The Street Lamp Pt. 3

The Street Lamp
Part 3

The police officer approached the judge’s stand with a signed form. “Your honor, I am requesting a warrant for arrest for an individual by the name of Wallace Young.”
“Okay,” said the judge, “and what is the probable cause?”
“Sir, two weeks ago, following the lead of a phone call of a citizen of Sioux City, and some investigation of two Sioux City employees, three people were found as hostages or prisoners of war as Wallace Young referred to them, twenty feet below the ground surface in a man made dirt cave.”
The judge looked up from the paper he was just handed with a surprised look on his face and said, “Are you serious? How were these people found?”
The officer took a breath and added, “Well sir, most of what the information I am giving you is from the other sources I have just mentioned and also from the sworn testimonies of the three hostages.”
“Okay, go on,” said the judge now curiously intrigued. He had heard hundreds of different cases, yet this was very different.
“Sir, it all started out with an elderly citizen and his wife. They were walking along the road and the husband noticed that a street lamp was flickering a message in Morse code. A relative of a city employee also confirmed the Morse code message. The message read, ‘Help us,’ and ‘Beware of the thing that comes out at night.’ With this information, two other city employees did some digging and found an irregularity in the electrical cables. The cables were connected to allow the street lamp to flash the message in Morse code. The employees did some more digging under the cables and found a man-sized tunnel leading into the ground. At that point the employees discovered the three hostages in the tunnel.”
The judge sat in awe at this obviously true, yet bizarre story. He wanted to find out more, but wasn’t sure where to start. After a moment of thought, he proceeded with another question. “How did the people get down in the tunnel and how did the Morse code message get there?”
“Well it all starts with Wallace Young. He is a Vietnam War veteran, which is what led him into becoming senile. He has been in and out of mental institutions for a number of years. Apparently he has been under the impression that there is a war going on and he felt the need to find some prisoners of war. We believe that he randomly followed and stalked a married couple near his home and chloroformed them both one night on a nightly walk, and then did the same to the other hostage while he was out for a night stroll on his own,” the officer said taking a pause. “He took them all into an underground dirt bunker attached to his basement. He fed them with table scraps and took other various things into the underground bunker for reasons we still haven’t figured out. With the items he took down to the bunker, the two men were able to dig a tunnel to the surface, yet were only able to dig up in a limited amount of space, as much of the subsurface dirt was incredibly rocky. The space they dug through happened to lead them to the electrical cables for what they assumed was some sort of light. With the help of a guide to Morse code, which Wallace also brought down to the bunker for his own purposes, the two men were eventually able to setup a message in Morse code through the electrical cables. At that point, this was there only hope and chance to send any sort of message. While in the bunker, Wallace only appeared to the hostages four times. When he did appear to the hostages, he only talked of a war going on up on the surface and the need to take hostages or prisoners of war. The hostages were on very poor health when they were found and are now in critical condition in the local hospital. This is all the information we have, but as you can see, it is very involved and very bizarre.”
Following the lengthy description of the strange events, the judge sat staring at the officer. “All this happened right here in this town?”
“Yes, sir,” said the officer.
“Well, I honestly feel a little speechless.” He picked up his reading glasses and studied the form that was given to him and shook his head slowly. He grabbed a pen lying in front of him and after a few seconds of studying the paper, he signed the bottom and handed it back to the officer. The officer thanked the judge and walked back out of the courtroom.
Every street lamp on Cherokee Way that flickered was checked for any traces of Morse code, but none were ever to be found again.