Encounter with the Bomb Squad

The whole day yesterday was uneventful and actually boring. I had to sit through 8 hours of not so interesting presentations about real estate brokerage. The evening was real cool. The result of downright stupidity on my part.

After the 8 hour ordeal I went through with a friend, we decided to eat durian in one of the many durian stalls in the city. I had with me a brown envelope filled with hand outs and a notebook containing notes of past and current projects.

After eating our way through 3 kilos of durian, we decided to go home. The jeepney route to our place was just next to the durian park. While waiting for the jeepney to come, we decided to sit on the steps leading to a bank.

We spent the time waiting for the jeep talking about our day the the possibilities for the rest of the evening. After one cigarette stick, a jeepney crawled its way through the almost empty street. So we both took off and rode on the jeepney.

After around five minutes of riding, we reached a major intersection where the traffic light turned red. I then noticed the envelope I had was missing. I told my friend we had to go back to get the envelope.

We both walked back briskly to the bank, which was 4 to 5 block away. My friend told me to slow down a bit to avoid perspiring profusely. We slowed down a bit. I was worried someone will see the envelope and take it.

When we reached the junction next to the durian park, we noticed emergency red and blue lights flashing from police and Task Force Davao vehicles. The road was closed to traffic. Then we noticed the presence of Bomb Sniffing Dogs in the vicinity.

Cold sweat dripped from my arms when it dawned on me that the dogs were there to sniff on the envelope I left behind. I sprinted to the bank. Indeed, a couple of bomb sniffing dogs were sniffing the envelope and policemen and Task Force Davao personnel had their flash lights trained on the envelope.

I rushed to retrieve the envelope and explain the contents to the public safety personnel.

The whole experience was so embarrassing, and yet it showed to me the dedication these highly trained personnel had in them to keep the city safe from terror.

For that I salute them.