Most small towns have their own newspaper, at least until or unless online journalism changes the dynamics permanently. Croton on Hudson in northern Westchester County has a weekly, the Gazette which features stories of local importance, Crotonfest, a street festival in June, the BIG pumpkin contest at Umami –  a local restaurant – in the weeks before halloween, births, deaths and the POLICE BLOTTER! All the drum beat messages of everyday life.

I read the blotter most every week; recently one entry particularily caught my attention. An officer was called to a home where it was reported that a deer was in a garbage can. The reporting officer indicated that, in fact it wasn’t a deer but a possum. Possums are indeed very odd animals more likely to confused with a rat than a deer (of that, I was once guiltybut didn’t see the police blotter that week.)  Now that I’ve lived amongst the wildlife of  Westchester County for many years I and can find amusement in mistaking a possum for a deer and laugh at myself once again over the possum/rat experience.

There are other momentous events reported in the blotter, too. Recently police were called to a house by a teen at home alone. There were unexplained noises upstairs. Turned out the teen’s parents had left their cell phones home, and they were making those noises that some phones do. Every community should be this lucky with their police blotter.