannon.

Meantime, I wondered: Eyeliner??