Some people aren't cut out for law enforcement.

A little background:
We live in a very new subdivision, where there is constant construction. Inherant to construction sites is night time thievery. Contractors are always losing materials or tools here. The back of our home faces the exit from the subdivision and onto the main road.

Volunteer sleuthing

Last Monday evening we were awoken by a white cube van flying by the back of our house. He was headed into the subdivision. It went quiet for a while, then out the van flew and headed west, were there are more construction sites. We could hear his stops and loud accelerations from our open window. We figured that whoever it was, they were up to no good, but refrained from calling the police as we figured thevan would be long gone by the time they got here.
The next morning I saw a landscape crew being interviewed by a police officer on the very road we saw the van. They had lost some of their materials overnight. I then told them about the white cube van. The police officer reprimanded me (politely) for not calling the police. I said I would next time it happened.
So, last night when the white van made a loud reappearance that again woke us, I called the police.

I was still half asleep when I made the call and Mark says I sounded like this:

"Hi, I'm calling from (address) and that van is back...it's headed west on ***th street!"

OK, so I'm not a professional emergency communications operator, especially when I'm half asleep.
I then proceeded to answer many questions as to who what and where. They had me in the computer from the statement I made about the visit last week. I explained that the van was here last Monday night at 2am as well. That this must be some sort of routine for the guy. After filling in as many blanks for the 911 operator as I could I hung up and tried to go back to sleep.

The phone rang within minutes. It was a police officer calling from his cruiser asking many of the same questions again and I directed them to where I could last see his tail lights through the trees. He informed me that there were a number of police cars combing the area. I could see two police cars come in and go around our neighbourhood. After the police officer was satisfied, I again hung up the phone and tried to go to sleep.

A while later we could hear the white van again. This time it was headed east on the main road, and it had stopped at a house there! I again called 911 and they patched me through to the appropriate dispatcher. I told them of the sighting, and that he had stopped at a house, left the truck and returned to it before speeding away. I gave them his bearings and then hung up the phone, crtain they would catch up with him and this would be over. I snuggled back into bed dreaming of the good samaritan award I was sure to receive after all of this.

The phone rang again, It was the police officer calling again from his cruiser. They had caught up with the vehicle of interest and wanted to let me know.....

....it was the milkman on his regular Tuesday morning delivery route.

I didn't know they still had milkmen.