But I Know I Have a Warrant!

   So I was dispatched to a call for an intoxicated male refusing to leave the laundromat on my beat. I arrive on scene as the male is walking out. He immediately stops for me and tells me he has a warrant and that he was trying to leave the business but the lady was holding his bag with his beers inside of it. The male actually wasn't intoxicated....yet. I have him hand me his ID and I go to run it as another officer watches over him.

A hit came back for a warrant but it was definitely not for him and for his brother instead. I walk back to him and tell him that he's clean and to just not come back to the business tonight. He insists to me that he has a warrant and I insist back to him that it's not his warrant. He was so grateful and told me that he's actually been locked up twice by two different agencies (not mine), just to be released because the warrant was for his brother. He collects his belongings and then walks RIGHT back into the business. I grab him by the arm and walk him outside and explain to him that he wasn't going to jail but that if he goes back in the business the rest of the night he'd get a free place to stay (he was homeless and lives in the woods behind my discount mall.

Talking A Man Down

It's been a bit since I've written. I just got back from an amazing and much needed vacation with my girlfriend out of the country. I returned back to work on a very gloomy, rainy day-but that's life!

I received a suicidal male call from a 60 year old male who was threatening to kill himself. I arrived on scene and was alerted just before going in from the dispatcher that the male was planning to use his stove to commit suicide. I enter the apartment and observe the gas stove was on filling the air with gas. I talked to the man who said he was very depressed and wanted to talk to someone because he wanted to kill himself. I was more than happy to talk with the man but number one priority was making sure the stove was shut off and potentially dangerous and explosive gas wasn't seeping in.

He agreed to talk in the living room and we turned the gas off and he had a seat. He told me that he just moved to the apartment about six or so months prior and that people were coming to his door at all hours of the night looking to buy drugs and that they were very persistent and even wanting to come in and smoke crack in his living room. He told me he couldn't get a solid night's worth of sleep and that it was literally driving him insane and his apartment complex staff wouldn't do anything to help him. He flat out said the pressure was getting to much and he wanted to light himself on fire.

I asked him if he wanted to go to the hospital and he said he did so he could go and talk to someone about everything going on. Fire and paramedics arrived and found out the male had been prescribed an anti-depressant which the prescription had run out a long time ago. They managed to get him to the hospital and get the gas levels safe in the house. It could have been an explosive situation!

Gun On a Bus?

In my city, we have our own transit police. They (should) handle all the police related activities that occur on their property at the subway stations and on their buses. They usually don't or they try to pawn their crimes off on us to make the crime stats look great to ride the subway and bus transit.

Thursday, a member of my squad was sitting in his patrol car in a parking lot when a bus stopped right in front of him and people started screaming and running off the bus. This NEVER looks good as a cop. The people started yelling to him that someone had a gun on the bus. Immediately this turned into a help call and I rushed lights and sirens to back him up.

Myself and other units arrived just as the officer had a male detained. The guy was highly intoxicated and started yelling to people at the back of the bus that he had a gun and was going to pull it out. The bus driver stated the guy rode the bus all the way to the end of the line (which he found suspicious) but figured he just had fallen asleep, so he didn't bother him. We frisked him and checked the back of the bus where he was sitting, just in case he might have ditched the weapon. We didn't find anything but proceeded to wait around almost 20 minutes for the transit police to arrive. When it was all said and done, the man was charged for drunk in public by the transit officer-no joke.

Well you can't yell fire in a crowded theater, and you sure as hell can't say you're going to pull out a gun on a crowded bus either!

Two Women, One Video

As a police officer, you answer a bunch of calls that sometimes you cannot even imagine you got called out for whatever type of situation you have. Wednesday was that type of call.

I responded to a domestic dispute after a very busy day. I was actually just wrapping up my dinner about an hour before I was supposed to get off. The call remarks said a female was assaulted by her sister's boyfriend.

I arrive and quickly find out both females (who are sisters and pregnant, 9-months and 4-months) were downstairs when the 4-month pregnant sister (who is pregnant by the male and has another kid with him) discovered his cell phone. The cell phone received a text from a girl who sent multiple videos to him. The videos turned out to be homemade porn videos between him and this other female.

Now according to the females they "calmly and without any aggression" went upstairs and confronted the male who then hit the 4-month old pregnant sister and slapped the 9-month pregnant old sister and shoved her to the ground.

When I went to talk to the male he was bandaging a bleeding wound to his head with a bandanna. I asked him what happened and he told me he was asleep when all of a sudden he was awoken to both females beating on him and then one of them took a vase and smashed it upside his head.

Everyone went to jail, but it doesn't end there. Both females were instantly crying and upset they were taking a ride. The 9-month pregnant female was worried about having her baby in jail. In fact just prior to this dispute, her doctor had told her to go to the gym to walk around the track to try and induce her labor. She was due at any moment! Now pregnant women normally have lots of ranging emotions but both women were going from anger to going to jail, to disbelief they were actually going to jail, blaming the male for all of this. It was a long emotional roller coaster ride to the precinct...

I never thought I would have two women fighting over a porn video, let alone two VERY pregnant woman fighting over one. Poor guy.

"I'm Working On It!"

  So the busy Sunday carried right into Monday. I never got a chance to eat at work sadly. I even had to respond to calls on the other sector because of the volume of calls. I was responding to a working drunken dispute at a corner store. I arrive on scene after the fight was over and all I  had was an intoxicated guy bleeding from the mouth. He was having a VERY difficult time standing up. His son showed up out of nowhere and was so eager to take his dad home, practically dragging him (I guess he thought I was trying to take his dad to jail). I was watching them as they walked across the busy street. At one point his dad just laid down in the middle of the street before he eventually got him moving.

Apparently the fight occurred because he bumped up along someone in the store who did NOT take to being bumped by a drunk guy....

  Tuesday was a little better. I didn't get out of work until 0100 hours though.....I ended up arresting three juveniles after a foot chase and juvenile paperwork SUCKS and takes FOREVER....just for them to be released to their parents... but that isn't my story.

I pulled over a vehicle because the driver had a suspended license for child support. I walk up to the car and ask to see his license. He tells me that he doesn't have it but he's working on a situation with his child support. I ask him if his license is suspended for child support and he tells me it is but he's working on it. I ask him why he's driving with a suspended license and he tells me that it's all good....I have him step out and I put him in cuffs and stick him in my car.

I take a closer look at his license and find out that it expired in 2001 and his license had been suspended since 2011. The guy then tries to ask if he can "work it out with me" and that I don't have to take him to jail or even write him a ticket. I tell him he's going to jail and he's walking a fine line with bribery....I really didn't want to tow his car, so I asked him if he knows anyone who could take his car. The guy has no phone and can't remember the number of anybody....So his brand new 2015 vehicle went to the impound lot....Have to pay that child support!

Dealing With BS (Yes, I'm Dealing with You Instead)

There always comes a time in policing when you have to deal with a call that really did not warrant a 911 response. You're stuck dealing with that situation and something very important pops up. Sunday was this day. 

Right out of the gate signing on, I was dispatched to a vehicle accident in the parking lot of my shopping mall. The parties had started getting into a heated argument about the accident according to security. I arrive on scene to this private property accident. One car was backing up and hit a car driving down the aisle (the backing up car's fault). I told both parties there was really nothing I could do being on private property and urged them to exchange information and handle it themselves. They asked me my "opinion" of who the fault was with and I told them-just to have that car argue again with me. 

As I'm dealing with that, a high priority call from the department store at the mall comes up. A guy walked in and snatched almost $500 worth of Levi's jeans and ran from loss prevention. I made a point to ask security: "Hey, did you hear that call?" and then explained what happened. The driver who was arguing with me then goes: "Oh, wow, while you're here with us?" and I go "Yes, while I'm dealing with you instead."

Wrong Place, Wrong Time

This past week went by well all things considered. We had a state trooper shot in the line of duty twice by a male fleeing in a vehicle. Thankfully the trooper will be just fine.

Sunday, I responded to a call of a juvenile hit by a vehicle. Earlier in the day before I came to work, I had paid attention to the calls we had in the area where I work and I remembered seeing another juvenile hit by a car. It was a male in the roadway who was hit by a passing motorist when he darted into traffic. A report was completed and the male went along his way. A few hours later, the teen was at home with his mom when he passed out for no apparent reason. She naturally called 911 saying her son who had been hit by a car was not alert or conscious. We arrive on scene and the teen had come back to his normal self. The rookie officer who was primary on the call began to get his information for his report when I started to ask some questions and sensing this might be the same call that I saw earlier. It turned out I was correct and I ended up saving the rookie tons of paperwork! Mom and son then took an ambulance ride to the children's hospital to make sure things were ok.

Monday, I responded to a roommate dispute. Two roommates who had lived together for years finally had a falling out and one was moving on. The roommate who was staying locked the door and refused to let her come in the apartment to get her stuff. It's one thing when you want someone out but it's another when you don't want them to get their stuff to leave. I arrive on scene and the staying-put roommate was telling me how much she wanted her now ex-roommate to move on. I had to explain how crazy it sounded to want her to leave but then refuse....It took awhile but she finally realized the craziness too and we got the ball rolling.

Tuesday, I responded to a city park where some contractors had been doing some construction work. It had been raining recently and this was the first day they had managed to come back to work. When they arrived, they found their $50,000 compact loader-excavator missing. We reviewed the footage and found a white jaguar roll up and two men get out. They walk around and examine the machinery and then a wrecker arrives with two more men. It takes the men about two hours but they finally load up this expensive excavator onto the wrecker and drive off. We managed to get the company name and number off the wrecker so hopefully it'll become a good lead for the detective.

Wednesday, I was ALMOST done with my shift when a business robbery pops up at convenience store on a nearby beat. I'm the first unit on scene and my job is to make sure the business is safe, find witnesses, and lock the store down so nobody goes in or out. I find two patrons playing the video gambling machines in addition to the clerk. The second officer starts talking to the clerk while I'm gathering the information from the two guys. It's a pair of cousins who had their car break down in the parking lot and they were waiting on roadside assistance to come help them out. They saw the robber come in, heard his voice, saw his face, and could describe the gun. They were excellent witnesses. I got their information but one of the guys did not have his ID. I had him write the usual, his name and date of birth. He only wrote his name. I then had him again, write his DOB and he only writes the year. I was starting to get suspicious and after I got the rest of his birthday, had an officer watch him.

I ran to my car to run the guy and found out he had an active felony warrant for a probation on felony possession of marijuana (to add irony to it all, the guy was Jamaican.) I held the guy in the backseat of my car until the commercial robbery detective arrived on scene and he was still willing to talk to the detective. The guy was very appreciative of me for being nice to him and I even gave him a red bull from the store to drink. The warrant ended up being confirmed and I took him on down to the county jail. When it was all said and done, I got off work almost two hours late. Just another day in the police life.