Last week, a yellow car with a TV antenna sticking out of its roof was driving around my neighborhood at night; it wound up sitting in the parking lot at around 2:30 AM on Thursday, accompanied by a gray pickup. The driver of the yellow car appeared to be operating a laptop.

I thought of just going out and asking what they were up to, but my introversion and paranoia got the better of my courage. Suspecting them to be wardrivers who were scanning for open wireless connections, I called the Chatham police. A pair of patrol cars showed up in about a minute, and asked them to pull into the firehouse parking lot across the street.

I soon got a call back from the police dispatcher. There was nothing illegal going on; the folks involved were a team of wildlife trackers who had forgotten to notify the cops that they would be at work in the area. I could have seen as much had I actually approached them; they had their cars well marked.

On Friday morning, Andy, the driver of the yellow car, came by to apologize for scaring me, and I apologized in turn for calling the cops on him. I didn't take the opportunity to learn more at that time, but fortunately he was back again that night, and Laura went out to talk to him...

(Continued in next entry.)