When I walk to the supermarket, I usually take the “long way”, i.e. the scenic Experimental Farm pathway through the forest. It ends in a quiet residential cul-de-sac street. Straight up is the supermarket and Merivale Road, a ten-minute walk away.
This is the exact route I took when I went grocery shopping last Saturday morning. When I arrived on Clyde Avenue, I noticed one of the buildings at the end of the street had put up elaborate Halloween decorations, complete with a yellow “do not cross” police tape around the house and the trees in the front yard.
I almost took a picture, but I was listening to a podcast and didn’t feel like fumbling with my phone.
The following day, reading my Twitter feed, a familiar street name caught my eye: “Clyde Street”.
Ottawa homicide detectives are investigating after a 26-year-old man was stabbed to death early Saturday morning.
Police found Joshua Briere outside of his Clyde Avenue apartment around 3 a.m.
He was suffering from several stab wounds to his torso and paramedics tried in vain to keep him alive. Briere was later pronounced dead at hospital. It is the city’s 16th homicide.
On Saturday police could be seen combing for evidence, and videotaping bloodstains and clothing on the street under a steady rain.
(excerpt from The Ottawa Sun, October 24)
Oh. So it was not a Halloween prop but a real crime scene. Ooops.
I will add this moment to my long list of #facepalm #innocentmoments, among which you will find:
Doing a load of laundry with bleach because I clearly remembered that word had something to do with “cleaning”—I had looked it up when I was a teen because it’s the name of one of Nirvana’s albums.
On 9/11, insisting the World Trade Centre was “just fine” because I could see it from my office building in Hong Kong—not realizing the radio was talking about the other WTC, miles away, in New York City.
Going to see Men with Brooms, expecting a feminist movie—nope, it was about curling, as I finally noticed about halfway through it.
Believing for years that “beaver tails” were actual beaver tails and not a local pastry made of dough and 100% beaver free.
Losing my panties at the doctor’s office and walking out without it (what else was I supposed to do??)
Being an hour early for an entire day because we hadn’t realized that Brazil hadn’t switched to winter time yet.
Phew.
Very funny (well apart from the part with a man dying…) I’ve had so many of these moments! But nothing comes to mind right now :/
Do share if you think of one!
Some months ago two Canadians mentioned beaver tails to me, and I thought they meant from actual beavers! I was befuddled and asked them what the texture was like and wasn’t it tough to eat? They had to explain it to me…
Going to go read your panties story now!
It’s a weird name, isn’t it!
Oh dear! I can match this – when I worked at a newsagents and we were held up by armed robbers, they came through the front door with tights over their faces and it was a week after Halloween and my initial response was to laugh and say ‘you’re a bit late for Halloween guys’. Of course, I wasn’t laughing when they demanded the money from my till!
Wow, that must have been terrifying! Definitely tops “my” crime scene. What happened next?
Very cute! But the whole crime scene thing is terrifying. Now you’ve got me thinking about my major #facepalm moments. Hmmm.
Come on… I’m sure you have some 😉 We all do, that’s what makes us terribly human!
Once I tried to book a one-way ticket to London Ontario to visit my sister. The agent said that a one-way ticket was 300 dollars and a round-trip was only 120. I actually thought I was going to have to pay the higher amount until I realized I could book a round trip ticket and just NOT USE ONE WAY. In other words, I feel you.
I never really understood why one-way tickets are more expensive than round-trip tickets! At least, you realize you could only use part of your ticket before booking it 😉