Say WHAT?

I found this Maine Today article on that repository of all things amusing and offbeat, FARK. If you haven't been, do visit them.

Anyway, it's nominally an article about this police robot that goes in to help defuse intense situations where it's too dangerous to send in cops. Like hostage stand-offs where heavy-duty firepower is involved, or something like that.

It's not a terribly interesting article, mostly focusing on a behind-the-scenes look at the hostage negotiation process. But check out this brief anecdote, related by Maine Detective Adam Kelley, about the first time they made use of the device known as the Andros.

Shortly after state police bought the $150,000 robot in May 2003, they were called into a dangerous domestic situation in the greater Bangor area.

"It involved two deaf people in the residence, and their (text-based) phone was off the hook," Kelley said. "One had a weapon."

In the wide-open space around the residence, troopers would have been vulnerable to an armed and unstable attacker.

In went the Andros, with a sign that asked the armed person to come out and surrender. It worked.

Okay, there's no more background on that story...None...I'm afraid I'm going to need closure on this anecdote, Maine Today.

Can you imagine the sort of bizarre (yes, bizarre in the Lacanian sense...) events that have to go down to cause one deaf person to pull a gun on another deaf person? I mean, no offense to the deaf, who I understand can have interpersonal conflict just like anyone else.

But think about this as a logistical situation. The deaf couple's phone didn't work properly...How did police even find out one of them had a gun pulled on the other? Why would a deaf person take a hostage anyway, if they were essentially unable to communicate with people on the outside?

In other words, if a deaf guy takes a hostage, and there's no one around to see it, does he get a ransom?