Beacon Fire Department Headquarters

We had a less-than-positive experience with a firefighter at this station on Sunday.

A local compost collection bin is in the parking lot behind the station. My wife and I came to drop off our compost for the first time. We had started trying to open the lock box when a firefighter came out of the second-story back door of this fire station and started yelling at us: "What are you doing?!" We told him that we were just dropping off compost, and he continued to grill us from the balcony –
"Do you have the key?"
"No, the lock box has a code."
"Do you know the code?"
"Yes, we're just having some trouble with getting it open."

Eventually he appeared to be pacified, so I asked why he was suspicious of us in the first place –
"I was just seeing if you needed help."
"Oh, do *you* know the lock box code?" I asked.
"... No."
"Then how could you have helped?"
"Well, I could've seen if someone else here knew it."

By this point I had gotten the lock box open and emptied my bucket into the bin, so we left. I didn't know what to say to someone who could so quickly rationalize criminalizing behavior into an act of service.

If the Beacon Fire Department attacks house fires with the same level of vigor that this firefighter employed in this interaction with us, I'm sure they have great success.

The local fire department in Beacon. Thank you for your service!