COMMOTION STARTLES NEIGHBORHOOD

Writer CARTHAGE, Mo. - Residents in the 1300 block of Maple Avenue were as
shocked as anyone Wednesday morning to discover that a large-scale federal
and state drug and firearms raid may have netted one of their neighbors.

Angela Nally, 1315 Maple Ave., awoke to find police cars blocking both ends
of the street where she has lived for years.

"They got out one of those - what do you call them? - battering rams," she
said. "I heard them say, 'Is there anyone in there?' I heard a crash."

Another neighbor, Toby Pauley, was awakened by the commotion at 1323 Maple Ave.

"I heard someone say, 'Open up or I'm coming in!'" said Pauley, who lives
at 1327 Maple Ave. "I got downstairs, and there were a whole lot of police
cars. I am not really sure what happened."

Another neighbor said she went to her front door, noticed a lot of cars
early in the morning and assumed a yard sale was under way. She asked not
to be identified.

Pauley and others on both sides of the street said they didn't know the
people renting the house. They said they had not seen any unusual activity
recently.

"We were all unaware that something was going on in that house," Nally
said. "We had not noticed anything, and we are all pretty observant."

Police had not cordoned off the area with crime tape, but neighbors said
FBI agents and others remained at the house for several hours.

Residents said they were concerned about the alleged illegal activity,
especially because Mark Twain Elementary School is a half-block away, and
another neighbor runs a day-care operation across the street from the house
that was raided.

"This is a quiet neighborhood," said City Councilman Don Stearnes, 1301
Maple Ave., who said he was not informed beforehand about the raid. "There
was no idea we had those persons in the neighborhood. Everybody in the
neighborhood watches out for everybody."

Gail Smith, who lives near McCune-Brooks Hospital, said she heard
helicopters and saw floodlights during the early morning raid.

Smith said that when she went to town, all the streets were full of cars,
and she saw U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service buses.

Shawn Dough said he noticed helicopters flying everywhere, and he drove
near the Carthage Police Department to find out what was happening.

"They're persecuting the Mexicans is what they told me," Dough said,
referring to comments by some of his Hispanic neighbors. "If they have
legal papers, they have every right to be here."

Roberta Sade, owner of the Oldies and Oddities Mall on the Carthage square,
said: "The first thing I heard is that they came in and got all the
immigrants, and someone else said they're practicing civil defense. They
had all kinds of ideas and stories."

Sade said people in town were not used to so many helicopters.

"Someone else said maybe it has something to do with terrorists," she said.

Vanessa Arollo, 15, who helps out in her uncle's Angelitos Restaurant, said
it was quiet Wednesday afternoon.

"Usually, by this time, a lot of Hispanics come here to cash checks or
something, and they haven't come by," Arollo said.

She said Hispanics also come to buy blankets and candy, and to ask
questions if they need English translations for job applications or letters
they receive in the mail.

Staff writer Andy Ostmeyer contributed to this report.