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Daphne, ALPossible Peeping Tom Bagged ByCommunity Watcher, 72
Shown here with his shotgun and his as yet unidentified quarry handcuffed on the ground is retired business executive Chambers D. Galloway, 72, a member of Daphne’s Jackson Oak Citizens’ Community Watch, Inc., who made a middle-of-the-night citizen’s arrest of the man after he was seen peeping into the windows of a resident of the Lake Forest Yacht Club Condominiums, whom police declined to identify.
Four Daphne police cars, two Fairhope police cars, a Baldwin County deputy sheriff, and an Alabama state trooper converged on the scene to take the suspect off Mr. Galloway’s hands. The accused peeper will be held in the Daphne police jail while the investigation continues.
Mobile Register Photos By Charles E. Whelan
When the pictures and the story reached the Associated Press in Atlanta, the night man there also thought the yarn-and especially the pictures of the old guy with the shotgun-was funny, good human interest, and pushed the National button. This caused the photos and story to be instantly sent to newspapers all over the United States, which of course included those in Philadelphia.
The device that electronically chimed “Be It Ever So Humble” when the doorbell of the residence of Sergeant Matthew Payne was pushed had two controls. One provided a selection of the numbers of bars of music to be played, from Six to All, and the other was a volume control.
Detective Payne, who had few visitors to his home, and used the device primarily as a backup alarm clock, had set both controls to the maximum choices offered.
A full rendition of “Be It Ever So Humble” played at maximum volume in the small confines of the apartment had so far never failed to wake Sergeant Payne from the deepest sleep.
And so it did the following morning at 6:05 A.M. when the Wachenhut security guard, a retired police officer who both liked the young cop in the attic and was grateful for the bottle of Wild Turkey he’d been given for Christmas, rode the elevator up, laid a copy of the just delivered Bulletin on the floor outside the door to the attic, and pushed the doorbell.
Half awake, Sergeant Payne had just identified the sound, glanced through half-opened eyes at the time displayed on the ceiling, and decided he had a good half hour to get leisurely out of bed, when a female voice quite close to him brought him suddenly to full wakefulness.
“What the hell is that?” Detective Olivia Lassiter had asked, as much in alarm as curiosity.
Matt opened his eyes fully.
Olivia had been so startled by the music that she had suddenly sat up on the bed and not thought about pulling the sheet up to modestly cover her exposed bosom.
Jesus, she has beautiful breasts!
“That’s the newspaper,” he said.
“The newspaper?”
“The security guy rings the doorbell when he brings the paper up,” Matt explained.
Olivia
saw where his eyes were directed and pulled the sheet up over her chest.
“The cow, so to speak, is already out of the barn,” Matt said.
“What time is it?” Olivia asked, ignoring him.
Matt pointed at the ceiling. After a moment’s confusion, Olivia looked at the ceiling.
“My God, I’ve got to get out of here!” she said.
“Why?”
“Because I have to go home and change my clothes,” she said. “Something I didn’t think about last night.”
“Okay. I’ll take you, and we can get some breakfast someplace. ”
“I’m going to take a cab,” she said. “I should have taken one last night and gone home.”
“So we won’t be seen together, and someone will suspect what’s going on?”
“Exactly.”
“That cow, I have to tell you, is really out of the barn.”
