Community Corner

Stalked a Governor And All I Got Was a Fake Gunman

On Monday, Mendham-Chester Patch editor Russ Crespolini tried to spy on Chris Christie having breakfast and then chased a helicopter after a gunman in the woods.

I am not going to say Monday was the strangest day I have ever had as a journalist (I think the day I was pressed into service running a newspaper for an editor who was arrested takes the cake on that one). But it was one of the more frenetic I have had in recent memory.

But it felt right.

I started off the day early,was going to where the proceeds would benefit the Mendham Township Library. 

Find out what's happening in Mendham-Chesterwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

And be attending I mean, the press wasn't invited so I was reduced to stalking the Governor and his entourage in order to get a photo to go with my story. It wasn't pleasant.

But it felt right. 

Find out what's happening in Mendham-Chesterwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

I thought straying too close to the Governor's protection detail was going to be my excitement for the day.

It turned out, I was wrong.

Before my story had finished uploading I got word there was a gunman on the loose in the woods near Hackettstown High School (a claim later dubbed unfounded). Long Valley editor Jason Koestenblatt was already on scene and I was dispatched to assist.

I like working with Jason. We both have young children, we both grew up in the area and we both take a lot of pride in what we do for a living and how we do it.

(I am going to leave out the part that in my first managing editor job Jason wrote clips for me...when he was in high school. That would make me feel old. And sad.)

The scene outside of Hackettstown High School was bursting with police, parents and media. It was a surreal scene as people milled about trying to glean what information they could from what sources were available.

As I spoke with the various folks there, I realized I was staring directly into pieces of my own life. I have only been with Patch since Mendham-Chester launched in January. I am fast approaching my three month mark, and have been thinking about my decision to come here. All of it came together on Monday in a way I could never have planned for.

As Jason and I exchanged notes and discussed how best to use our time there I took stock of the people surrounding me. Working the crowd was Abbott Koloff who I knew from my time at the Daily Record when I was just starting out. Abbott always wrote a great column. And he always made them seem effortless when I would labor over mine and they would turn out far inferior.

I also recalled when he would come over from the Dover office and use my desk he would steal my pens. And sneeze into my phone receiver.

The pens were really Gannett property, so I probably can't complain.

Bob Thomas for the Observer Tribune was there. Bob and Phil Garber have been putting in solid work on community news in print from the time I was a kid reading the Mount Olive Chronicle. Theirs were among the first news stories I ever read.

Todd Petty was there from the Warren Reporter. When I left the Daily Record it was to become the managing editor of the Warren Reporter and now Todd was carrying the same door key I used to use to get into my office.

Todd told me one of the reporters I knew from then was now the managing editor of the Cranford Chronicle, another posting I had as I built my career.

Some of the video news crew, focused on the flash of the event was reminiscent of the edicts from management when I worked for Bauer Publishing in Englewood.

It was my own personal walk down memory lane.

As Jason and I finished strategizing, word came that the search helicopter was being diverted to where a suspect was spotted.

As I hopped into my car, and headed off to chase the helicopter it occurred to me that being here, on this story, doing this job, for this organization was exactly where I was meant to be. Not behind a desk at Monmouth University.

It just felt right.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here