I came into work about 15 minutes late this morning, having detoured to Wally World for groceries. It was nice enough to trek from the faraway land where I park, so I walked in from the parking lot. I get up the hill and what do I see? The street in front of the president's house (empty, of course, since we can never keep a non-interim university president for very long), and thus, the library (uh, not empty), is blocked off. Not just by cops, but by sheriffs. And sheriff K-9 units. A couple of the city's and campus's finest, too. And a Channel 13 news van. I hurried into the library--without taking the shortcut along the president's driveway, since it was teaming with the guys in brown on foot--figuring it was better to be at work in the case of a lockdown rather than being stuck outside. Nobody's really told us anything. I asked the officers wandering the library and their stoic response: "We're looking for somebody." Thanks guys, I knew that--I got more information from coworkers/bystanders I asked outside.

What I can gather, from hearsay and two local news web sites (the third is lagging behind this morning and reporting on the university being turned down by state officials for a new fire alarm system for the dorms--great!), is that the sheriffs arrested someone for robbery. He was somehow injured, so they decided to transport him to the university hospital (conveniently located across the street and also serving as the county hospital). He escaped and somehow made it to the center of campus. (Please, please tell me they weren't transporting him through campus.) They think he went towards the president's house. And now they're looking for him. Sigh... at least they don't think he's armed.