The week on patrol, July 19-23, 2010

This week was not quite as exciting as last week. I had a few print calls. The majority of the calls that I checked by on involved crazy people. The City changed a court attendance policy and that policy change is getting a lot of attention. Let's get to it.

Monday was a slow night, like it is most weeks. An officer asked me to come by their scene to take some photos of an assault victim. This would be the second time that I would be photographing the same victim. I took photos of her a few weeks ago when a man smacked her and drug her through the parking lot. This time, she got into a fight with her girlfriend. Yes, you read that correctly. At first, she wanted to press charges and the district attorney's office asked for photos of the victim. Then the victim decided that she did not want to press any charges and the photos became unnecessary. I have no idea why she changed her mind, but she ended up leaving the no-tell motel with her girlfriend.

Right after that I was called to a local YMCA that had been burglarized. The officers had the suspect in custody. He was caught leaving the building. Even though the suspect was in custody, the complainant wanted a desktop finger printed. The complainant was sure that there were finger prints on the desktop and wanted us to lift them. So, the arresting officers called me. I threw some dust around for the complainant, but there were not any prints on the desktop.

Tuesday night was my slowest night so far as the print unit. There were only a couple of calls to even check by on and they were mundane.

I checked by on a three-way crazy fest on Wednesday night. The call came in as a check on welfare. The caller said that a man outside of his apartment in a green car was suicidal. I arrived and did indeed find a man, T, sitting inside of a green car. I quickly patted him down for weapons and then began a conversation with him. T seemed rational and claimed that he did not want to hurt himself or anyone else. T said that he had been out looking for his girlfriend, G. They had gotten into an argument and G left the apartment and walked away. He said that he had known her for a week. They had been kicked out of their last residence and were staying in this complex with a friend. T met the guy, R, they were staying with just a few days ago. I told him that it had been an eventful week for him.

Another unit arrived and went into the apartment complex to speak with the person that called us, R. R looked like a strung out squirrel and was wearing huge glasses. He was extremely anxious and nervous. I think that he was tweaking, otherwise known as under the influence of Methamphetamines. He said that T had stolen his cell phone and the keys to his apartment. R also said that he was scared of T. About that time, G showed up. She had been hiding in another apartment. She was also very anxious and looked like she was about to have a seizure. G wanted medical attention, so we called for an ambulance. G said that she was scared of T, but she would not tell us why. She did say that he had not hit her or abused her in any way. I checked in all of T's pockets looking for the missing cell phone and keys, and came up empty. R went back into his apartment and rummaged around for a while, eventually finding his phone and keys. Then he said that T had hidden them from him. Confused yet? We were.

T had not done anything criminal. R wanted T out of his apartment. T got his stuff and started walking somewhere. At that point, G said that she would leave with T. R told her that she could stay if she wanted. She did not have to leave. And there you have the entire reason we were there. R wanted G. He made up a story and called the police so that T would be forced to leave his apartment and he could have G to himself. G decided to stay. I guess she would rather stay in the apartment than sleep in her car. It felt like we were helping them make a love connection. What a waste of time.

There was a print call waiting for me on Thursday night. A nice townhouse had been burglarized the night before, and they decided that they wanted the place processed for fingerprints. They had stayed in the townhouse and cleaned up most of the mess that the suspects had made, but I humored them. I walked through the house with them and they told me what had been touched and gone through. I got my kit and printed a few surfaces that I thought might have been touched by the suspects and not by the residents since the burglary. I was able to lift one good print from the side of the alarm siren. The suspects had stood on a chair, ripped the siren off of the wall, and then placed it on the kitchen counter. It could be the suspect's print, or the alarm installer's print, or even the resident's print. But, it made the residents feel good that I found something. Then I took thirty minutes and gave them some practical crime prevention advise. They asked a lot of questions and seemed to appreciate the time that I spent with them.

At roll call on Friday, the desk Sergeant read a circular that told us to report to traffic court at 1 PM instead of 8 AM which is listed on our court issued subpoenas. This applied to jury courts and was effective the following Monday. What it comes down to is the City does not want to pay us to be in traffic court all day. So, the alternative is to make the citizen sit in court all day, because they still have to be there at 8 AM otherwise a warrant will be issued for their arrest for failing to appear. The court can not start a trial on the case until the officer is present. There has not been a shortage of reaction to the new policy. Our union is telling us to still go to court at 8 AM, since we have a valid court subpoena. The department has issued a revised circular that orders us to appear at 1 PM instead of 8 AM. My guess is ticket writing, at least among patrol officers will decline sharply. So, the city will save money initially by not paying the overtime, but will lose even more in the long run from the decrease in ticket revenue. It will be interesting to see where this issue finally settles.

B rode with me Friday night and we checked by on a family disturbance. A mother and 19 year old daughter were fighting. We met the daughter outside and she told us that her mother was going crazy inside of the apartment. She stated that she has two younger sisters inside of the apartment and that her grandmother came by to try to calm down the mother. When we got to the apartment door, we could hear loud yelling coming from inside. The door was locked, so the daughter used her key to let us inside the apartment. Once inside, we saw the mother yelling, the grandmother trying to calm her down, the two young daughters looking very scared, and a male family friend standing in the living room. The mother was acting very aggressively and would not calm down or listen to verbal commands, so she was taken to the ground and hand cuffed. She was then taken out of the apartment where an officer tried to calm her and find out what was going on. I stayed in the apartment and talked to the grandmother who informed me that the mother was schizophrenic and had an anxiety disorder. She was taking her medications, but she was also drinking heavily. I then went to talk to the mother outside and she told me that she thought that she was a threat to herself and that she wanted to go to the psychiatric unit at a nearby hospital. We called for an ambulance. We then had to walk her out of the complex and down to the parking lot. This was a huge apartment complex and while we were escorting her, she started hyperventilating and then holding her breath trying to pass out. She succeeded in passing out and the EMTs had to wake her. She was transported to the hospital and she signed herself into the mental health unit.

Our last call of the night was another family disturbance. A pregnant girl and her baby daddy went out to a club. While at the club, baby daddy ditched the girl and started making out with another guy. Shockingly, this upset the girl. Maybe she was unaware that baby daddy was undecided when it came to sexual orientation? She left and went home. Baby daddy stayed long enough to get drunk, and then he returned to the girl's apartment. He needed his keys to drive to his parent's home. The keys were in the apartment. She would not open the door. So, baby daddy broke down the door. Sounds reasonable? No. The neighbors heard the commotion and got baby daddy out of the apartment. It would be difficult to make this stuff up.

That brings us to the end of another week on patrol.

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A1 and another tournament

A1 had another karate tournament today. He was very excited and confident going into the event. This tournament consisted of only one match per fighter. Like always, they ask you to get there by 1 PM, and then they make you wait. This time they started with an exhibition match between a team from the Austin area against a team from the Houston area. The Austin area team won easily. Then they started lining up the kids. They start with the lowest belt and then work their way up. Since A1 is a red belt, it takes awhile. Yellow, orange, green, blue, and purple go first.

There were 8 numbered rings on the floor of the basketball arena. A1 is one of the shorter kids for his age, so he is always close to the front of his line. When it looks like they are getting close to taking his line to a ring, I gather up our stuff to move. Sometimes they bring him to a ring that is close to where I am, which makes my life a little easier. Sometimes they don't. Today, they took him to the other side of the arena. So, I had to wade through all of the kids and parents that were milling about after their matches. I made it across the concourse and through the line of people waiting to get their trophies engraved to the correct side of the arena. At that point, there were three matches ahead of A1. I took out the tripod, mounted the camera, and got everything situated just in time. Here is the result:

After the match, A1 told me that he thought that he was going to lose because his opponent was 10 years old. Thankfully, he was wrong.

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A1 getting ready for tournament and A2 at dance class

Here is a little video of A1 preparing for his tournament at his class last week. Towards the end, the lead instructor pounds on him a little.

 

 

And here is A2 at her last dance class of the summer session.

 

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The week on patrol, July12-16, 2010

This week, I am actually writing this almost on time. Amazing. This was my first full week on my new schedule. I think that I am going to like the late side hours, 11 PM to 7 AM. Even though it is only a one hour difference, it really feels like I have a lot more time with the family in the evenings. The week started off with a bang, literally. I had one print call and a few picture calls this week. Friday was once again, smack your loved ones night.

While sitting in roll call on Monday, I was notified of a suicide that had just occurred. After loading up, I headed to that location in case they needed me to take photographs. On occasion, crime scene units are not dispatched to suicides. This time, they did send a crime scene unit, 2 in fact. When I arrived at the location, I noticed a van in front of the house and there was a man laying by the curb by the van. This man had borrowed his ex-wive's van to go out looking for a job. He returned the van and brought a rifle with him. He got out of the van and walked around to the passenger side. Then he stuck the muzzle of the rifle in his mouth and pulled the trigger. A rifle round was actually a relatively small round. If a person was shot with this rifle from a distance, the wound would be rather small. But since this was a contact wound and the bullet was chased by all of the gases generated from the round firing, there was a large wound. In fact, about half of his head was missing. His brain was scattered all over the side of the van, in the street, and in nearby trees. Messy. At least he did not ruin the vehicle by doing it inside of the van.

After leaving the suicide, I checked by with B and another officer on an assault. This one took place in the parking garage of a very nice high rise residential building. One vehicle was backing up, blocking the entrance to the garage. A Jeep, was trying to get into the garage. Honks, gestures, and words were exchanged. The driver of the Jeep got out of his vehicle which led to the driver and passenger of the other vehicle to exit their vehicle was well. The driver of the Jeep, seeing the possible 2 against 1 fight, went back to his Jeep and got out a baseball bat. Then he thought he was tough and decided to be the aggressor. After more words, he swung the bat, hitting the driver of the other vehicle in the head. Then he jumped back into his Jeep and drove away.

I ended up taking photos of the assault victim. He had a large cut and bump on his head and most likely had a concussion. Luckily, security at the building knew who drove the Jeep. This was not the first time that he had taken out the bat after a traffic altercation. A few hours after we left the scene, building security notified us that the driver of the Jeep had returned to the building. He was taken into custody without incident and charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. He said that he took out the bat and was the aggressor because it was 2 against 1, trying to say it was self defense. Ummmm, I don't think so. Not even a Texas jury is going to say it is ok to hit another person in the head with a bat after only a verbal exchange. Jail is probably the safest place for this guy. Eventually he will take the bat out at the wrong time and will end up getting shot. You should not bring a bat to a gun fight.

That bring us to Tuesday. I started the day at municipal (traffic) court. I had two tickets being contested and both were for illegal left turns where it is prohibited by sign. The problem was the complaint, the document that lists the offense that the city actually charges the drivers with, was not correct. One complaint was for turing left from the wrong lane and the other was for failing to signal a lane change. I do not have the best handwriting, but I have no idea how the clerk got failing to signal from illegal left turn. Since it was the wrong complaint, the city can either re-file the correct charge of just dismiss the case. In the current economic environment, I imagine that the city prosecutors are encouraged to re-file the citations with the proper violations.

Tuesday night started off with a traffic stop. A truck made the usual illegal left turn. I approached the vehicle and discovered that it was being driven by a former co-worker. We were juvenile probation officers together for a couple of years. A few years ago he also quit that job and joined my department. It was nice to see him, just an unusual circumstance.

Later that night I checked by with a few units on a family disturbance that involved a male, T, who was in a psychological crisis. T is bi-polar and according to his family, goes off of his medication about every six months. T has been having anger issues for the past six months that have been increasing in severity. A few days ago he flushed all of his medication down the toilet. On this night, he started threatening his wife and she became scared for herself as well as his welfare. She left their apartment and called the police.
The first officer on the scene was able to talk briefly with T, before T slammed and locked the front door of the apartment in the officer's face. We could hear T yelling and a screaming inside of the apartment. He seemed to be cycling. He would freak out for awhile, and then calm down just to ramp up again. We called for the department's speciality unit that deals with mentally ill citizens. They arrived, but did not have any luck in getting T to come out of the apartment. The wife returned to the scene and gave us the key to the apartment. She said that there were not any guns inside of the apartment. The apartment had a front and back door that each had two deadbolts, only one of which could be unlocked from the outside. The supervisor on the scene determined that T was a definite danger to himself and others, so we had to make entry into the apartment for his well being.

While one officer knocked on the front door to distract T, the supervisor, two other officers and myself went to the back door. I used the key to unlock the deadbolt. The door would still not open, T had looked the other deadbolt. The supervisor gave me the go ahead to kick in the door. With one well placed lucky kick, the door flew open. T, who was naked and facing the front door, turned quickly toward the sound and saw me and another officer moving quickly toward him. The other officer had his taser out and the laser was centered on T's chest. T just sighed and hung his head to his chest. We took him into custody and I asked him if he wanted any clothes. His first answer was "hell no." Then he thought about it for a moment and said, "yes, please put some clothes on me." I had the joy of helping T into his boxers while his hands were cuffed behind his back. That should have been a job for the rookie on the scene.

One of the regular types of calls that we respond to are discharging firearms calls. A citizen hears what they think is a gunshot and calls in to report it. Usually it is a car backfiring, or something slamming, or who knows, but it is almost never an actual gunshot. Wednesday night, we had one of the exceptions. A discharging firearms called dropped and the responding officer arrived in the area. The officer was driving slowly, looking for a body on the ground in the area, because you never know. The officer saw a person on the sidewalk running in her direction. Not knowing if this was the possible shooter, the officer gave strong verbal commands to the person, getting them to stop. After some dialog, the officer learned that there had in fact been a firearms discharge. A male had followed this person up into his driveway, produced a gun and tried to rob them. The person fought back, and the suspect fired off two rounds from the pistol. Luckily, the rounds did not hit anyone. One of the rounds went into a nearby apartment, through a wall, and then into another wall. I helped to recover that round along with two shell casings, and one bullet from the driveway. It sounds cliche, but there are not any routine calls.

Thursday was very uneventful for me. We did have a shooting in the area. It started in a club, spilled outside, and then escalated. One person was killed and another was injured. There were plenty of units on the scene and the CSU (crime scene unit) came out and processed the scene.

If it is Friday, it must be get drunk and smack you loved ones night again. My first picture call was for a wife whose husband got drunk and slapped her numerous times in the head. She had quite a few scratches and cuts on her face. The second picture call was for another female. They were in town visiting from Louisiana and her boyfriend decided to get drunk. Then he punched her, busting her lip. But that was not enough, so he jumped on her and choked her until she was unconscious. The first male was charged with a class A misdemeanor and the second with a felony. At least they were both stupid enough to stay on the scene until we arrived so that they could be arrested.

That brings to an end, another week on patrol.

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The week on patrol, July 6-10, 2010

It is time for another weekly re-cap. I was the print unit every night and had another four day work week because I started my new nights off on Saturday.

Tuesday night was one of the slowest nights in recent memory. There were very few calls for service, little traffic on the streets, and hardly any foot traffic as well. It was strange for a summer night. I ended up checking by with a unit on a suspicious event call. A lady heard what sounded like screaming coming from just outside her living room window. Her house sits on two lots that are filled with trees and shrubs. When we pulled up, the lady came outside immediately and was visibly freaked out. She told us what she had heard and we told her that we would look around.

She did not want to go back inside, so she followed us around her yard. She pointed out a few places behind bushes that she wanted checked, and we appeased her. After looking around the yard for about 10 minutes, we were all startled by the sound of screaming coming from the bushes by the house. We shined our lights at the bushes and did not see anything. As we walked toward the sound, two screaming cats ran out of the bushes. They were lucky not to get shot. The lady was relieved it was only cats, as were we.

Early in the shift on Wednesday night, I checked by on a major accident. I arrived to find one wrecked car in the middle of the intersection, an ambulance, and a pumper truck were blocking the traffic. The wrecked car had the bumper of another car attached to its passenger side. The ambulance attendants were tending to a young female in a nearby parking lot. We identified the drivers, got both involved vehicles into the same parking lot, and cleared the intersection.

Both drivers had the same story. A female, G, had a green light and wanted to turn left. Since she had the green, she thought that she had the right of way. She did not. The other driver coming from the opposite direction, also had a green light. G's left turn was not protected by a green arrow. She turned directly in front of the other car and was struck on the passenger side. This accident was very similar to my accident where my Camry was totaled. I wrote her a citation for failing to yield the right of way while turing left.

Her vehicle was not drivable so it was going to be towed. We told her to get all of her belongings out of her vehicle since it was going to a storage lot and was probably a total loss. She grabbed some stuff and took off with some friends. She did not get anything out of the trunk. Since we are responsible for inventorying a vehicle when it is towed, we checked the trunk. In the trunk we found quite a few gift bags that said "Happy Graduation" on them. G was the right age, 18, so that was not surprising. What we found in the gift bags was surprising. We found bottle after bottle of alcohol, and most of them had been opened. Everything from vodka to whiskey to rum to scotch, with some cans of beer as well. It was a bar on wheels. All she needed was a blender.

It was not surprising to find out that G, an 18 year old, might drink alcohol. What shocked us was that she kept it in the trunk of her vehicle. I guess her parents never look in her vehicle. G still lives at home. The vehicle is registered to her father. I can not believe that she is bold enough to keep that in the trunk of her car. Maybe her parents do not care, but that is just crazy. When the time comes, I know that I will look in my kids' vehicles from time to time. I know that you all are thinking, was G drinking on this night? Was that why she turned right in front on anther vehicle? Nope. She did not exhibit any signs of intoxication. Luckily for her.

On Thursday, they announced the print / picture unit permanent spot. It is an interview spot meaning that it is not based solely on seniority. I threw my name in the hat and so far, am the only person interested.

Around 2 AM, I checked by with a unit in a very low income housing area that has a lot of crime. The call was a loud noise, people were in the city park after hours making too much noise. We arrived to find 8 females sitting around a table having a party. There was a not any alcohol, but there was a bunch of food. It looked like a scene that you would find in any park, during the day. But this was 2 AM. Oh, by the way, they all had their children with them in the park. Teenagers, ok, middle and elementary school, way too late, but these kids were toddlers and infants. So, 2-4 year old kids running around in the park in the middle of the night. I asked one of the moms about this and she said, "We sleep all day, so we up all night. I watch my kids." Wow. Kids growing up with two strikes against them and the third pitch is on the way and right down the middle.

Friday night started out normal enough. I made three quick traffic stops for illegal left turns. One attractive female was absolutely incredulous that I would dare to write her a citation. I imagine that her appearance has gotten her out of a few tickets in the past. Not on this night. Then I checked by on a disturbance involving a private property tow in an apartment complex parking lot. This particular complex has a contract with a towing company to tow any and all unauthorized vehicles from the parking lot. A man brought his girlfriend home to the complex and parked in the lot to walk her to her door. He was gone for 5 minutes and when he returned, a tow truck had picked up the back of his truck and was about to leave. Since he does not live there, his truck does not have a parking permit on the windshield. The man was understandably irritated. He ranted and raved and then jumped into his truck. He then started the truck and revved the engine aggressively. When then did not work, he tried to drive off of the wrecker claws. That did not go so well. He did not get free and ended up damaging his truck in the process. He ended up paying the wrecker driver the drop fee which was $70. He got off easy, the wrecker did not have to give him that option and at the storage lot the fee would have been close to $200. It would suck to be him, but there were at least 10 signs that we could see from his truck that said unauthorized unattended vehicles will be towed. His truck met that criteria.

After that call, the night turned into the Beat the Crap out of the Ones that you Love Night. I ran three picture calls and they were all for family violence. The first one was an intoxicated ex-husband came by the house to talk to the ex-wife. The discussion got heated, the husband grabbed the wive's wallet, and then managed to smash her hand in a car door before he left. She already has a protective order against him for previous violence. You can add aggravated assault, theft, and violation of a protective order to his rap sheet. I took photos of her and her injuries.

Next was two drunk brothers that started arguing. One decided he had heard enough and sucker punched the other in the face. I took photos of the punchee and his injuries.

The last one was by far the worst. It started in a second floor apartment where a man and woman live together. They have an argument and he completely flips out. He begins to destroy everything in the apartment. Nothing was safe. Flat screen TV, computer, monitor, table, couch, drapes, anything made of glass, everything in the refrigerator, all of it was ruined and strewn about the apartment. The female was found by neighbors near the base of the stairs in the parking lot. When the neighbors came out, the man was beating the females head against a concrete parking barrier. At that point, he fled the scene. I took pictures of the apartment and where she was found. Then I went to the emergency room, found her is a shock room, and photographed her injuries. The man returned to the apartment the following morning. The neighbors saw him and called the police. He was arrested and charged with aggravated assault.

Another week down and the summer is flying by.

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The week on patrol, June 29-July 3, 2010

I am getting closer to being caught up. It was another four day work week for me. The week had some interesting calls. I also received some big news from my desk Sergeant.

Tuesday started out slowly as it normally does. I checked by with a couple of units on routine calls and made a few traffic stops. Later in the shift, an officer requested that I check by with her to take a few photos of an assault victim. The location was a nearby hotel. I arrived and found the victim and two officers in an empty ballroom. This assault occurred in her vehicle near the hotel. After the assault, the suspect ran away on foot. The victim said that the person that assaulted her is her husband. He is currently on probation in two counties for domestic violence against her. And yet, she is still with him and married to him. Amazing. Usually, after pressing charges once, the relationship is toast. But this woman has pressed charges twice, won in court twice, and is still being assaulted by her husband. When will enough be enough for her? I am all for giving someone a second chance, but this seems a little extreme and dangerous for the woman. Hopefully, this will be the last straw and she will get herself away from him before he kills her.

Early in the shift on Wednesday, I checked by with an officer on another domestic violence call. We found a young female and two young males in the apartment. At first, we thought that one of the males was the suspect, but that was not the case. The female told us that her on again off again boyfriend that is homeless but lives with her and has a key to the apartment, hit her a few times, threw her on the ground, and then slammed the front door into her. He did all of this while the other two males were in the apartment. They did not just sit and watch, but they did not exactly come to her rescue either (they verbally told him to stop). They did stay around and gave us witness statements, which is better than nothing I guess. We advised the female to spend the night in another location since the male had a key. She said that the two male friends would give her a ride to her father's house. She said that the suspect left on foot, and was probably in a nearby bar. We went to the bar and could not find him. A few hours later, the female called the police again. She had not left the apartment like she said that she would, and the suspect had returned and had used his key to get into the apartment. We got there quickly and were able to take the suspect into custody. He went to jail and was charged with assault. 

Approximately a week earlier, the desk Sergeant announced that some positions were open. Our positions are tied to nights off and a specific patrol beat. There were four openings, but I was only interested in one, a Saturday/Sunday night off position. The position is in the other district and is late side, which is 11 PM to 7 AM. I thought about it and talked to Jen about it. My parents agreed to come a little early on Wednesdays during the school year to take care of A1 and A2 to let Jen leave for work on time. So, I put in my request with the desk Sergeant. The posting of the positions closed on Wednesday at 11 PM. The desk Sergeant call me in the middle of the shift and informed me that I had gotten the position. The positions are all based on seniority. The person with the most time on the department that puts in for the position, gets the position. So, after a little over 10 years, I finally have the weekends off. Cool.

My buddy B who is usually off on Thursday nights, was working for another officer. So, we rode together as the print unit. B can not stand to be the passenger, so I reluctantly let him drive. The last time he drove me around, things did not go so well. I was hopeful that it would not happen again. It was a very rainy night. We checked by on a minor accident FSGI (fail to stop and give information) which is where one party leaves the scene of an accident.

A man, F, was sitting in his vehicle which was parked legally on the street by the curb. F was waiting for a friend to get off work. All of the sudden, an older truck pulled out of a nearby business and slammed into the front of F's parked SUV. The truck kept right on going, never stopping. Luckily, F was not injured. As we were assisting in gathering the accident information, a citizen drove up and said that he thought that he had found the old truck that had driven off. B and I took off and using the citizen's description, were able to find the old truck in a nearby apartment complex. The driver had parked it and then covered the front end damage with a tarp. The vehicle was registered to the owner of a nearby bar. So, we then went to the bar in search of the owner. Conveniently for him, he was not there and was not answering his cell phone as his bar manager tried to reach him. Oh well, at least we found the vehicle and were able to give the FSGI investigators some information to work with.

On Friday night the dispatcher was calling for me before I had even found my patrol vehicle. An evening shift unit that tends to be a little dramatic, was dispatched to a robbery at a restaurant. The evening shift unit arrived at the restaurant and immediately got on the radio asking for the print unit. He said, "there are prints and evidence everywhere". So, after I loaded up, I drove to the restaurant. The business had security cameras and the entire incident had been recorded. Two males had been hiding in the parking lot waiting for the employees to close the business. The employees came out to go home, and the two men came out of hiding. The men pulled out guns and ordered the employees back inside the store. They made the employees open the store safe. The men then took off with the money from the safe, about $1500. This is the second time that the business had been robbed in this way in the last month. As for all of the evidence and prints, there was nothing. The robbers had been wearing gloves and the employees had no idea how to make me a copy of the robbery.

Later that night, I checked by with a unit who had been dispatched to a home invasion at a nice three story townhouse. A 24 year old woman, H, had been sleeping in a ground floor bedroom. H was only staying there for a short time, it was her father's townhouse. She was startled awake by the front door being broken open and three men running inside. She was forced into a bathroom and told to be quiet. The men then went through the entire townhouse. They opened every cabinet and every drawer, like they were looking for something specific. They did not bother any of the many flat screen TVs throughout the house. H said that they were in the house for about 5 minutes, then they left, and H ran to a neighbors house to call the police. H looked through the house and told us what she thought was missing. They took her iPhone, iPad, a MacBook Pro, and $20,000 worth of purses. When we asked her how many purses, expecting her to say at least 40, she calmly replied 5. Five purses worth 20 large, 4 grand a pop. Wow. Those were some expensive pieces of dead cow hide. I took pictures of the mess and damage that had been done. I tried lifting prints, but it became apparent fairly quickly that the men had been wearing gloves. I collected a sledge hammer that they had used to break open the front door and two crow bars that had been left behind. Maybe the print lab will have some luck getting prints off of the tools. Maybe they were not wearing gloves when they bought the tools, which appeared to be brand new.

That wraps up another week on patrol.

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The week on patrol, June 22-26, 2010

Yup, I am still behind. But, I am gaining ground. This was an uneventful week. I rode with AR on Tuesday and was the print unit for three nights. My family was out of town for most of the week, so it was very quiet at home.

On Tuesday, AR and I were dispatched to a domestic violence call at a local bar. Tuesday night is not a big night for the bars and this one was mostly empty. A woman met us in the parking lot and said that she was a waitress at the bar. She told us that the assault took place at her apartment and that she drove to the bar afterwards. She did not have anyplace else to go. Her boyfriend has an anger problem that he takes out on her. On this night he pushed her against the wall a few times and then threw her to the ground. This was not the first time. There were no marks on her for me to photograph. She went on to say that he is attending a local college and comes from a wealthy family. There is no excuse for domestic violence. It is unfortunate that he was not on the scene for us to arrest.

On Wednesday I was asked to check by with a unit on a burglary of a motor vehicle to attempt to lift some fingerprints. The owner of the vehicle had parked in a very secluded parking lot and then walked to a nearby bar. He returned to find his stuff had been stolen and his vehicle had been damaged. This parking lot is about a thirty yard square of dirt that is surrounded on all four sides by tall trees. The only way in is a short, two lane dirt road. The lot can not be seen from the nearby businesses or apartments. When it is dark, it feels like you are in a cave in this parking lot. Why would anyone park their vehicle in this lot? I have no idea. I was able to lift some fingerprints from the passenger side door glass. It appeared that the suspect had placed his entire palm on the glass to brace himself as he punched out the door lock. I lifted most of the print and tagged it for processing. This made me feel like I am slowly getting a little better at lifting prints. A little later, I felt inept at it.

Very late in the shift I was called out to a burglary of a used car lot. The business had multiple security cameras that captured some of the burglary. The suspect had seen some of the cameras and had gone so far as to climb on the roof and move the camera to face another direction. The suspect then pushed a window air conditioner unit that had been in a window, through the window and into the business. He then crawled through the hole and into the business. The video showed him rummaging around a desk. He placed his hands on the top of the desk and on the drawer handles. In the video it appeared he was not wearing gloves. So, I figured that I would be able to find his prints. Nope. I dusted everywhere that I had seen him touch in the video, and nothing, nada, zilch. Not even smudges. I tried the regular powder and the magnetic powder with zero results. It was strange. I even got on the roof and dusted the camera housing that he grabbed. Same result. I imagine there is an explanation, but it baffled me.

It was raining Thursday night. The roads were slick and accidents plentiful. I blocked traffic for an accident unit early in the shift. A city park's truck had lost control and done a few spins before hitting a tree and light pole. Luckily he did not hit another vehicle. The driver said that he was going the speed limit and the back end just stepped out and then the vehicle rotated. Possibly. My guess is he was speeding on the slick twisting road, but it was not my accident to investigate.

Friday night was very uneventful, even more so than the previous three nights. I was off on Saturday night. Thankfully. I had an early tee time Sunday morning.

I am starting to feel more comfortable in the roll of the print / picture unit. It gives me the opportunity to go to both districts, and to run some traffic without worrying about calls that are holding. They are going to hold interviews for the permanent print unit spot in a few weeks. We shall see what happens.

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Week on patrol / vacation, June 13-19, 2010

I have managed to get a couple of weeks behind in my writing. It is time to catch up. During this week, our family went on summer vacation. We came back into town and I worked one night and then had a three day weekend. It was a good week.

After work on Sunday morning at 6 AM, I drove home and began packing up the Suburban for our trip. We got loaded into the family truckster and met some friends, T and his wife M and their daughter H, who were vacationing with us. Then we caravanned to the outlet mall in San Marcos. We ate and then began to shop. We had the children with us, so shopping was a challenge. A nine year old and two four year olds do not enjoy clothes shopping. T really helped out during the shopping. He took the initiative and tried to entertain the children while the rest of us shopped. That was very helpful and made the shopping experience bearable.

We left the outlet mall and drove to New Braunfels. There we met a friend who is an arson investigator. He showed the kids all around the fire station where he works along with the ambulance, and pumper truck. He opened every cabinet and explained to the kids how all of the tools and gear were used. The kids had a blast. We left and drove to our final destination for the week, San Antonio.

T and I woke up early on Monday morning to play golf. We played at The Quarry in San Antonio. The location used to be the site of a rock quarry. Nine holes are up out of the quarry and nine holes are down in the quarry. It was a very cool place for a golf course. The course was in great shape and the staff was great. The week was off to a good start.

That afternoon we toured the Alamo. It had been years since I had been there and A1 will be studying it next year in fourth grade. A1 really seemed to be interested in the history and the story of the battle. Then we took a boat tour of the Riverwalk. A family got on the boat after us and the mom took a few water bottles out and handed them to her kids. A1 then immediately said that he was thirsty and that mom gave him a water bottle. It was a very nice gesture since it was smokin hot outside. Jen talked to her for most of the boat tour. Afterwords we enjoyed a nice Mexican dinner beside the river with our friends from New Braunfels.

Tuesday started our tour of the local amusement parks. First up was SeaWorld. A1 was very excited since we were joined by some friends that have kids his age. Everywhere we went they sat in the splash zone. They were splashed by water skiers and Shamu. Luckily for us and his trainers, Shamu did not try to eat anyone while we were there. We spent the afternoon in the water park which became a trend for the week.

Speaking of water parks, they are great places to people watch. It is absolutely amazing what people will wear and not wear to these places. You see a little and sometimes a lot of everything. It turned into a little bit of a game for Jen and I. We tried to point out the funniest people to each other. I think that I won for the week. At the Fiesta Texas water park, I pointed out an older man wearing a red banana hammock (speedo) who was absolutely covered in hair. He reminded me of Sully from Monster's Inc, except his fur was not blue. It seemed like 30 black Chinchillas were hitchhiking on the man. That meant the visual was hair / hammock / hair. I win.

While I am on the subject of water parks, when did wave pools get so lame? The wave pools at SeaWorld and Fiesta Texas were incredibly boring. You wait in the pool for 10 minutes and then there is 5 minutes of "waves". The waves are smaller than what you find in a backyard pool after a good cannonball. I seem to remember actual waves at the wave pools when I was younger. Maybe I was just smaller so the waves seemed bigger, but I doubt it.

On the other hand, the wave river at Schlitterbahn in New Braunfels was an absolute blast. They have a wave maker built into the side of a lazy river. By the time the wave reaches the opposite side of the river, the wave is about 4 feet tall. The waves are generated about every 20 seconds without a break. There are tubes to float on and they even have some tubes with bottoms so that little kids will not fall out. We all linked together and floated around the river enjoying the waves. The kids had fun and I could have done that all day.

Wednesday was Fiesta Texas. It was our first time at this park. The thing that I immediately noticed was the lack of shade while waiting in line for the rides. It was hot and there was no breeze and no shade. They really missed the boat on that. A little shade and some fans or misters would go a long way towards making customers comfortable while waiting.

On Thursday we drove up to Schlitterbahn in New Braunfels. It is a huge water park divided into three distinct areas. The park was clean and the prices for food were more reasonable than the other parks. It was my favorite park for the week.

One consistent aspect of the three parks was the high cost of renting a locker. Since all three either are or have water parks, you need other clothes and towels. Unless you want to carry that stuff around all day, you have to rent a locker. These lockers cost between $10 and $15 a day. It is a money printing scheme for the parks.

We returned home Friday morning. I worked Friday night. I was the print unit and nothing eventful happened, at least that I remember. I was off Saturday night, so I had a three day weekend to recover from the vacation.

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Golf with the boys

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Shot & edited with the iPhone 4

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