Ok, it's getting to me (Austin, Fort Hood: move to, area, cities)

[oldtoiletsmkgdflrpots]

What the heck was a helicopter with HUGE lights doing circling out back in the middle of the night? I was going to let it go but I find it necessary to ask. I was almost asleep and I hear this whop, whop, whop...thinking it's going to crash into the house. I look out and the copter is circling the wooded area shining the light. Who is it and what are they looking for?

[AustinSpartan]

Bad guys.

[oldtoiletsmkgdflrpots]

[jobert]

Police Helicopter.
Did you move to Austin from a rural area? - because "ghetto birds" are pretty ubiquitous in major cities.

In LA, they fly sorties of about 3 on weekend nights circling downtown just "waiting".

[jobert]

I was just pulling your leg about the police helicopter. It was probably a clown helicopter looking for a kids birthday party.

don't worry about it too much and get some rest.

[TexasHorseLady]

It likely was, indeed, the police looking for someone. The good news is that if you could see and hear the helicopter and lights, so could the bad gys and they were likely much more concerned with getting far, far away from there than with doing anything bad to you or anyone else right there.

It isn't common, though. I've seen such once in my time here in Central Texas, and that was, oddly enough, out here at the ranch, working its way down the creek that runs through our place and over to IH35, because someone had escaped from the prison up the way in Bartlett.

Now, we ARE in the helicopter flight training path for Fort Hood, so we see those pretty often, but they're higher (though still low), and they don't use the bright lights, though they do come in packs.

[oldtoiletsmkgdflrpots]

Originally Posted by jobert

I was just pulling your leg about the police helicopter. It was probably a clown helicopter looking for a kids birthday party.

don't worry about it too much and get some rest.

I'm going with this.

[blakesq]

It was Sarah Palin hunting pesky liberal "journalists".

Originally Posted by oldtoiletsmkgdflrpots

What the heck was a helicopter with HUGE lights doing circling out back in the middle of the night? I was going to let it go but I find it necessary to ask. I was almost asleep and I hear this whop, whop, whop...thinking it's going to crash into the house. I look out and the copter is circling the wooded area shining the light. Who is it and what are they looking for?

[TexasHorseLady]

One other possibility is that they were looking for a lost someone (toddler, older person who wandered away). That does happen sometimes.

[oldtoiletsmkgdflrpots]

Originally Posted by blakesq

It was Sarah Palin hunting pesky liberal "journalists".

Or Mark Sanfords mistress, er, soul mate, er, relationship that we don't understand...sniff, sniff.


sorry, not enough sleep and I'm feeling punchy. I better log off.