Weekend Police Drama

Every parent's nightmare visited us last night. The phone rang at 3.00am. and before I could get to it the answering machine kicked in and a voice identifying itself as the Pakenham police said, in a loud and serious tone, he wanted to talk to Carey or Elizabeth as soon as possible about their son Gordon and left a number for us to call.
Believe me I snapped to a state of alert and grabbed at the phone and rang back immediately, only to find I had pushed a wrong digit in my haste and got some poor bugger out of bed. Then, the number I thought was right was engaged. I tried to play the message back to check the number but had to go through several other messages first, it was a new phone recently purchased and I hadn't mastered it. Lib had come down and I saw unspoken agony on her face while I wreslted with the freaking phone. The number was still engaged and was for the next 15 minutes, until son Robbie who had been on his computer but had heard what was happening, managed to get an alternative number on the net. That was the sweetest dial tone I have ever heard.
I quickly identified myself and asked what had happenned. He told me Gordon had been apprehended on the property of a local school where he had entered a building and triggered an alarm which led to his arrest. I was immediately relieved he hadn't pranged his car and injured himself or worse. He asked had I known Gordon was not at home.
"No, I saw him just before I went to bed about midnight, he was carrying his boots in one hand and a large sponge in the other and I asked him what he was doing and he replied he was going to wash his car. Was he at the Emerald Secondary College?"
"Yes, he was. He says he has a disability is that correct, and if so what is it."
"Yes, he has an intellectual disability, and a condition called....." Would you believe it! My mind went blank, all I could think of was Alzeimer's disease which I knew wasn't right.
"I just can't think of the name."
"Is it Asperger's syndrome, that's what he says he has."
"Yes, that's it."
"Is he under any treatment for it."
"No. He's fine. He's never caused one bit of trouble for himself or anybody else."
"Well maybe that's something you could consider once we're over this, but it doesn't alter the fact that at the very least he was trespassing."
"Maybe, but this is completely out of character." I was trying not to to let my irritation show.
"Is there anything else you can tell me about his disability?"
"He feels strong attachments to people, things or places, that's why he'd be at the school. It can make his behaviour... a bit...quirky."
" Can you come down to the station."
"No, I can't, I might be over 05, I don't know, but I'm not taking any chances. I had several glasses of wine before I went to bed. Can I speak to him."
"It's not possible just now, there's a lot happening here. We had to send out for an independant third party to be present at the interview, because he has a disability. They won't be here for a while yet and the interview may take an hour or an hour and a half." I'll ring you when we're finished."
"Where is his car?"
"It's at the school, locked up."
"Go easy on him will you," I said, mindful this conversation was nearly over,"he's a hell of a good fella."
"He has to be formally interviewed as to what he was doing illegally inside school buildings."
So over the next couple of hours I drank coffee and read The Sunday Age on the net. I asked Robbie if he knew Gordon had gone out and he said he heard the car leave and if he said he was going to wash the car that meant he went to the servo at Emerald where they had special facilities that were open till late, and he would go there late so there was nobody else there. He was still lacking confidence in his driving.
About 5.30am. another policeman rang and asked could I come and pick Gordon up.
It was before six o'clock when I arrived, and did a 3 point U turn to park right in front. As I got out of the car I noticed Gord coming out, obviously he had been watching for me. No sooner did I greet him did he say , " they've still got my car keys, can we go back and get them." We went inside to the reception desk and no one was there so I pushed the bell buzzer on the desk. Gordon sat down and looked at the ground and said "I've only got two out of five, I hope I get three right tomorrow."
It took me a few seconds to understand what he was talking about, then I twigged, it was the household footy tipping competition. He looked remarkably calm for someone who'd been arrested five hours earlier and had just finished a taped police interview.
A young lady in uniform came out and apologized for the delay, saying they'd been busy and they were short because some one was taking the third independant party home. She came back again a few minutes later saying they couldn't find the keys but they were looking for the sargent who might have them. While we were waiting I asked him, " what happenned, are you charged with trespass?"
"I don't know, they said we'll get something in the mail. It's up to higher up police to decide. That was terrible dad, it was like I was in a movie, except terrible."
Eventually the keys turned up. On the drive dack to pick up his car, I asked Gord a few questions and he explained to me what happenned. He called in to have a look around his old school on his way back from the servo. He parked along the main drive and left his keys in the car while he went for a bit of a walk around. He saw signs saying 'Trespassers will be Prosecuted', but he didn't feel he was a trespasser, he thought a trespasser was someone who wanted to harm the school which he didn't. He had done this before, once he turned a heater off that had been left on over the weekend. He looked through windows into some of his old classrooms and checked doors till he found one left open. it was the music room and he went in. The school is well lit at night so he had no trouble seeing. He picked up a guitar, strummed it for a minute or so. The door into his favourite teacher's office was locked, then he went through a door into the gym. He was inside for about 10 minutes and he didn't know he'd triggered an alarm.
While he was walking back to his car he saw someone he ignored. This was a security response person he later realized but at the time he just thought it was strange someone else was about at night. When he got to his car he saw a police car ahead of his car blocking the drive. He got in his car but the keys weren't there, so he walked up to the police car to tell them he was just looking around when two police grabbed him and told him he was full of bullshit and he was under arrest. They handcuffed him and said unless he told them where he'd hidden the stuff he'd stolen they'd get sniffer dogs in to find it and he was in real deep shit. Of course he told them he was telling the truth and they told him he was lying and they took him to Pakenham police station which is when they phoned us.
A phone call or a knock on the door by police late at night is something all parents of teenagers dread. We're just glad the knews was good by comparison to what might have been.