Non-emergency

My kids think I'm weird because I always get involved in things in public, like if I see someone doing something wrong, I call the police. I admit that I do this, but I don't see anything wrong with it. Call me codependent, but I feel compelled to get involved, and I believe that "evil takes over when good men do nothing".

Today we were walking the dogs at the park. When we walked past some bushes, we saw three backpacks stuffed in them. They didn't look like normal backpacks, and it seemed kind of odd, so we took a look. At first I wondered if they were backpacks from some kids skipping summer school. But when we opened them up, we found clothing, and novels, and even a stuffed animal. It looked more to me like someone was planning to run away and had packed some bags of stuff. We found an ID in one. It belonged to a High school student. There was also an ID of an older boy in there. We decided to call the non-emergency line to tell the police.

I saw a man washing his car, so asked to borrow his phone. He was very nice and let me call. The dispatcher asked me to wait by the park, and a police officer would be there shortly. But after a good half hour, I was still waiting. Finally my neighbor took her dogs back home and called to ask how long they would be. They said the officer was on the way.

I told the officer that it looked to me like someone was planning to run away. I told her we found ID in the pack. She asked me to show her. I wondered if legally she wasn't supposed to open it, because she asked me to. She took the backpacks with her and planned to try to find the owner.

I know this wasn't an emergency, but it just seemed odd to me. Some might say it was none of my business. But if that were my child hiding packs of clothing and belongings in the bushes, I would want to know!