No Names Please

My wife Joan had been making deliveries on and off to the Miami area for three years and knew most of the short cuts and parking places. The down town traffic was unusually heavy this day and she could not park in her usual loading zone space, so she had to go to a different area to park her van. She was very concerned, as she had all she could carry of electronic parts, and struggled to get them to the place of business. When she entered the premises, the owner of Rodriquez Exports asked her to take them straight on back to the shipping room, as they were going out of town at three o’clock that afternoon. When she got back to the shipping area, she was overwhelmed, for there she saw thousands of rounds of ammunition, and guns stacked everywhere. The owner of course, paid her in cash, and it was well over one thousand dollars. By the time she got outside, she was so shook up by what she had seen in the shipping department, plus walking around with all of that cash money, surrounded only by Spanish speaking people, as no one there spoke English, that she could not remember where she had parked the truck. After walking around for a bit, looking for her van, she finally saw a policeman. She explained to him that she could not find her truck. His response was, “You probably parked it in a no parking zone and it has been towed away.” He was absolutely no help. She stepped back onto the sidewalk, standing there in despair, when she saw another officer coming down the street from the other direction. She walked out to the policeman’s car and started to speak to him, but she was so shook up that nothing came out of her mouth. Sensing that something was wrong, the officer said to her, “Please get in the front seat of my car.” When she sat down in the car, he asked, “What is the matter?” Joan replied, “I parked my truck and delivered some parts to Rodriquez Exports, and since I could not park in my usual loading zone, I had to park somewhere else, and now I can’t find my truck. I don’t understand it has my name written on both sides and the back of the van. When I took my parts order back to his shipping room, I saw thousands of rounds of ammunition and guns lined up everywhere.” The officer then asked her, “Was there anything special about your delivery?” “Yes, that it had to be delivered before two o’clock, as the shipment was going out of the country at three p.m.” He started driving around slowly, looking for her truck, and in the meantime he continued pumping her for as much information as possible about this export company. Suddenly she exclaimed, “There it is, that is my truck.” He stopped the car and as she started to get out, the officer said, “Wait.” With that said, he walked around his car, and said “May I have your keys, please?” He took her keys, went to her van and opened the door, then checked inside to be sure that no one was in her vehicle. When she pulled out of downtown Miami, she thought that the officer was following her, but she soon lost sight of him. When she stopped at the wholesaler to pick up the TV, the man at the loading dock said, “What kind of trouble have you been into, I saw that police car follow you into our parking lot, and he is still there?” She was too scared to reply, and merely pretended that she did not hear what he had said. After she had the TV loaded into her van, she noticed that the policeman was still following her, and he followed her to the entrance to the turnpike, where he turned around. She continued on to our store and was telling my secretary, “I don’t know just what is going on, but the Miami Police followed me all the way from downtown Miami until I got on the turnpike.” She then went on to tell her about the problem that she had finding her van. She stopped by a Farm Store and picked up a gallon of grape drink, went on home, filled a glass full of ice and grape drink, went into the TV room, turned on the TV and sat down on the sofa to relax. She kept sitting there and relaxing for a while with the TV on, until finally, the news came on. She soon noticed that a police officer was leading a man with his hands handcuffed behind his back, out to a police car. Joan had to do a double take on that picture, because the man that they were leading to the car in handcuffs, was the same man who had given her all of that cash money only a few hours earlier. She watched the scene for a few minutes and then the spokesperson for the City of Miami Police Department came on and said, “We had heard on the street that a large cache of weapons was going to be illegally shipped out of the country, but we did not know from where or when.” “Today, we received an anonymous tip as to where the cache was kept and also the time the shipment was to take place.” When Joan heard that, a chill ran down her back and stark fear came to her eyes. For the next month, she would not deliver back to Miami, and never, ever would she deliver in the area of Rodriquez Exports.