I was simply trying to take a few photos of businesses like Total Wine & Guitar Center at Cloverleaf Mall this morning so we’d have them in our Natick Report media library if needed in the future.

But what do I see when I arrive and pull in to the near0-empty Hampton Inn parking lot at 7:30am-ish?

Two Natick fire engines, another Natick Fire Department vehicle, two Natick Police cars, and a dozen or more masked people who were either working on the construction site at the mall or prepping for their retail days. All right in front of what I was going to photograph.

The excitement cleared out for the most part about 15 minutes after I got there, and the alarm that had been tweeting had been silenced. (Left a message with NPD just to double check on whether this was anything more interesting than it appeared to be…)