The horrifying events of the past few days in the United States, the bombings in Boston and the explosion of the fertilizer plant in Texas, reminded me of a frightening incident that happened to me one evening in the pre-dawn hours. I was delivering newspaper bundles to carriers in Corunna a small town just south of Sarnia, Ontario. It was quite dark and very little to no traffic at that time of day. I was also putting newspapers in peoples mail boxes and all was quiet.

Suddenly there was a car approaching and it was travelling quite slow. That in itself was odd because at that time of night cars were usually flying down that stretch of road. I could see four or five people in the car and they seemed to be searching for something. I put it out of my mind and continued on. About twenty minutes later that same car passed me heading south. Shortly after it appeared again this time approaching me once more. It stopped on the opposite side of the road and a man got out and approached my van. I was a bit nervous given the time of night and the car full of people.

The driver wanted to know if I could tell him where the Lambton Generating Station was located, so I told him that it was south of Corunna. He said that is what he thought but he had been down that way and he couldn't find it. The way that he was talking made me quite suspicious, he was becoming argumentative so I told him that I was fairly new to the area and perhaps it was on #40 hwy. which was the next road over. I wished him luck and apologized for not being able to help him out. He crossed back to his car and I noticed that there was a lively discussion going on among the occupants.

They were all men from the middle east which made me wonder why they would be looking for a facility which provided the lion's share of power to the entire County of Lambton, in the middle of the night. On my way home after finishing my papers I stopped by the local police station but they were closed. The following morning I stopped in at the Sarnia Police Station and reported the incident. They thanked me for my efforts but said that it didn't happen in their jurisdiction so they could not take any action on it.

Later that day I made a trip to Corunna and stopped into the O.P.P. station. All of the officers were on patrol but the secretary said she would pass on my concerns when the officers returned She took my name and phone number but to this day I have never heard a word from anyone regarding this issue This incident happened shortly after 9/11, so I was mildly surprised that I had not been contacted about this event.

What can we do about protecting our friends, neighbours and our communities as an individual. My answer would be to remain vigilant and report any suspicious activity to the authorities or those people in charge. Make your voice heard and demand to have your information acted upon. Sometimes a well placed piece of information can save a lot of grief.