West Linn police try to answer all pleas from residents in distress, following a "no-call-too-small" philosophy toward community policing. But they went out on a real head-scratcher Wednesday night.

Officers rushed to the 5700 block of Skyline Drive at 11:29 p.m. because a resident reported that he was scared by a mysterious bright light shining through the trees. When they got there, they saw that it was, well . . . the moon.

The resident, somewhat chagrined, explained that he doesn't believe in UFOs, but there was something decidedly different about that bright light. The dense fog, he guessed, somehow may have made the moon – the same moon that has inspired poets for ages – seem threatening.

"Really," he said, "I'm perfectly sane."

Sgt. David Kempas, West Linn Police Department spokesman, just chuckled. He said the close encounter with the moon even tops an incident years ago, when officers rushed to Rosemont Ridge Middle School to investigate suspicious-looking men with hammers. Turned out that they were playing croquet.

Kempas said the Mysterious Moon Call marks a new high – or low, depending on how you look at it: "It really takes the cake."

Or would that be a Moon Pie?

-- Rick Bella