I live 5 miles from the center of the Town of Bradford. There’s not much excitement here in this rural community especially out where I live. It’s why we moved here from Bedford’s hustle and bustle in 1991. We love the outdoors and the privacy we have on our 27 acres. Yep, even a river runs through it…well, it’s really a brook and, unfortunately, I’ve never seen Brad Pitt fly fishing here although he and Angelina and the kids are welcome.
We regularly watch deer from our farmer’s porch. Beautiful herron’s land on our pond, and life is pretty simple and quiet most of the time. Sometimes we see bears and moose cutting through our property. Canadian geese make regular stops when migrating. Wood ducks mate and meander through the water. It’s peaceful and beautiful, and we’re blessed to live permanently in what many others would consider a vacation home.
Unbelievably, the peace was interrupted Monday when the little branch of Lake Sunapee Bank was robbed at knife point. Yep, it’s where I bank and I know all of the tellers by name and see them out and about elsewhere in the community.
I also substitute taught at the Kearsarge Regional School District for several years and fairly regularly saw Mark Laspesa,, the alleged bank robber, sweeping and going about his custodial duties. I talked to him there a few times and he helped me move some desks. He was always pleasant to me.
I was shocked to see his picture in the paper, click here, while he was in the midst of allegedly robbing my local bank. More accurately, "armed robbery" since apparently he had a knife.
Mr. Laspesa is most definitely the Dope of the Week. Why, you ask? He wears no disguise, he banks at the branch he alledgedly robbed, he uses his own car, the tellers and many people in town know him; when the police catch him, he still has the clothing and knife used in the robbery…need I go on!
It really makes me wonder why this quiet, former custodian would do such a stupid thing. Since he made it so easy to be caught, I can’t help but wonder what made him so desperate? I almost feel sorry for him, although I’m sure the very nice gals down at the bank may have been quite frightened. I’m sure I’ll see them later today, when I do some banking, and hear the entire story.
Of course, it’s all the town’s people have talked about since then. Well, at least it takes the focus off of what they usually gossip about. You know small towns; if they don’t know anything about you, they just make stuff up whether it’s true or not. Our family was verbally "victimized" by many townspeople shortly after we moved here because people "heard" we were in ministry.
The rumors were unbelievable and some of them were just plain bizzare. My husband and I tend to ignore such things, but when our 6-year old son came home from school one day and told us about some of the horrible things kids were saying to him about us, my husband took action.
He gathered as much information from people we know about who was saying what about us. He then showed up at these people’s doors who had been visciously gossiping about us and peacefully confronted them. He started out saying something like: "I understand you know alot about me and my family, but I don’t recall that we’ve ever met, so I thought I’d come introduce myself.
As people are prone to do, they were much less mouthy to his face and highly embarrassed. He told all of them that if they had any questions about what we "do" he’d answer any questions now, or they were welcome to come to our home and ask any questions and we would answer them. He also told them that if he heard anything else about us from them in the rumor mill, he would return again. One guy even profusely apologized. Many people merely tried to deny that they had said anything although hubby had some very specific details of what they had said, so eventually, whether they wanted to admit it or not, they knew they were "guilty."
Well, not surprisingly the rumors died completely and our son was never verbally assaulted again by his classmates. Word must have spread quickly, no doubt by the same rumor mill, that you best not talk about the Paris’s and spread lies because you’ll get a visit from Mr. Paris. While hubby is not a big guy, believe me as a former U.S. Army Ranger and Vietnam vet, he can be quite intimidating and to this day, most people know that you don’t want to piss him off by attacking his family in anyway. He’s very protective of all of us.
I give you some personal background information since if you live in the City, you may not know much about rural life. In fact, you may not even know many people living in your own neighborhood. However, you’re likely familiar with crime living in a City and maybe even familiar with gossip.
I seriously doubt that townspeople are living in fear, however, since the suspect has been caught. A sophisticated bank robber would probably pick a larger bank anyway then our tiny little branch, so I’m not too worried that a crime spree is imminent.
But, I do have to make Mr. Laspesa our Dope of the Week! I’m sure you’ll agree, it’s well deserved!