A Busy Weekend

This last Friday I was woken up by three young policemen at 6:30am. It is always a different, but interesting experience. They were really nice, and once again left after I dazedly explained what I was doing. Although they had me stand against the wall with my hands in plain sight while I talked to them. Saturday night I was woken up by someone playing a harmonica near my car, who went at it for almost an hour. Last night a cop woke me up at 11pm, and for the first time was somewhat rude. I only explained that I was forgoing an apartment so I could instead support some children, which didn’t change his attitude towards me. After checking my ID and calling it in, the cop proceeded to tell me that “it’s technically illegal” to sleep in my car. This directly contradicts what I was told earlier by a policeman who said “it’s not technically illegal to sleep in your car, but you will probably be woken up again by us again.” However, this cop had woke me up at 11am though, so he might have meant it’s not illegal to take a nap in my car, while the second cop was telling me it’s illegal to sleep overnight in my car. After telling me it was illegal to sleep in my car the cop said he would not make me move “tonight,” unless someone called in and said I was a disturbance (which almost sounded like an assumptions). Soon after I had crawled back into bed the crazy person with the harmonica showed back up, except this time he brought his gypsy band with him. They had a guitar, and what might have been a drum, but it kind of sounded like they were just kicking a box around. Between the lot of them they had a grand old time, but they need to practice a little more before they make an album.  I’m not sure what time they left, but I slept soundly until 6:45am when another cop taped on my window. I could tell immediately he was going to be a lot nicer because he did not pound on my window like the cop the night before, he just tapped. He was an older cop who was indeed very nice. I began this time be explaining that I was doing a project on what it was like to be homeless, and then added in the part about supporting the children with the money I was saving. He checked my id but seemed to be the first cop who was kind of impressed. During the course of the conversation I tried to indirectly ask if it was permissible to sleep in my car (i.e. is it actually illegal). He didn’t say one way or the other, but did say that the top of the parking garage was a good place to be, and talked about some folks in the past that had slept in their cars after falling on hard times. He also mentioned that some of the regulars might even begin to recognize my car and leave me alone. After this he initiated a hand shake and smiled as he left, whereas the cop the night before didn’t even respond when I asked how his night was going.


It has been fascinating to interact with all these cops in such a short period of time. I would have never predicted it, but every cop has handled the situation very differently. The younger cops are much more hesitant, and seem quite suspicious that im going to pull a gun out of my car (one of the young cops dint even want to see my id after I offered, because it was in my car). The older cops are much more confident, but one has been the meanest, and one has been the nicest. Over all I have learned that there is not a hard-and-fast rule for what they do, there is a law, but they are the on-scene judges who interpret the law and decide which parts they are going to apply. In the future I am curious to see how different explanations will cause these cops to react differently (emphasizing my experience being a project, verse it being a social good effort).     

Beyond that life continues to be a curiosity. Today I walked into the restroom and found one of the toilets twisted sideways (but still operational). Im not sure what the janitors do when things like that happen, but im glad I don’t half to deal with it. Thankfully I was able to joyfully worship the Lord this morning after the cop left, but tonight I think I am going to try to sleep in a Walmart parking lot. It is humbling to not have a private space, but God continues to be my peace.

For anyone trying to do something like this (and is counting dollars) I have found that it is not cost effective to buy perishables and store them in an ice chest. For the most part I have been spending $1/day on ice, which ends up costing the same as the meat I am keeping cold. Because of this I have started buying canned meats, which cost a little more, but don’t have to be kept cold. Getting away from the ice chest will also give me a significant amount of room (relatively speaking :)