FLORA—Police Chief John Nicholson has taken steps to clear up what happened yesterday (10.18.12) at the First Christian Church on Fourth Street in Flora.
Nicholson reported to Disclosure that a church secretary was working there in the late afternoon (about 4 p.m.) when she had gone to the restroom, and stepped out of the stall at the ladies’ to discover what has described as being a hobo-type person, holding a rolled-up sleeping bag under his arm.
Neither one of them were reported as having said anything to each other, but simply stared for a bit before the secretary left the area and went to make a few phone calls, one of them to the city police.
As it turned out, city police were working with Clay County Sheriff’s Department personnel at the local firing range for range qualification, and pretty much every law enforcement officer in the county was there (about 20 in all). When Flora PD got the call, everyone was in the same location—the firing range—and, as a result, armed to the teeth and ready to roll.
Six officers responded to the church, and went inside the building to conduct a search and see where the hobo-dude had made off to. However, after a thorough search of the building, they simply didn’t find him, and the building was cleared and all was well.
Nicholson said there never seemed to be any danger, and he believed the guy was probably homeless and genuinely seeking some place of refuge…although his advice to the hobo would have been to have “done it a better way than going to the bathroom stall door and scaring the secretary.”
Nicholson said the likelihood, by the time his officers arrived, was that the man had headed back out to the highway or perhaps even the rail that runs through the middle of town….but he wasn’t in the church, as the officers went “top to bottom” ensuring that he hadn’t holed up in a cubby somewhere.
Multiple reports of folks observing what was going on at the church believed there was some kind of stand-off or SWAT maneuver, and made reports to that effect; Disclosure phoned FPD last night and clarified that there was nothing of the sort going on, but Nicholson believed it was best to ensure everyone knew what WAS going on as of this morning.