As if 2020 couldn't get any crazier...
So this story requires a little background. There is a gated community just south of our neighborhood. Gated communities have to be safer, right? We thought so too. That's why we sometimes encourage our kids to go over there to play.
Second part of the background. Thursday, July 23 we had put the kids to bed and Tyler and I were watching a show. Well mid way through Caden comes out saying he could hear gunshots. We told him it was probably fireworks and sent him back to bed. So we went to bed a little while later and just as we were falling asleep we heard a helicopter flying around our neighborhood area. We looked outside but didn't see anything unusual.
So, I woke up on Friday with a weird email from our Relief Society President asking everyone to check on the people in our ward who live in this gated community and see if they need help evacuating. I couldn't figure out what was going on until I talked to Tyler and read some news articles.
Apparently a guy who lives in the gated community made a threats of a mass shooting at Culver's Restaurant the Saturday before because he claimed Culvers was harassing him. Then the next day he was outside his house with a rifle and shot the street lamp out across the street. So the police started investigating him and following his social media. They issued a warrant on Thursday and when they went to his house he started shooting at them. He tried to fire his gun at his fridge (I'll explain more later), but his gun jammed and he surrendered. So the police arrest him and start looking around in his house only to find that he had huge amount of home made explosives.
Ok, so knowing all of this now, I can't believe how many angels were watching over us and our neighborhood. The kids play in that neighborhood a lot. They walk right past that guy's house when they go for walks around the block! Apparently the crazy guy was trying to shoot at the fridge because that's where his explosives were stored. Can you imagine if his gun didn't jam? I could cry thinking about what could have happened. All in our back yard.
So back to Friday, July 24. The gated community was evacuated while the he bomb squad came in to investigate. Well they realized they couldn't safely move all of his explosives, so they decided they had to blow them up at his house. A guy from the city came to our house and informed us that for our safety, our neighborhood was asked to evacuate as well or shelter in our basement until the next morning.
*Potentially explosive material found inside a home in South Jordan is being investigated by officers. Out of an abundance of caution, residents are recommended to evacuate the area from Bangerter to 3200 West and 10200 s to 10400 S. Residents that are unable to evacuate should shelter in their basements and stay away from windows. This evacuation is scheduled to last until 10 am Saturday, July 25.
We were already planning on going to Hanna for the 24th weekend, so we just ended up leaving early, but talk about a heart attack! The news was there and live streamed when they blew up the explosives. Luckily no one was hurt and even though there was extensive damage to the guy's house, no other houses were damaged. It was just so unreal that all of this was happening right by us. You always hear stories of crazy people, but you never expect it to be so close to home.
Despite the stressful start to the weekend, we had a great time at Hanna. The sunsets were beautiful again.
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