you know you're desensitized when...

The most unreal thing happened today. Meryl and I headed downtown to go to a walking meetup group at 10:30 am. When we switched trains at Commercial/Broadway we had to wait on the platform for a couple minutes before the train came. While we were waiting, one came on the other side, going the other direction.

We noticed there was a bit of a commotion on the other side just as our train pulled up. We got onto the train just as a voice was saying, "Put the scissors down! PUT THE SCISSORS DOWN!"

We looked across the platform to see the other train waiting with its doors open. Right beside one of the doors, there was a man who was agitated, twitching, shaking, maybe high or drunk, or both. Facing him, about 8 feet away from him was a guy pointing a gun at him. That's right! A GUN!

The guy was mid-30s, wearing a striped polo shirt, cargo shorts, tennis shoes. He said it again, "Put the scissors down."

The scissor guy started backing up, away from the gunman, around the stairs in the middle of the platform. Toward OUR side of the platform, where the doors of our train still stood open. He was coming up our side of the platform now, toward the doors that we were standing just inside of. You could feel all of the passengers of the train collectively move away from the doors.

The gun man was still following the scissor guy. They were kind of running now. Another pursuer came into our line of sight.. mid-50s, gray hair, gray sweat pants and shirt, tennis shoes... As he passed by the doorway at a jogging pace, we could see that he was carrying a gun in his right hand and talking to his left shoulder, "We're in pursuit of a 55 year old caucasian male..." And he was out of earshot. We had just witnessed the Vancouver Undercover Police in action.

Our train doors closed and I was looking around for the camera men, thinking to myself, "Did that really just happen?!"

I gotta stop watching so many movies!