Open up! It's the Police!

A couple of my favorite movies are The Fugitive and U.S. Marshals with Harrison Ford (in The Fugitive), Wesley Snipes (in U.S. Marshals), and Tommy Lee Jones. I enjoy a good action movie every once in a while just as much as the next guy or girl, but lets be honest, living one would be quite a different story! In the last month and a half our apartment has seen more of that kind of thrilling action than we honestly would ever care to experience (thank you creepy man who attempted to break in to my roommate's window...don't worry, we live in Fort Knox now!), and last night didn't fail to disappoint!

At about 10:45 last night I was just finishing some laundry and about ready to throw in my towel for the evening. I walked in to the front room where Hali was making her christmas cards, and we just started talking about how our roommate Jennica would be home at anytime there was a knock on our door. Assuming is was Jennica, unable to unlock the deadbolt, I went to the door to look out the peephole and make sure it was her. When peered out I couldn't see anyone. So using my lessons in stranger danger I asked who it was. I heard a female voice answer back, "It's the U.S. Marshals". I figured Jennica was goofing off, and so I just replied, "Excuse me, what was that?" Again she said, "It's the U.S. Marshals, please let us in." At this point Samuel Gerard, Cosmo, and Bobby Biggs from the movie popped into my head. Jennica may be joking around, but I wasn't about to let her in before she showed herself at the peephole. I said through the door, "I am not letting you in if I can't see you!" Then the response this time came back from a male voice saying, "Open up, it's the police!" At this point I felt my heart stop and realized this wasn't just a game. I turned around to look at Hali with an "Oh crap!" look on my face before I turned back to open the door. When it swung open, sure enough there stood five very intimidating looking U.S. Marshals and Police Officers. In my mind I wondered if they were going to arrest me for being a smart alleck at the door...in my defense I was told NEVER to open the door if I couldn't see who was standing outside. I mean seriously, would you believe the voice outside your door the first time when you hear such a ridiculous statement?! Well they immediately start the interrogation asking "Where is Bill?" (name has been changed for obvious reasons) "Does a Haley live here?" I told them no, but introduced Hali, who now had an even more surprised face. They continued asking us how many of us lived there, for how long, where was our third roommate. I don't know if any of you have every been interrogated by law enforcement, but its INTIMIDATING!

At that point, they asked if they could come in and just look around. Sure, we had nothing to hide! (Especially no convicts!) So all five of them proceeded through the door, and a couple of them started going into each of our bedrooms, hands on guns, flashlight in hand, looking under our beds and in our closets. Just a little unnerving, right?! Hali and I sat in the front room with the three other cops and marshals, and as we chatted, I am pretty sure it became even more clear that we were the type of suspicious characters they were looking for. Here is what gave it away:
Hint #1 When we told the police officer that we knew a Haley that lived in our complex and was in our ward, he asked to see our ward directory. At that point Hali jumped up and said, "Yeah, let me get my Relief Society binder!"

Hint #2 Another marshal pointed out our cardboard stand-up of Zac Efron, who is now wearing a santa hat, and asked who our friend was. Instead of going into the long story of our tiny obsession with Hairspray and HSM (which is probably obvious due to the cardboard teen sensation in our dining room) we just told him Zac was our bodyguard.

Hint #3 If hints 1 & 2 didn't give it away, then I am pretty sure that the family proclamation, Living Christ, and temple pictures gave it away. We sure do sound like criminals now, don't we?

As our new friends were concluding their search, I was contemplating if I should offer them an oreo cookie that was on the counter or whether I could ask for a quick photo opp to memorialize our night of excitement. It was at that point a very bewildered Jennica walked through the door thinking our creepy friend from previous experiences had returned and murdered someone. (What would you think if you came home to a house full of Cops and U.S. Marshals?!) One of them started to tell her they were here because of several of her traffic violations, and you could tell by the look on her face that she didn't quite know what to think. When Hali and I had smiles on our faces and were trying to hold back the laughter, she figured they were just pulling her leg. Just as quickly as the arrived, they left us with apologies for getting water all over the carpet from their shoes.

Needless to say, as soon as the door was closed and dead-bolted again we were all on the floor laughing. Never a dull moment in our apartment!

So the moral of the story is....if someone is at your door and they say its the U.S. Marshals, you may want to take a second and consider they are telling the truth!