Several years ago, about this time of year, I was staying in a one room flat near our office in North Sydney. The apartment was uncomfortably warm. (Since the temperature in Syndey is nearly always perfect, the room had only a small, portable heating / cooling unit, which was hard pressed to do anything against the unseasonably hot, humid air.  The flat's one small window had been painted shut, so it offered no relief.) It was late, but I was too uncomfortable to sleep.

 

Lounging on the bed, I flipped through the 4 (count 'em 4) available television stations, and found a rerun of an American Cop / Firefighter drama.  With apologies to all of my wonderful Australian friends, if you've ever visited Australia, you know that the local programming leaves something to be desired. Even reruns of mediocre American shows are a welcome distraction. 

 

About a half hour into the show, I heard someone pounding on doors throughout the apartment building. My first thought was that it had to be kids, but since I was on the 7th floor of a secure apartment building, and you couldn't move between floors without a key card specifically for each floor, it made bored kids less of an option. Still, I decided that someone who was randomly knocking wasn't looking for me, and I ignored the pounding when it came to, then passed, my own door.

 

A few minutes later, the pounding returned to my door with vengeance. "Open the door or I'll break it in!" someone shouted repeatedly from the other side of my door. Startled, I jumped up and looked out the window, only to discover six police cars on the narrow street beneath my window.  (There weren't any fire engines... another early thought, no doubt inspired by my choice of entertainment that evening.)

 

Well... I decided that if it was a bad guy, the cops couldn't be far behind.  Since they weren't going away, I threw on some sweats and went to the door. As soon as I unlocked it, the door was thrown open and ten of the best looking people I have ever seen (in real life or on TV) came storming into my apartment. The first few police officers through the door kept saying something about being "concerned about the welfare of my neighbor" and needing access to my balcony.  I didn't have a balcony (although, apparently, my neighbor did), and my small window wouldn't budge, even for these most determined, beautiful men.

 

I must have looked startled and disoriented, because the last person into the room was a female police officer. Again, model-beautiful, she looked at me sympathetically as the rest of the officers determined that my apartment couldn't help them gain access into my neighbor's.

 

Side note: You might wonder why the most memorable part of the evening was how good looking these officers were. In my defense, I need to point out that most Australians don't look like Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman, and the contrast between "my cops" and the ones on the television I had been watching was startling. Mine were SOOOO much better looking, there was just no comparison.

 

Anyway, about 5 minutes later, another officer stuck his head in my apartment to say they had gotten in to the other apartment some other way, and they all filed out of my flat. At this point, I was not only too hot, but far too keyed up to sleep. I watched through my small, closed window for the next hour or so, as an ambulance arrived and left with someone on a gurney.

 

I never did find out what had happened to my neighbor, how the police knew about it, or why it took 12 police officers to deal with the situation (although I suspect it might have been a slow night). I did, however, learn about a similar incident that had happened in Sydney a month earlier. The next day at the office, as I was telling the guys about my previous evening's excitement, one of them was nearly as startled as I had been. He told me: "Wow, it was a good thing you were alert enough to answer the door and do what they said. Last month the police accidentally broke into the wrong person's apartment in the middle of the night, and when the guy didn't respond correctly, they shot him!"

 

Whew...