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1998 ARCHIVES These pages are filled with some of the earliest stories I've written. I don't even know if I have stories saved to disc that are older than these. The stuff written within these pages are written during the infancy of a police career and during the infancy my writing skills. Yawn! Slow night...KABOOM! Radar Detects a.......Pregnant Woman? Ain't No Lyin' Dangerous Domestic.... Double Deuce Lil' woman beats up hubby Bump in the night Rapist gets thumped Dumb Druggies Too late to chase
Yawn....
11-13-98 Well last night was a slow night to say the least. Sorry, but the hardest thing that I had to do was to stay awake. REALLY, it would be pretty embarrassing to say the least if I were to run off the road and take out a fence or something. It has been done, maybe not exactly but there is an old black motorcycle helmet at the station and whenever somebody wrecks a car (no matter how little the damage), that officers name is posted onto the hat forever. I PRAY that I never have the opportunity to sign that hat. I guess that because that it was Friday the 13th I spent most of the night turning around my car whenever a black cat ran out into the roadway. Just kidding. (I only did that three times) The night started out as usual in briefing. We talked about some of the action that had gone on earlier on the day and afternoon shifts. There was not a whole lot to speak of, maybe a family fight or two. A stolen truck to pass on and one that was located. Nothing real exciting. When I got in to the car another officer had just gotten his in-car computer installed. It seems that when they did it, they somehow deprogrammed his car radio. The poor guy was forced to use his portable all night. The problem is that you have such a strong habit of grabbing that microphone that I bet he went nuts every time they called his name. LOL Like I mentioned my night was fairly slow. I started the night off with an alarm at a local care clinic. The place is huge and the responsible wanted us to look through the whole building. There was no forced entry, just a common door alarm. It was also obvious that the cleaning people had just left. But we searched the whole building. Me and the other officer did the best we could, but to be honest lets say that there was a "bad guy" in there-----There is no way we'd have found him. He could have snuck past us in one stairwell while we were in another. But for the sake of making this guy feel better we searched the place. The worst thing was when we came into the pharmacy area I set off a motion detector. It was a BLARING HORN!!! Right in my left ear, I think my eardrum is still ringing. After that I backed some other officers on a fight in progress. It was one of the same guys that we have already dealt with several times this month. Its kinda funny how that works. We seem to deal with the same people all the time. In a city of nearly 100,000----I could name 20 guys that cause 30% of the crime in the city. I'd bet that every city is like that. When it gets late, our city likes us to enforce curfew laws against juveniles. That is another huge percent of the crime. Tonight I stopped two juveniles riding bikes. They said that they were going to a city about 10 miles north to babysit. I did not believe that for a second. After a couple phone calls I found that one is a runaway on probation for a bunch of auto burglaries and several other petty crimes, (smoking, curfew, etc.) The other kid was not supposed to be out either. I cited both for curfew. But when I patted the first kid down I found a small pill bottle. I asked him what it was and he said pills. I shook it and it was liquid inside. Turns out that it was some hard liquor that he stole from the other kids parents. I charged him and called his mother----she said that she could not come out to get him because she had just taken some Valium. I told her that was fine and dropped the kid off at the youth receiving facility. There they hold him for a max of 12 hours. The problem with that place is that its not a lock down. This means that the kid can play nintendo for a few hours and then take off again. This is one of the few beefs that I have with our juvenile (un)justice program here. Not much after this, another alarm and a report of a lost teenager driving a Lexus. (She came home just after the report was taken) Stay in touch. Russell
Tonight I got into the station about 20 minutes early. I personally like to do that because I can get more focused on the night ahead. (Sounds kinda corny) But like to get in and check if I have new court dates and check the work email system and so on. Also I get a chance to see a lot of the guys on other shifts so I can stay in touch. At 2100 hrs (9 pm) we started briefing, now to give you a visual its kinda like the movies. We are all there and a shift SGT. tells us the scoop on the days events preceding our shift. We are quite relaxed though. We sit at a large table. All gathered around. (Usually picking on somebody, like a group of "normal" guys. They talked about how earlier this afternoon a package was received by a local business. The package was very strange and they called police. It seems that the box was labeled strangely and a few other oddities made the box appear that it was possibly a bomb. Well our officer raced down and did their thing. Since none of our officers are bomb tech's we called out the local bomb specialist. They X-rayed it and noted that it looked very much like it could be the real thing. They ended up detonating it out in a land fill somewhere. It made all of the local news,. I am not sure if it was national. It was quite a big deal. Looking back everybody did really well. The employee's called it into us and our officers arrived and approached it very professionally. I am not sure what the final outcome of that was. After that in briefing they said that swing shift took 16 accidents in 6 hours. That is a ridiculous number of accidents because the weather was clear and dry all night. Just a weird night. Normally there might be 4-8 accidents on a single shift. My night was slow. I unlocked a car for a couple. They were very appreciative, it was a Hyundai, it took about 3 seconds. I like it when I get lucky like that. One good call I help on was at a local park. Another officer came up on a car parked in a dark area of a closed park. There were three occupants and all were very jumpy and nervous. The other officer said that he smelled the odor of marijuana. I watched the occupants while the other officer searched the vehicle on a verbal consent search. He found a baggie on the passenger full of marijuana. The other two occupant stated that they knew nothing about the drugs. I ran them through a couple of quick physical tests. I concluded that they both had been smoking marijuana. All three denied it. We could smell it distinctly but since the one guy possessed it we charged him. If I had more than 18 months of experience I would have charged all three based on the totality of the circumstances. After talking to the other two occupants the hinted that they had been smoking tonight but were afraid of getting in trouble. After that another officer drove up on what appeared to be a vehicle burglary in progress. A short foot chase started and we all raced to help. I followed the tracks in through several back yards in the area. But we were unable to find the two. That made the night a bit more exciting. Stay in touch, Russell
In briefing we went over a few addresses where there we family fights and such that we may be called back on. And then there was the typical "dumbest" criminal of the day story, it seems there is always one. I guess that a guy got arrested for a small traffic warrant and a few hours later the father brought in all the money he could scrape up on a Fri afternoon to bail the guy out. Well when dad got there they ran a quick warrants check on him and........ yup, you guessed it. Dad had a warrant. He was booked and the son went to try and find a way to get dad out. I thought that was a classic. It seems to happen a lot though. (Another funny thing about that....dad is still there RIGHT NOW!!!!) Another officer had a college student riding along, for some class he is taking. The kid wanted to stay out after the other officer got off when I came on duty so he rode with me for several hours. Its tough on me, I think. I try hard not to say something that he may take out of context. For example, one way "we" cops deal with a stressful situation is to joke about it. Sometimes the punch lines in those jokes become second nature and you blurt out something that sounds really bad to a non law enforcement person. (I hop I have not lost you). Another thing I try to do is educate them while I am working and its tough because they never hear the radio (Its second nature to us) and they always try to talk over it. Now this guy was a great guy, very intelligent and on the ball, so I am not knocking him, I guess I am just stating a few facts. Anyway there is the problem with the radio and then if there is a good active call I need to leave them in the car while I go deal with the problem. That, I am sure is boring. I try hard to answer all their questions and that kind of thing, but I am trying to work too. I guess I should shut up over the whole ride along thing. Because I like have another person there to BS with but at the same time it is distracting. The first call I took was a tow truck driver who had been in the process of towing a car for parking on a red curb when the owner came out and yelled at the driver and them got into the car and backed it off of the tongue of the tow truck. There was no damage but the tow truck driver said that his car hit the ground HARD. I think that the driver of that car is just plain dumb. Mostly cause now I am gonna find him and chew him out for making me do a big ole hairy report. Another funny thing that happened when I was running radar. I stopped a car for going 17 over in a residential area. When I got him stopped he said "My wife is in labor" I was like, "Ya right, drivers license, registration and insurance information........yadda, yadda, yadda. Well then she yells at me, and I recognized that yell from the passenger side of the car, cause I have kids....... I looked in and her belly is poking out and her face is all red and she says WE ARE ON OUR WAY TO HAVE A BABY!!!!!!!! I dropped the stuff in the car and said be careful. hheheheh I am not getting her any more mad than that. Like I said I have kids, and I have seen a women that close to giving birth. A ticket at that time is a bad idea. After that there was a couple of alarms and I took a family fight where the guy had torn up the whole place. He said that he was looking for his keys. I told him that I hoped he did not find them cause then I'd have to lock him up for driving drunk. He was smashed. I am not sure if I have ever been to a family fight without the influence of alcohol. That's not to say that non-drinkers are perfect, it just means that they are probably more apt to handle family problems better. I am gonna go out on a limb and say they have less dents in their cars too. :-) It got slow after 2:30 and a couple of us looked at jail booking photo's and laughed about all the weird people that we had put in jail. Whenever we saw a photo either of us recognized, there was a funny story that followed. The best one that I told was about this 18 year old girl that was SOOO drunk she was swaying when she sat down. Anyway while I was assisting in booking her in, this other officer was getting her finger prints. Well he let go of her hand and turned away and she stumbled back......She fell right into a huge round garbage can. All that stuck out of the can was two feet and too hands. The rest of her was in the bottom of this can. Well we were both laughin so hard that we didn't even think to get her out of the dang can. She was sayin, "I am so sorry", I still chuckle about that. :-) Well if you like police stories check out the new addition to my site, police stories. Some are quite funny and some are very serious. For more stories go to Keith's Drunk driving page, there is a link to it on subscribers links at my site, there are some good police stories on his site too. Stay in touch. Russell
Ain't no
lyin' It seems that this week has already been particularly long. I worked Mon. and Tue. and the local College police dept., where I put in a few hours for as a part time job. The work there is more laid back, but you still need to be alert and aware of the things that are going on around you. Also, on Tue. I had a court date to attend on a case that I wrote a girl a citation for Driving on suspension. She did not even show up to court. The judge issued a warrant for her arrest. I hate going to court because I feel like they are judging my credibility. I know that it is everybody's right to go in front of the judge but I just don't feel comfortable yet. It does remind me of the need to take VERY good notes and write good reports with all of the information. Then Yesterday morning I had a mandatory meeting that all of the city workers needed to attend. The main topic of the meeting was "sexual harassment", this a a meeting that we all have to go to every year. The insurance company for the city makes several meetings mandatory each year. It is just hard as an officer to go in on your day off for things like court and meeting all the time. But I guess that it is one of those things that you trade to have such a great job. Luckily I knew the people teaching the meeting and they were very good about getting us all of the information as quickly as possible so it was quite painless. (Long meetings are so hard to sit through, yuck) Last Night was very cold and slow but there was a couple of funny things that happened. In briefing they passed on some information about a "home invasion" robbery that took place just a few hours earlier. Three young boys (16-18) knocked on this elderly gentleman's front door and after he questioned their motives for being there, they forced their way into the home. They all three beat him up and tore his house apart. Then they took a bunch of items, including his wallet with some money. I believe that they will catch all three of the kids before the end of the month. I believe that there is a reward out there and several detectives that are working on the case. I took several calls last night. One was a gal that locked her keys in her truck. Luckily it was a Ford and I can pop those open in about 3 seconds, this one was no different. Then there was a couple of false alarms at local business. Although you can never approach any alarm as if it is false. You always need to approach as if there is an armed gun man watching out waiting for you. The best call I took would probably qualify for the dumbest criminal of the day award. I got called to a hit and run accident. When I arrived I talked to the owner of a car. He told me that he was watching T.V. when he heard a loud "boom" outside. He ran outside to see that an unknown person had slammed into his parked car. His car was nearly totaled. The neighbor lady ran over to me and said "I saw the car that did this, it was a black colored SPORTS CAR that sped away to the north." So I began collecting pieces of the damage that was on the ground. I was able to find several blue pieces of paint, also a piece of headlight from a Ford. So knew at least that it was a blue ford. I took all of his information and filled out an accident report. Well at the same time another officer was called to a completely separate hit and run accident. Well I was listening and he said that he thought that the vehicle that hit the car he was investigating was black. So I dismissed it as being at all related to me accident. Just as I was finishing up two guys drive up and said that they knew who had hit this car. I asked if they knew FOR SURE. They said "ya I went to school with her". Then I drove over to the girls home and I was calling for a back-up officer, because you never know how somebody is going to act when they get accused of a crime. The funny thing that happened was, just as I arrived and I was telling where I was, I looked up to see another officer standing on the middle of the street. I was confused. I mean how the heck could he know that I was coming there. Then it hit me, I looked up and saw that he was taking a hit and run accident-----THE CAR WAS A BLUE FORD!!!! I talked to the person that he was taking the report from and she stated that she was at the store when an unknown person hit her car and took off. I told her that I knew for a fact that it was her sister that was driving. Her face dropped. She was silent. I could tell that she was trying to think of a quick story to tell me. But I stopped her again and told her that I had two witnesses already and she needed to go get her sister. After we got the whole story out in the open I was able to determine that the younger sister had borrowed the car and was on her was to the store when she accidentally hit the parked car. Well she knew that she did not have a valid Drivers license so she took off. She raced home and told her sister (who did have a valid license) that somebody had hit her car and took off. The older sister (with her valid DL) called police to make a hit and run report. It was great when we figured the whole thing out. I just love listening to somebody lie when I know the whole truth. When you catch them lying to you, it just makes you laugh inside. Well we ended up with several charges on both girls and now they both have a mandatory court date with a judge who does not like to deal with those who lie. I told them both that they would be better off just telling the truth in court. Both were crying by the time it was all over. Me and the other officer just held our smiles until we met in a church parking lot around the corner to compare stories. We both laughed at a job well done. Russell **Reminder** Please visit the message board at Life on the beat. There are a lot of good question being asked by future officers. Since I have only tested with two departments I don't have all of the answers that they are looking for. If any subscribers have some advice feel free to post it on the message board. Russell
Dangerous
Domestic.... Last night was finally quite busy for a change. While that is good for you all, it means that I am running my rear end off all night. Awe, but we all know that's what it is all about. :-) The night started of in briefing. There is a big custody issue going on in the south end of town. Some gal is causing problems harboring a runaway. I guess that there was some threats made and it blew up into a big ordeal for the swing shift officers. They ended up arresting the gal because of a small warrant but I guess that she is now going to SUE the CITY!!! (It's not like that threat is not made at least once a day) No arrests made on the home invasion suspects. I think that I predicted that by the end of the month. I'll keep you updated. My night started with a call from a resident living in a condo. He has a neighbor that has a candle making company in her condo (right next door). He called to complain that he is sick of the odor all the time. Well the problem is that it is not illegal for her to melt wax, so there was not a whole lot that I could do. What I did do though was at least make him happy. I did the correct P.R. thing and told him that I would make an official report of the incident and also I would speak to her. He took me into his condo to smell the odor and to be honest it is the same candle smell that my wife pays 10-20 bucks for at these candle parties. (and he gets the fragrance for FREE) LOL. Well I did not tell him I thought he was over reacting---but he was indeed. When I went to her condo she explained how she was a single mother and this was a small business that she started herself. She had about 1000 new candles that it looked as if she had just poured into those little jars. Heck I was more interested in her business plan than I was in the darn call. But I told her of the complaint and she named the guy in about 1 second who made the complaint. I explained that I could not confirm that this was in fact the complainant. She just winked. I wished her luck. She said that the business was so big that she was going to get a warehouse next month. After that I got a call of a State Trooper who had followed a truck that was traveling recklessly on the freeway. He call dispatch for back-up so he could write the driver a citation. As I arrived I realized that the truck was at the emergency room entrance of the hospital. It was clear to me that the driver had an emergency and that was why he was driving like he was. But, this trooper was not satisfied--he wanted to ticket the guy. Well I went into the hospital--to humor the trooper. I found the driver--holding his sick baby to a table so the doctors could examine it. I then walked out. I told the trooper that I was not going to issue the citation. He gave me a look, but I just kept walking. (Sometimes there are reasons to drive recklessly and if my kids are hurt that is definitely one of them) I wondered if that guy would be the type to ticket his own mother on christmas for 5 over the limit on the freeway. Probably. After that I unlocked a car door, wrote a few citations, (Now, don't even think that. They were all in residential area's and all were 18+ over the limit) and answered a two or three alarms---all false. Just about the time I began to relax. We got the call of the night. A man was calling saying that his girlfriend had just woke him up be sticking a shotgun in his side. We FLEW over there. I was on scene first but I parked about 3 houses away and began to walk to the home. I saw the other two units round the corner for back. Just then at the home we were going to I heard a loud shriek from a female. I saw an adult female run out of the house---no shotgun, but highly enraged!!! She was heading for a suburban parked in the driveway. I knew that if she got it started and out of the driveway there would be trouble. I began to run toward her. People were coming from the home behind her but I jumped in front of them, I could hear the other two officers' vehicle coming up behind me so I knew that I had good back-up. I opened the door of the suburban just as she started the engine and threw it into gear. I jumped in and grabbed the key and turned it off--I threw the keys over my should out of the vehicle. I then got ahold of both of her hands and began to remove her from the vehicle. She was absolutely out of control. Another officer came and helped pry her from the vehicle. I looked up to see what turned out to be her kids in the doorway of the home. I felt bad about having to force her to the ground but with her state of mind we were forced to do so. We got her cuffed up and she began to calm down, though she had long steaks of mascara running down both cheeks. After we got her in the car I went inside to get the story of what had happened. They stated that she attempted to load a shotgun and kept pointing it at the people in the home. The only problem that she had was that the 30-30 shells she had in her hand did not fit into the shotgun very well. While we were in the home somebody said "where is the knife?" I wish that they had not said that.......cause I went outside and found the biggest kitchen knife I had even seen right on the seat where she was sitting when I pulled her out of the truck. I am telling you that if she wanted to cut me, I would be "deader than a can of salmon" right now. (that's how they say it on our shift) When I leaned over to turn off the vehicle she had her right hand free, and she could have stuck that knife right in my neck or face. After going over it a hundred and one times I think that I would to the same thing again. The fact is, if she would have driven that truck away, in her state of mind she would have killed someone. There is no doubt that it would have been worse had I let her get that vehicle moving. I am thankful that it all turned out like it did, but it goes to show that even when you do everything just like you are trained, thing might go wrong. Luckily in this case she went to jail and I am here writing an email. Stay in touch, Russell
Double
Deuce.... Hi Everyone, Last night was very busy. All of the officers spent much of the night running from call to call. I started my night off directing traffic at an injury accident. Because was the the initial officer on the scene another officer did the investigation. I do know that several people went to the hospital. It was quite a bad accident.. I answered a few calls that consisted of unlocking vehicles and solving small civil problems. About midnight we got a call of an intoxicated male that had just broken into his ex-girlfriends home. She was hiding in a back bedroom and dispatch could hear him yelling and kicking the door when she called 911. We arrived and took him into custody. Luckily he did not out up much of a fight. In his state of mind you just never know how he may react to our presence. As I was transporting him to the jail he went bolistic. He was threatening to punch me when I got him uncuffed. He just kept up all the way into the jail. I simply called for another officer to be present while I booked him in. Its so funny to see how drunks change personality. One minute they will be in a huge rage and then the next they might be thanking you for helping to solve their problems. This guy was the same way. As soon as we got to the jail he was calm and cool. He was trying to figure how much bail was and telling me that he knew he was wrong. In the jail we all just kinda laughed as he made several dumb comments while I processed him. (Photo, fingerprints, etc.) Needless to say he spent the evening with us. After that I arrested a runaway female. She had been gone from home since last March. She also had warrants for missed court dates. I just transported her to the youth detention and dropped her off. Since we now have in car computers, when it starts to slow down a couple of us will meet in a parking lot somewhere and type up out reports. It is just a little safer to park next to another officer while you are not paying total attention to your surroundings. As I was getting finished on my reports an alarm call came in. The SGT asked if I would respond as back since the normal back-up officer was busy on his own reports. So I started out to the alarm. I was trying to hurry because I was quite a ways out. As I came up to a light on out main road through town I saw a vehicle coming from my left at a very high speed. My light went green and I slowly eased out. Luckily I saw the guy and I stopped and waited for him to blow the light. Now had I not looked at him and knowing that I was in a hurry to back on the alarm, He would have definitely hit me at over 60 mph. I looked as he went by and he did not even seem to pay attention, he just looked straight ahead. Needless to say I called the Sgt. and told him what I had. He said that he would back on the alarm and I should stop the guy. As soon as I approached the guy I could tell that he was out of it. I asked for his DL, registration and insurance. He just kinda looked around acting as if he were in a dream or something. As soon as another officer arrived I got him out and did field sobriety. He flunked everything. I took him to jail and he later told me that he had already been arrrested my another nearby agency and but they took him home because of the medication that he needed. He said that he had a friend come and pick him up so he could go get his car. That blew my mind. He had been arrested for DUI once tonight and now he almost hits me and I have to arrest him. Russell
Lil'
Woman Beats Up hubby Whew,
Tonight I ran from the beginning of my shift to the end. I had a friend
that I went to the police academy (who works now for another city) riding
along. It was fun because we did all of the training together and this is
the first time we got to see each others styles. Its really a luxury
having another officer in the vehicle with you, he can listen for details
that I don't have time to pay attention to because you are driving and
also the safety factor is comforting. The first call (of substance) that I
took was a family fight in progress. When I got there I waited outside and
could hear verbal argument going on inside. When knocked on the door a
female answered crying and sobbing. Her husband was a pretty big guy
standing right behind her. My first thought was HOW THE HE** are we gonna
arrest that guy. (cause it seemed obvious by his size who must have been
the aggressor). I began to talk to him and my partner talked to the
wife. His face was all scratched up and bleeding. He said that they were
yelling but then she started hitting him. He just took it. She basically
agreed. Hmmm......that surprised me..... When I told him that by state law
I would need to arrest her he stated that he was lying before and that she
did not touch him. He said "Oh yea, I fell down some stairs or
something", I talked to him and told him that she would see the judge
Mon. morning whether I took her to jail tonight or not. She convinced me
that she would leave. I decided that I would just cite and release her
with a mandatory court appearance for Monday. He was upset by that
decision, what a joke. Russell
Bump in
the night Last night was one of the busiest nights I have ever worked. I am not sure of the reason, I guess that its because everybody has the long weekend so they are all out and about. My wife wanted to come out so I picked her up shortly after briefing. In the past whenever she came out its so slow that she thought all we cops do is drive from one parking lot to another and pull up next to each other. Tonight changed that perception. I started off with a shoplifter call. A 17 year old got caught stealing Robitussin from a local grocery store. I chewed on him pretty good. It's funny though because you can almost pick out the kids that you'll run into again in this job. This kid was not one of them. He was a good kid that made a dumb decision in order to impress him friends. Although you could see it in his demeanor and the truthfulness in his answers I was still very firm with him, this way he realizes that it truly is a serious thing that he has done. The rest of the night seemed to bring out the more habitual criminals. In jail already was a guy that I arrested a couple months ago when he sliced his own arm open with a beer bottle. That night he went into an emergency room saying that he was jumped and stabbed. I figured it out and took him in on false police reports. Tonight, he was acting up in the jail. I guess that the Sgt. told him that he could be released in the morning when sobers up. Other wise he would have to stay in jail until Mont. next court day. Well he did real well for about 2 hours. I was surprised that it took that long. Dispatch called and said that he was acting up so I went in to the jail to check on him. He was EATING the toilet paper and also covering up the cameras in the cell. I got upset at him and said that he needed to lay down and go to sleep or I would suggest that he stay till Monday. It was funny, he laid right down and I never hear from him again. (They were letting him out this morning) After that I took a family fight, helped push a car out of the intersection, told about five parties to be more quiet because they were generating complaints. Oh, yea and I answered a prowler call. The reporting person is this gal who lives alone but its rumored that she is big time drug dealer. She calls every time there is a weird sound outside. I have been there twice for that and twice for out of control parties. Anyway, its so funny how in this day and age people call the police for every little thing---a suspicious sound, a shadow, ect. I'll bet in the old days when there was a bump in the night they found other ways to solve the problem. At about 0400 a county deputy called to advise that a prisoner had just escaped from him. I guess that he had the guy all cuffed up and in the seat of the patrol (truck). When the officer went to giver the tow truck driver the information, the guy spit. We set up a perimeter but we were never able to locate him. The funny thing is that his truck was impounded and they knew exactly who the guy was. The guy took off so fast that the Deputy never saw what way he ran. We never did find that guy. Although I know that he will turn up sooner or later. Russell
Rapist
gets thumped If anybody is counting, yes I did miss an email yesterday. But I'll include it in this mornings email. I can only blame it on my wife and her family. You know----the delayed Thanksgiving thing. Its tough to work all of the holidays, and still try to celebrate them with the family too. The night before last was quite slow except for a Rape that occurred. The only details that I had better give is that it is a real clear case of Rape. The best thing that happened was that the female went directly to the hospital and reported it. So many times they go shower and whatever and call us the next day. Well, most of the time those cases are practically lost before we ever file charges. I think that there is a great chance that this guy will go to prison. It was not a brutal rape at all---if there is such a thing---but the circumstances make it a good case. You'll all be glad to know that her friends beat the snot out of him before we ever got to him. The ironic thing was that they were at the same hospital in adjacent rooms when we realized that he was our suspect. He had a nasty slice on top of his head from a beer bottle. (For some reason I did not feel bad for him) Last night was steady but not really too busy at all. In briefing they reported a couple of stolen vehicles and one that was recovered. My first call was a juvenile shoplifter. She was a 16 female that had a real tough attitude at first but when she realized I was calling mom and dad she started sobbing. I admit that I really do not have a lot of sympathy for "thief's" either. I just get upset when I think about the amount of disrespect that is for a person to take another persons possessions. The thing about this case is that she is a juvenile and it will be a slap on the hand for her. I don't mind chewing them a little bit while I write the citation, because I want them to realize that this is a serious offense. Then there was a family fight. It was all just verbal but then we ran checks and the husband had a warrant for not showing up to court the last time he hit her. He'll be sleeping on a cot till at least Mon. ----the next time there is court. After that I wrote a few citations. All were 20+ over the speed limit. Most people going that fast just sign the ticket and not argue. They realize that it was a conscious effort to go that much over the speed limit. I usually say something like "Remember its that holidays, we don't need anymore tragedies this weekend. There was one medical call tonight. This elderly lady had fallen and hit her head on a chair. She was bleeding all over the floor. She also made quite a scene when they put her on the gurney. I think that she may have broke some of her back bones. Her poor husband was looking on. It was so sad to see this nice old couple going through such agony. Their home was the classic grandpa and grandma home. The orange chairs and orange shag carpet. Then there was grandma screaming on the bedroom floor. I really hate to see stuff like that when you can see all of the reality----photo's of the kids, photo's of the grand kids, homely furniture, ect. Well they finally took her to the hospital I am not sure of the outcome and I doubt that I will ever look her up---Its just much easier that way. Stay in touch and have a safe holiday. Russell
Dumb Druggies Once again just as I was getting off work this morning I got into a big hairy traffic stop. Dispatch advised of a fight in progress between a male and female. A caller on a cell phone was watching the two while he called us on a cell phone. He said that they got in to a vehicle and started down the road, well they headed right for where I was headed from. Then suddenly, right in front of me she made a U-turn and began to drive recklessly down the road---right in front of me---Well I then did a traffic stop on the car. I got her out (because I wanted her to be away from him so if she felt threatened she would feel ok to talk to us) She was a wreck, crying and sobbing. Her eyes and face was all red. Well to make a long story short she ended up being drunk and lied about everything. Her boyfriend also lied about everything including his name, address and date of birth. Both were drinking and both were minors. After arrests were made and such, I searched the vehicle and found several items of drug paraphernalia. Also there was some interesting photos of a female using drugs in the photos. That takes a lot of brains. Most of the night was slow so I did a lot of traffic stops. I usually run radar in areas of the city where we get a lot of complaints. What's funny about that is sometimes when I tell an offender that we get a lot of complaints in the area of speeders, they occasionally answer "I was one of the ones who called", that's always a good chuckle. Today is my "friday", but I do have a training class on Monday. That should be interesting. Then I have court again next week on a DUI. I hate those. But it is overtime I guess. I wish that I had more to write about but it was pretty slow. There is a lot you that I rarely hear from. I would like to get some feedback from more people. If you have any suggestions or comments feel free to add them. Just send me an email to Russell@l... and I will respond as soon as possible. Also, just a few quick reminders about http:www.lifeonthebeat.com. The message board is now working again and I am always taking story's for the POLICE STORIES page. I would love to hear suggestions for a new Weekly poll question. Stay in touch, Russell
Too
late to chase.... Last night was another of the real fun night's that we occasionally get after several slow boring night's. The night started out with briefing, it was rather uneventful. Family fights and a lot of accidents. Nothing major. I started out the night with a couple of small calls. One was a stolen purse and another was a delayed harassment call. Both were rather silly. The lady with the purse later called that she found it. The call with the harassment turned out to be nothing when I looked into it. More of just an overactive imagination. At about 0100 I pulled a guy over for a minor traffic violation and he ended up being so drunk he could hardly stand. In fact he fell over onto his vehicle several times while doing field sobriety. He also wet his pants while performing the tests. I think that is when you know the guy has had too much. Now DUI is bad enough but, when my back-up arrived, he said that he had already arrested this guy a couple months ago for the same thing. Needless to say he spent the night with us---in jail. He blew a .227, nearly 2.5 times the legal limit. He kept telling us how we were ruining his life----YA RIGHT!! After that was all said and done and I got caught up on my reports I was out checking business and stuff when an officer called out 10-80!! That is a high speed chase. Well I was the closest back-up so I went towards his location. The thing that sucked was that they went directly away from me. The suspect finally bailed out of the truck and lost himself in some backyards and orchards. The truck was stolen and luckily there was no damage at all. I just wish that I could have been closer so that I could have been some help. One thing that I really enjoy is a good foot pursuit. Well he got away, but I know that we'll get him another day. It bugs me a little bit, but I know I am on my way to bed and that gut is freezing his rear off scared of every noise that he hears. Russell 12-4-1998 Another busy night. I sure like it a lot more when it is busy out there. It makes my job much more fun and exciting. We started the night off with a "shots fired" at a new low income apartment complex. It seems that since that place opened there is always something going on there. When we arrived there was nobody around. Nobody looking out windows or anything. That makes me thing that it may have been a prank phone call, because if there was shots fired near my home I would be for looking around for suspects. Another reason I think that it may be a bogus call is because we only received one call of this. Usually on a real shots fired call there would be multiple calls. After that I was called what we call "stand-by-keep-the-peace-". It is commonly for a couple who are exchanging children for custody situations. This time was no different. We arrived and spoke to a female who wanted to retrieve her three children from her (soon to be) ex-husband. Well, when he was us there he blew up. He began to curse us and swear at her because we were there. I tried over and over to calm him down but he still was very vocal. When the swearing started and simple threats started, I decided that enough was enough. I mean, I think that he should be glad we are there to at least document what goes on--for his own protection. I finally could not hold it in any longer. I was very firm with him and explained that we were there because she wanted us there, we are not taking sides, but if he kept up with his belligerent conduct our role would change. He still dod not get it, I was trying soooooo hard and he kept mouthing. My back-up officer also had heard plenty and yelled at the guy, he told him that if he made another threat and scared those kids anymore we would take him to jail for disorderly conduct. This at least quieted the guy down. After a while I told him that I recognized him and told him where I knew him from. He started to see us as people instead of "men in black" or something. Then he calmed right down and we were able to help her buckle the kids in and get her on her way. Which is all the guy wanted anyway. There is no doubt in my mind why she called us first. The guy was a total jerk for no reason. After that I pulled out and this guy was just FLYING in a residential area. I clocked him at 20 over, he was still climbing when I locked it. He was late for a religious function. Now, thing about that......Nevermind, I won't go there. :-) Needless to say he got an autograph from me. The rest of the night was busy but nothing really exciting. A runaway report, and a neighborhood problem. In a way the neighborhood problem posed a couple of good topics to write about. I got a call of a several individuals shooting guns at each other. The caller said that he thought that it was PAINT BALL guns. When I got the call there was already a fight in progress on the North end of town, so all of the back-up officers had gone up there. I was all alone with my closest back-up 3-5 minutes out. Not too long----unless I needed him. I drove up on suspects with my lights off. Immediately I could see, what I thought was, DART GUNS, they were green and looked like plastic. But, in this day and age you never know. I knew that I could not ----or I should not----go around pulling my gun on somebody, but under the circumstances I really considered it. There was ten of them and only one of me. Just as I arrived, I luckily was able to contact an officer at the local college and he came up for back-up. I was sure glad he was there because they were all very agitated. I used my best discretion and did not pull me gun, even tough I saw 4-5 guns there. Even though they were plastic--LOOKING. Everybody put the guns on the ground and were quick to obey my initial commands, so I breathed easier. I then proceeded to separate two distinct groups. I questioned one group and the college unit questioned the second. Both were swearing and accusing the other of saying things and so forth. I finally got all the names and made them disperse. Reluctantly they all did. I told them that I would make a report and they could take it the the Condo association. And if they wanted to file charges, call me in the morning. I would just hate to see all 10 people in court yelling and carrying on in front of the judge. (Heck, the judge would probably pull me aside and chew me out afterward.) What I was able to determine was that there was a group of kids (20-22 years old) playing cops and robbers with their dart guns. Since it was almost midnight some of the residents took it upon themselves to tell the kids to go inside. Several words were exchanged and possibly a push or two, however I was not about to take up my whole night dealing with a bunch of out of control Condo owners. They all stated that they could file a claim with the association of the condo's, so that was my way out. The good thing about it is that I survived another night on the beat, and now I am headed to dreamland. Russell Last Night's Shift 12-6-98 Hey everyone, Just in case you have not been to the site (http://www.lifeonthebeat.com) in a while, I'll update you. There is now 155 subscribers on the list. I thank you all. It is sure fun to hear all of the feedback from you all. Keep it up. Now on to last night's shift. It was honestly very slow tonight. It was sooo cold out. The wind was just howling!!! I am sure that the wind chill was at of below zero. Every single call I took today was delayed. Absolutely no action. The first call was a call of a van that had driven acrossed an elementary school lawn. The call was over 5 minutes old by the time they dispatched it. The next call was of a reckless driver, then a suspicious vehicle in the area, again both vehicles were long gone before I arrived. One exciting moment came when dispatch advised of a caller reporting that a possible drunk driver was heading into our city. Another person was following the driver. It just so happened that I was only about a block away from the vehicle when dispatch called it out. Well I stopped the vehicle to check the drivers status and he seemed just fine. I let him go.......No problem. I am going to be taking a few days off BEFORE christmas. I decided to do this because I am working Christmas and Christmas Eve. Then next night I will be working is probably the 17th. That means I am taking off next Wed, thur, fri, Sat, and Wed. At the department we need to use up all of our "comp" time before. I had several hours built up in the last several days because of training and mandatory meetings. Next Sat. I am flying to St. Louis. to visit a few of my best friends in Missouri. Sunday I will be at a Rams and Patriots game (I know, I know, but I am a dedicated Rams fan). Then I will spend some time in Columbia and Kansas City for a while. I plan to have a ton of fun. I need a break from all of the reality. Then back to work. Stay in touch. Russell Last Night's Shift 12-18-98 I am back. I am proud to say that the list is now up to 181 subscribers. Please take the time to visit my site and take a look at the changes. If you have not already, please sign the guestbook, I love the feedback. http://www.lifeonthebeat.com It seems really hard to come back to work when you have had so many days off. I got used to lounging around. Boy, was it nice. Now I will probably not be taking off much time until Summer. Then I plan to do some fishing and camping so a day off will definitely be in order. Last night I went in about 3 hours early. It was our city Christmas party. One of the officers proposed to his girlfriend there. It was fitting too, because they both met while working for the city. She said yes, and all the women were crying. The party was nice, dinner and some entertainment. After that I went into the station about a half hour early. I got caught up on some email. I also noticed that I have several new court dates. Arg, I do not like to go to court, although it is a good learning experience. In catching up on some of the local crime for the last 2 weeks I learned that they solved the case of the home invasion robbery that occurred last month. If you recall some teenagers forced their way into an older gentleman's home, beat him up and took several items. They have been working on the case and then a few nights ago made several arrests. If you remember I predicted that they would solve that crime by the end of last month, but I guess that I was wrong this time. I am glad to see that they caught these guys. It seems that there was also several other burglaries related to the suspects, so it will make a big impact to get these guys off the street for a while. My first call was a traffic accident. A young gal pulled out of a private parking lot and was struck, broadside, by another vehicle. Both seemed to be fine, but they were quite shook up too. There was about $5,000 in damage and a lot of glass and debris on the roadway. It looked a lot worse than it really was. After that I was running some radar in an area where we get a lot of complaints. When a car came flying by!!!! He was 25 over the speed limit in a residential area. I pulled him over and talked to him a while. He drivers license showed REVOKED and there was also two warrants. Initially I thought that I could smell alcohol and I asked him about it. He said that he had not consumed any beer. I went back to my patrol car and called out another officer (because we ride on patrol alone, but when ever there we have a suspect that we are dealing with we try to get back-up for safety reasons). When the other officer got there we did field sobriety-----this guy was miserable. He was arrested---he blew twice the legal limit on the intoxalizer. When we arrest someone for DUI we tow the vehicle. He begged for me not to tow the car. He said "Hurt me (by taking him to jail), don't hurt my family (by towing the car)" I told him "I hope that you never KILL my family". Later I learned that it was his 3rd DUI in the last year, qualifiying him for a felony---that means that there is a possibility if prison time. After finishing that all up, there was a medical call. A 21 year old guy had attempted suicide by taking several pills and ingesting some other cleaners and stuff. Dispatch advised that he did not want the cops involved. But, there is no way we can let paramedics go into a volatile situation. So another officer and I approached the young man. We tried very hard to be nice and calm, but it was obvious that it was not working. He started getting more and more angry. He stood up and started swinging at us---now he was a big boy and I admit that I was somewhat scared. It's a tough situation because we were in the kitchen where there are several weapons for his access. Luckily, we were able to wrestle him to the ground. It was a real sight for about a minute. The wife of this guy actually came up behind us and tried to pull us off. That is so scary because our guns are completely exposed for her. Luckily, we were able to get him cuffed, but for a while when he was struggling I was wondering what would happen next. We cuffed him up and he kicked at me, once. That's all it took. I crossed his legs and knelt right down on top of him. He was admitted into he mental facility for examination. We were all covered in "comet", the sink cleaner, because it had spilled out all over the floor while we were wrestling. I am so glad that things turned out like this, because it was very close to being a much worse situation. That's is one scenario that they never covered in the police academy. I am glad that I can learn from this situation when nobody gets hurt. I cannot always promise that it will be this exciting out there, but stick with me and I promise that the exciting times come around. Some nights are very slow, others are like tonight. Stay in touch, Russell Last Night's Shift 12-19-98 Happy Holidays!! Be sure to visit my web page for the new changes. http://www.lifeonthebeat.com I am looking for some additional POLICE STORIES. If you have a story that you want posted, please reply to this email and I will add it as soon as possible. Last night I raced to get into work on time. I really hate being late. I got there just as briefing was getting started. All of the guys whooped an hollered for a while, but I just giggled with them. I am normally very good about getting in to work early, but last night I got behind a bit. Well the night again started out with a traffic accident. There was no injuries, but all parties were upset at each other. I wrote out the accident form and tried to calm everybody as much as I could. After that we got a call of a drunk guy at a local store that was causing problems and refused to leave. When I got there I found him. He was 80+ years old and somewhat intoxicated. We got him a ride home. I guess that if he were younger we would have booked him for public intox., but at his age it is much easier if we just release him to family. He was a cranky old guy and I laughed to myself after we cleared that call. The night was somewhat slow. I cited a few speeders and wrote one guy for driving on a suspended drivers license. Here that requires that you issue a mandatory court date. THe funny thing was that after I issued the guy a citation for driving on suspension, I walked back to my car and he drove off!! Again, I just laughed. I mean this guy did not get the picture at all. Another officer was asking for help on another stop so I responded instead of giving this guy a hard time. On the call where I backed up the other officer, the guy was so drunk that he refused all sobriety tests and requested that we just take him to jail---we did. As a back-up officer I generally wait for a tow truck and also take an inventory of the vehicle, for the suspects safety and mine. While doing the inventory search I located an quantity of drugs and some drug paraphernalia. There was also several stereo items with serial numbers scratched off. I suspect that the stereo equipment was all stolen. His bail turned out to be over $5000. He was in a drug free zone, which enhances the charges one degree. It was funny because we normally get one and possibly two DUI's a night. Well, as I was helping with this vehicle, there was 5 DUI's all at the same time. When I got into the station every computer was busy with officers, typing up their reports. It seems that the DUI report takes (by far) the longest to fill out. After that I responded to a few alarms. One had an open door and the place was huge. Another officer and I searched the whole place, but it appeared that it was an employee error. I locked up the place. Today it is snowing quite hard. I am sure that it will be an interesting Sat. night. Happy holidays, Russell Last Night's Shift 12-20-98 Today was my "Friday". I am off for the next three days. With the exception of court two of those days. Last night was a very cold, snowy night. The wind blew and the roads were extremely slick. When I arrived at work I realized that my car had a headlight out. That has never happened. I thought that Cop cars were magic and headlights never went out. :-) I had to take a lamp out of one of the older reserve cars, but I got it working. The first call I got was a car that was driving on an elementary school lawn. The problem was that I was so far away, and with the slick roads, the guy was long gone when I arrived. After that I responded "Code 3" to a medical call. A 65 year old lady had passed out and hit her head into the floor when she fell. The caller was not sure if the lady was breathing. Normally "Code 3" is a very quick way to respond, but considering the weather, it took a while. You always need to remember that you do not want to create a bigger problem by going too fast to a call. In other words there is no use putting other lives in danger when the road conditions are so bad. After that I went to a family fight, it had basically calmed down before we arrived. We were able to separate all parties involved and there was no problems. The next call I got was also a family fight. A female told us that her husband had struck her in the face and locked her and her 4 year old son out of the house. When I arrived, she was outside and her son was screaming at the top of his lungs. The husband looked outside and began yelling. He was obviously very intoxicated. He saw me and slammed the door. I could then hear him nailing the door shut!! My first thought was to just let him stay there and take the female and her son to a family member for the night, but she informed me that there was a 3 month old child in the home. She also told me that he had a rifle in the home and he has threatened to use it if ever necessary. This made the whole thing quite interesting, because now we were dealing with a drunk male, barricaded in him home with a baby and a weapon. In talking to the mother we felt that the baby was somewhat safe, but still we were concerned. It was a real tough call. I had a Sergeant respond. He had the same feelings that I did. We did not think that there was enough reason to escalate the situation by kicking in the door. We wanted to call inside but, there was no phone inside. Then my Sergeant and I approached the front door to speak to the guy. It was very intense because the guy was very out of control and not being a bit rational. After a few minutes, all of the sudden, he opened the door and invited us in. We talked to both parties and they both refused to leave. There was no evidence of a crime at all. He told us that she had filed several false reports about abuse, and to be honest there was not even a trace of redness where she said that he struck her. After all the time and risk to us, they both refused to leave the apartment. We had no choice but to leave them there. We told them that there was to be no more arguing, but if they needed us again then they should call. After that there was a few alarms, but all were malfunctions. Just as I was getting my personal car warmed up to go home, there was another call of a family fight. I hopped back in the patrol car, because I was (by far) the closest officer. This time it wa a father and a daughter. She was 18 and wanted to move out. We stood by while she grabbed her clothing. Funny thing is that she has no job and no place to go, I'll bet that within a day or two she will be asking dad to let her move back in. Another very fun work week, and to top it all off, I was in several high risk situations with no real problems. Happy Holidays!!!!!! Russell Last Night's Shift 12-23-98 Hello everyone, I hope that you are all having a Happy Holiday Season. I just wanted to drop a quick note to tell everyone that I go back into work tonight, I will send my next email in the morning. The main reason that I am writing, is inform anybody who has recently emailed me with a question or a comment, that my NETSCAPE crashed!!! I lost all of the emails and addresses that were in my system. This is the second time that this has happened so I have upgraded to Netscape 4.5. There were several requests for subscription, and many questions from current subscribers. If you asked a question that I did not respond to, please email me again and I will ansewer it as soon as possible. Merry Christmas to you all and thanks for your continued interest. Russell Last Night's Shift 12-24-98 My night started off lousy last night. First of all, the battery on my personal car was dead. Then I raced into the city shops (where my partol car is stored) and the battery was dead. I had left the darn jumper cables at home, too. Luckily another officer had some cables and was nearby. When I got into the station I sat a breifing and tried to catch up on the last several days events, when another officer reminded me that I had not shaved in several days. Our department has a policy of no facial hair, ecxept for moustaches. I was looking like Grizzley Adams here, and there just so happened to be two Lieutenants in the squad roon tonight!! You can imagine that after briefing was over I was the first one out of the squad room and in my patrol car. Luckily, no one else said anything. The night was VERY cold and I had the heater CRANKED up most of the time. It was slow, I took only 3 calls the first two hours. About midnight one of the LT's came over the radio. He said that a woman had just been robbed while making a night deposit. She had a very sketchy description of the suspect. Well all I can really say about the case is that the suspect ran through the fresh snow, so we were able to track him a bit. I'll put it this way for now and then inform of as much as possible later. A suspect was apprehended. There was no problems with the arrest but, he did not admit to the crime. Nobody was injured or anything, but there is some sensitive info about the case I cannot devulge right now. Because this case is ongoing I feel that I should hold off until a press release. After that we followed up on leads from this case most of the night. I was able to participate by arresting the subject and giving him his rights. Then I transported him to the jail and I booked him into jail. His main concern is that he might not see his family for christmas. hmmmm, I would dare to say "No". The temp. was at zero or below all night, and I was out of my vehicle for an hour at a time some parts of the night. It sucked. I remember during the summer going with a short sleave shirt!!! I cannot wait until that time comes again. Well, I am exausted!!!! Merry Christmas Russell Last Night's Shift 12-27-98 The last few nights have been extremely slow. On Christmas eve, there was a lot of traffic on the roads, a couple of accidents, but other than than not too much going on. Christmas night was the same way. Although there was a call of a road rage situation. A guy had apparently gave the middle finger to a car that was tailgating him. The problem was that the guys that he flipped off were a bunch of gang bangers. The bangers followed him home and chased him up to his door, that's when he called 911. He told us that they had a bat and were threatening him. When we got there the guys were gone. A few minutes after we cleared the bangers came back. Well, we got there just after they busted up this guys car. Needless to say, they all went to jail. The funny part was that there is no court until Monday so they are spending a few nights with us because nobody will bail them out. Last night, was also slow but we did get into some fun stuff. I responded to a family fight. It was one of the "he did---she did" situations. Neither person had any signs of injury but both stated that the other had hit them. I explained that if I was going to make an arrest then it would be both of them. All of the sudden both of the stories changed and they decided that they were going to be able to get along better. I just hate to arrest people and ruin the holidays, but I guess that we need to do our job all year. I did not make any arrests this weekend though. This morning just as I was getting ready to leave for work when another officer was dispatched to a driver parked in the middle of an intersection. I responded as the back up officer. When we got there I could see that the driver was completely out of it. There was an 18 pack of beer on the floor with only a few left inside the box. I approached from the passenger side as my partner approached from the driver side. The guy would not wake up. We opened the door to try to wake him up. Just then my partner saw that the car was still in gear and only his foot on the brake was holding the car still. I threw the car into gear and shut off the ignition. This guy was about as drunk a person could be and still be conscious. I cannot believe that a person could dare to drive in that connotation. Well, when I asked how many beers ha had, he told me proudly "22". It was so funny to watch him do sobriety tests cause he kept asking if he failed that one. I would have thought he would have known the answer to that question by all of my snickering. The officer that was giving the tests is somewhat new and still scared of DUI's. Because of all of the paper work and the hotshot lawyers that try to tear you apart at court. Any way he did a fine job, but he kept looking at me like "I hate these". I just laughed at him too. I hope that you all had a good christmas. We sure had fun. Santa was very nice this year. Stay in touch and be safe out there. Russell Last Night's Shift 12-31-98 This morning I am frustrated. Two days ago--when I was off duty--There was a high speed chase that ended in a brief foot chase. The suspect stopped running and turned around and appeared to be pointing a gun at the officers who were chasing him. Both officers shot the suspect, he died. The weapon ended up being a large bladed knife. Either way the shooting was TOTALLY justifiable----by state law and by department policy. Since the shooting ALL of the local news has been mis-reporting the shooting. They are all reporting several facts totally wrong. They are trying to make the officers look like the bad guys. Our Dept. has even held a press conference to explain all of the details as I have given here and the News has still stretched it out to be an unjustified killing. The worst part about it is that (I have not talked personally to the officer), the officer from our department that fired, is really having a tough time with it. I mean he has to think about the fact that he killed a human being. It just gets under my skin how the news--ALL OF THE LOCAL STATIONS----is twisting this story out. So much for the facts, and all of that garbage. Anyway, I will get off of my soap box for a while and get back to business. Last Night was rather slow. In briefing there was an earlier report of a stolen truck and then there was some family fights that swing shift handled, but nothing really big. I started out with on of the calls that I hate the most--A stray dog. The dog had apparently wandered into a local store. The store personnel caught the dog and called us. You see, normally an animal control officer is on duty to transport the dog, but not this late at night. I was basically forced to put the dog into my car and take it to the "pound". The interesting thing was, that a customer was there and she became frantic when she saw that I was there to take the dog. She was screaming "Do you know what they do to these animals!!" I said "Yup, but I have to take the dog". She went off. Inside I smiled because in all reality there was no reason to get bent out of shape. (You can tell that I am not an animal lover---My daughter and a friend of mine in Missouri got all of those genes) I then thought it over and I gave the gal the case number. I told her that I had to take the dog in case the owner is looking for the dog. By the way it is a beautiful (even by my non-animal loving standards) Dalmatian. I told her to call in the morning and keep tabs on the dog and if the owner does not claim the dog, then she just might have a change to get the animal. Then I did the thing that I hate most, I put the dog in the rear of my patrol car. Luckily I have a cage. I then transported the dog to the pound. I drove fast and listened the whole time for a "leaky" sound from the back seat. I made it though. The dog did not "stain" the seat in any way. Whew-----thats how nicknames are made. :-) After that there was a loud music call and a few others just too boring to mention. But, at 0300 I got a call of strange noises near a business. I went to check it out and found nothing. As, I was clearing from this call an alarm came out for a business located in my area. Two other officers were available so they responded. They picked up two juvenile males that had broke into a Scuba Diving Supply store. Both were arrested and tried to say that they knew an employee, the problem was that they hid their car down the street and they also forced the door of the business open. Boy were they surprised that they had tripped an alarm. I was upset that I missed out on the arrest on that one. I love to catch people in the act, when they are stumbling and fumbling to give a good reason for being where they are not supposed to be. On the 2nd is schedule change. I am going to the DREADED day shift for 2 months. I am not sure exactly how exciting the letters will be for the next little while but I do get to come back for graves in March. I am looking forward to the change for a while, but I sure like the action that nights (usually) brings. Well, I guess that I am off to bed. Stay in touch, Russell
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