Manhole Drama

So the baby and I were watching tv a little earlier this evening when we heard a loud crashing sounding coming from the street below. Like good litte rubberneckers we ran to the window to check out the source of the disturbance. I had expected to find an auto accident because I definitely heard some sort of crashing metal sound, but instead saw this:


Well, actually this pic was taken a few minutes after I looked out the window. When I first looked out the guy who's standing next to the hole was down the street getting out of his suv which led me to believe (quite correctly) that he was the one who knocked the cover from the manhole. Anyway, after walked back to the hole, he picked up this long metal beam (seen in his hands), all the while looking really confused.

At the same time this was happening, these two older ladies who'd witnessed the whole thing tried to get the attention of two police officers to address the large gaping hole in the middle of the street. The two officers spoke with the ladies, shook their heads, and walked away:


Luckily, another officer who was dressed like court officer from the courthouse down the street came up and started to block traffic so cars wouldn't keep falling into the uncovered manhole. He also started rolling the overturned cover back to the hole. A short while later, I heard a lot of commotion -- I'd turned away to fix the baby's dinner -- and looked out again. Evidently someone called the fire department who seemed a lot more responsive than the NYPD:


Overall it hasn't been a very good day for the NYPD. Just saying.