October 2010 - Trout Lake School

. . . . . . .STUDENT WRITING. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .An incident at the Holiday InnThe girls soccer team survives a (fake) hostage crisis.On Saturday, September 11 the Holiday Inn in Troutdale Oregon was surrounded bypolice cars. Someone had called 9-1-1 at 9:35 in the morning reporting robbery.Everybody was evacuated from the Inn, located off exit 17 on I-84, and theWendy’s Restaurant next door. The 9-1-1 caller had told the dispatchers thatthe Inn was being robbed and that the manager was taken hostage.Police soon circled the building and searched every corner of it.They found nothing—it was all apparently a hoax. When they tried totrace the call, they found it had been made by a disposable cell phoneso there was no way to know who had called. As there was no longerany threat to their safety, the Inn’s guests were let back into the buildinglater that day—many still in their pajamas. Detectives are searchingfor the caller but so far have been unsuccessful and no arrests havebeen made.Meanwhile, the White Salmon girl’s soccer team, which has six TroutLake girls on it, was driving to our game in Castle Rock. Many of the girlshad to use the restroom when we reached Troutdale, and our bus driverturned off on Exit 17, to use the facilities at the Wendy’s Restaurantthere.When we pulled in we noticed that the Wendy’s Restaurant wasclosed so we decided to go intothe Holiday Inn next door.Right before we gotto the door apolicemanjumped out ofhis car and told us to “GET OUT!” Police cars started showing up, loaded with policemen,who pulled out their guns, ready for anything. Guests stayingat the Inn started running out of the building at about that sametime.Obviously, this was a very serious situation and oursoccer team sprinted back to the bus as fast as we could!Our coach Amy yelled “GET DOWN!” and we zoomedout of the parking lot and across the high-way to use thebathroom in a safe spot. On our way back to the highwaywe looked over and saw that the Inn was now surroundedby police cars and the unhappy guests were now allstanding next to the Wendy’s Restaurant.Looking back on it, even though it turnedout to be a hoax, the situation was very serious and dangerous. If it had been real then our teamcould have been hurt or witnessed someone getting hurt. At the time, I just thought of it as someexcitement for a rather boring morning. I didn’t think of it as serious or dangerous. I think thatsince we live in Trout Lake, which seems to have a practicallynonexistent crime rate, sometimes we aren’t awarethat there are really bad people and situationsout there.Caitlin Scott. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . October, 2010 | 21