What's going on, Albuquerque?

"People here care more about their landscaping than they do about ME!" she said.

ARBY'S, TULANE & CENTRAL SE--A young woman sat calmly smoking her cigarette in the middle of Arby's patch of landscaping last week. Beside her was her wheeled suitcase...behind her, small tongues of orange flames licked the dry ground cover. A passerby on a motorcycle first thought she was having a cookout. But by the time he looked both ways up and down Tulane to cross the street, the flames were over her head. A few seconds later, only enough time to park his cycle and turn it off, the flames were shooting up twenty feet into the air.

The woman got up, reached over and extended the handle on her luggage, and pulled it over to a nearby fence. She sat down to smoke her cigarette and look over at the blazing brush and tree. Her face seemed to display no emotion, according to the biker.

"The people here care more about their landscaping than they do about ME!" she was heard to say. She told police she was from Ohio. Police also said there have been recent complaints here that landscaping features have been defaced, tipped over, and otherwise vandalized throughout the area.

The young woman was taken into custody. Arby's issued no formal statement that I heard about...although it was rumored that the incident really burned their buns.

1 member likes this

Comment by Paula Manning-Lewis on July 5, 2011 at 5:45pm: I don't think it's a case of caring about landscaping more than her, it's a case of everyone being on edge with the fires and dryness of EVERYTHING! Did she start the fire with her cigarette? Well, then, um......yeah, maybe you shouldn't start bushes on fire! DUH!

Comment by chantal on July 5, 2011 at 8:32pm: How utterly bizarre. I'm sort of speechless.

Comment by jes on July 6, 2011 at 9:15am: A friend told me this story: she was driving into town on south fourth. A car was parked by the side of the road and a man was standing by it smoking a cigarette, flicking his ashes into the surrounding dry weeds. He was standing in front of an "extreme fire danger" sign. Too bad she didn't have a camera. The road was deserted and she was afraid to stop, but a pickup truck came along and stopped and talked to the guy. WHAT IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE????

Comment by once banned twice shy on July 6, 2011 at 9:19am: A talking pickup truck? Will the wonders in this town never cease?

Comment by jes on July 6, 2011 at 1:00pm: It was a miracle.

Comment by Robert A. Martin on July 7, 2011 at 9:05pm: Well, perhaps not a miracle - go see Cars 2. ;-)

Comment by Another Mike on July 7, 2011 at 11:42pm: "People here care more about their landscaping than they do about ME!"

Nah, just in nob hill ;)

Comment by Dee Cohen on July 8, 2011 at 9:26am: Huh?I really don't get her logic. If she was on fire, she might get more attention. But the patch of landscaping was on fire, possibly caused by her. What kind of caring did she want?

Comment by EJackson on July 8, 2011 at 10:41am: Too funny! Not the fire, but the comments. And no, we don't care about her. We do, however treasure our poor thristy landscaping and wish some people had common sense, as dry as it is! That was a nice thing the biker did and I'm glad the police took her into custody. The newest news on the teen that started the Bosque fire is that he is being sentenced today. Perhaps a two year stint in the D home will cure him of his need to light matches and cause mischief. We are lucky it wasn't worse. His family might possibly be billed the $15,000 cost to put the flames out. I know what my parents would have done to me...and it isn't pleasant! A cowboy "A" frame would have been the punishment dealt to me doing something like that.

Comment by Robert A. Martin on July 8, 2011 at 2:55pm: Cowboy A-frame punishment? What the heck is that? Oof-da, not something we had in Minnesota.

Comment