Another Darwin award candidate

A vehicle was in the parking lot of the Valero, located at Montrose at Westheimer. We ran the license plate on our MDI, and discovered that the vehicle registration had expired in 2008. That fact gave us probable cause to stop the vehicle. Since we had already left the parking lot before the MDI information came back, we sat in the right lane of Westheimer and waited for the vehicle to pull out. Sure enough, the vehicle also pulled out onto Westheimer and into the left lane. We were in the right lane stopped at a red light. The light turned green, we stayed stopped and so did the suspect vehicle. We sat for two minutes, so did they, about 5 car lenghts behind us. Other vehicles began honking at the suspect vehicle. So, that was the motivation they needed to move. They finally passed us and we activated out lights and stopped the vehicle on traffic.

 The vehicle pulled over into a business parking lot. A very strong odor of marijuana was emanating from the vehicle As we walked up to the vehicle, a female passenger in the backseat wearing a wife beater tank top had both of her hands inside her bra. She was moving her hands around and fiddling with something. We told her to be still and to put her hands on her lap. We then asked the driver for his drivers license. The driver stated that he did not have any identification. That is an arrestable offense, driving without a license. During this time, the female was still messing with her bra. We get the driver out and ask him if everything in the vehicle is his. To which he replys "yes". We handcuff him, search him, and put him in the backseat. In plain view on the center console is three marijuana cigarettes. An easy possession of marijuana case. Then a female officer gets out the female and searches her. She finds a plastic baggie with Ecstacy and Zanex pills, shockingly enough, in her bra. I would have never thought to look there. Easy felony.

 These two scholars had at least 2 minutes to get rid of the drugs while they were sitting behind us in traffic. They could have easily rolled down a window and thrown out the drugs. Then, just the driver would have gone to jail for new traffic. Policy states that someone driving without an ID will be arrested. However, these two decide to risk it and end up with possession cases. The female tells us on the way to jail that the male told her to hide the drugs in her bra. Brilliant. Maybe if I make a spectacle of playing with my bra they won't think to check there. This was another example of why I have very high job security.

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Not a tough choice

$40 cab ride or $5000 DWI defense?
 
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Strange days at work

I am a field trainer/evaluator at work. That means I teach probationary officers how to do the job and I evaluate them after their training to see if they can do the job. If I am training, I have the trainee in the car with me for three weeks. If I am evaluating, I have the trainee for one week. Our academy has been pumping out classes of probationary officers at a brisk pace. The city is trying to increase the number of officers, but is actually barely keeping up with attrition. The fact that five to six academy classes is just keeping us even should scare the citizens since the city has plans for only two classes this fiscal year. Since we have had lots of probationary officers in need of training and evaluating I am rarely riding by myself at work. This has it positives and its minuses. One of the pluses is I have a little free time at work while the probationary officer writes reports. I do my required documentation while they write, but I still have a little free time. Some trainers use the free time to beat/complete iPhone games. I typically use the time to browse the Internet or even write this blog. Yesterday evening, my father asked me why I did not write the night before. He said that I had been writing almost nightly, so he wondered what kept me from it last night. Work actually.

It seems that Patrick, the last probationary that I recently evaluated has decided to ride with a friend in 2 district. I was finished evaluating him, and my next probationary has not come to night shift yet from evening shift. I completely understand. Two district tends to be a little more exciting than 1 district, and the officer that he is riding with is a lot closer to him in age. You see, Patrick is the first probationary that I have trained or evaluated that I was old enough to have been his father. Patrick turned 21 with 2 weeks left in the academy. His mother actually purchased his pistol for him, because in Texas you have to be 21 to purchase a firearm. His mother is an officer as well. Come to find out, she is my age.

So, with Patrick in 2 district and my next probationary still on evening shift, I am riding by myself. I actually get to drive. That also means that I have to do all of the paperwork and report writing as well. And last night, I was busy. We had 10 units in 1 district and it was a Thursday, so you would think that I would not be real busy. Wrong. It seems that my shift commander has decided to leave the comfy confines of his office and try to be the po po again out on the streets. He thinks that the fourth ward, which is in my beat, needs to be cleaned up. So, the commander gets our sergeant and 5 units, 4 from 1 district, and puts them all out on a special assignment at 1:30 AM. That takes those units out of the calls for service loop. Meaning they can not be dispatched to calls for service, the primary duty of the patrol officer. Two other 1 district units are busy on calls in 2 district and 2 other units are busy with report calls. That left two units to cover 1 district during the busiest time of the night. The two hours around when the bars and clubs close. I was one of those units. So, I was a little busy. Luckily, my commander is off on Friday and Saturday nights, so he can not take half of the units in the district and put them out of service to play on the real busy nights. I asked my sergeant what arrests the 5 units, 1 sergeant, and 1 lieutenant made while cleaning up the ward that night, none. Outstanding.

Fun with photos and Jen is blogging!

Here is another photo that I took of Austin on the morning of his first day of third grade. I used my Canon 30D and then I ran the RAW image through Aperture 2 on my MacBook. I used a Topaz Labs plugin, played for a little while, and this is the result. I downloaded trial versions of Aperture and the Topaz plugin last night. I can already tell that using them will be a slippery slope for me. It is amazing what can be done with the RAW image file.
 
Now for the big news, after a lot of encouragement from me, Jen now has her own blog. It can be found at http://jen7079.blogspot.com/. Everyone that receives my blog through email will also receive hers when she posts. She wrote last night before I had a chance to set up the email, so please click on the link and check it out. I am sure that she would appreciate some feedback.

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If a tree falls...

Patrick and I were dispatched to a major accident this morning at 3 AM in the 1500 block of Kirby. The dispatcher said that two vehicles had run into a tree. Now, we get drunks that will hit trees fairly regularly. But two vehicles hitting a tree, that just sounded strange. We arrived to find something strange, indeed.  An approximately 100 year old, 75 foot tall oak tree had split and fell to the ground in two large pieces. The tree survived Hurricane Ike, but insects brought it down. Large black insects were swarming all over the bottom of the tree where it had been in the ground. As bad luck would have it, when the trunk came down on Kirby, a silver Volvo was in the wrong place at the wrong time. The tree hit the Volvo right where its windshield meets the roof. Luckily for the very good looking female driver, the canopy of the tree kept the trunk of the tree from falling all of the way to the ground. The female was not injured, but was crying hysterically. She was on the phone with her mother who we could hear yelling at her. The mother was saying "nothing good happens when you are out after midnight". I wonder if the mother knows that her daughter is a bartender? 

The Volvo took on the tree like a champ. Maybe there is something to Volvos and crash ratings. Right after the tree hit the Volvo, a '99 Jeep Cherokee traveling on Kirby slammed into the tree, barely missing the Volvo. The drunk driver climbed out of the passenger door and walked away southbound on Kirby according to a witness. To the drunk guys credit, Kirby is very dark at night in that area and anyone could have run into that tree. Being drunk just assured him that he would not be able to react. The tree appears to have been sitting on the property line between two residences. One homeowner came outside and the other homeowner did not answer their front door. Of course, the homeowner that we spoke to claimed that the tree belonged to his neighbor. The homeowner who claimed that the tree was not his, asked us who was going to clean up his yard. Patrick said "you, I guess". I could not have said it better myself. Our dispatcher called public works who as of 4:30 AM still had not arrived on the scene to begin the cleanup. So, we parked our patrol vehicle blocking southbound Kirby and put on the strobe lights to prevent more accidents. I allowed Patrick to light a flare and place it in the road. He was excited, you would have thought he just found $100. Apparently he had never lit a flare before. Sometimes it is the little things in life.       

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Wow, third grade!

Since the end of second grade, Austin has been less than enthusiastic about the start of third grade. I understand that kids are looking forward to the summer and not to the following school year. However, he has been very anxious and nervous about the start of the school year. The TAKS test (Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills), which he has to pass to go to fourth grade, is the source of his anxiety. The TAKS test is the Texas version of a basic skills test. It is taken very seriously in Texas and school funding is tied to student performance on the test. Therefore, there is a great emphasis placed on the test. Apparently, so much emphasis that second graders are nervous about it.

Austin has recently shown signs that he is getting a little excited about the school year. He went shoe shopping in Corpus Christi with Jen and Nana and then later at Baybrook Mall with us and the new shoes have helped.

Last night was meet the teacher night at Austin's school. Before then, we had no idea who his teacher was and had no way of finding out. They post lists on the wall by grade. You scan the lists, find your child's name and head to that classroom. This year Austin has Mrs. Collins. She made a very good first impression on Austin. She has two turtles and two lizards in the classroom. Austin asked what their names were. The turtles have names, but the lizards are nameless. Austin hopes to correct this. We gave him some ideas, Cagney & Lacy, Tubbs & Crockett, or Maverick & Goose. Mrs. Collins told us numerous times how much she loved kids and how she missed them over the summer. Austin was very excited about the school year after meeting his teacher. Good news.

We did encounter one problem. Towards the end of the school year, the school sends home an order form asking if you want to purchase school supplies for your child for the next school year. We always fill out the form and send in the check immediately. We do not want any part of buying school supplies at Walmart. The school does not send home any type of notice or receipt that the order was received. This year we noticed that other students had the supply pack on their desks, but Austin's desk was empty. We were told to check with the office. At the officer Jen was told that our order was never received and that they were sold out of supplies for third grade. Jen was handed a huge list of supplies that Austin would need. To say that we were frustrated and a little upset is an understatement. Fast forward to today. After dropping off Austin at his classroom, I went to the office and spoke with Joan, the school secretary. She is in charge of the ordering and allocation of the school supplies. Our name was not on her list, apparently our order form and check never made it to the office. She said that she only orders the same number of supply packs as she gets orders for. In spite of this, Joan was very helpful, she took down my name and phone number and said she would look into the matter for me. She told me not to go on a wild goose hunt for the supplies, at least not yet. She called me at 12:30 and said that she had found some extra supplies and that Austin had what he needed. I was very thankful. It was very nice of her to go above and beyond to help us out.     

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Why drinking and driving do not mix

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The top vehicle, a Lexus RX 330 was north bound on US 59. The bottom vehicle, a Chevrolet Tahoe was south bound, in the north bound lanes. The Lexus tried to swerve, but could not avoid the head-on collision. Each vehicle was going about 60 MPH. The driver of the Tahoe jumped out and started running down the shoulder of the freeway leaving the injured driver in the Tahoe. Luckily, witnesses saw him run and gave a good description. We snatched him up and returned him to the scene. A DWI task force unit came and took over that part for us. The drunk guy ended up blowing a .25, three times the legal limit. The driver of the Lexus had minor injuries, she was lucky.
 
A funny side note, we found hundreds of condoms in the Tahoe. Literally, a cardboard box on the backseat exploded and condoms rained down. Not sure what the drunk guy had planned, but he did not get see that plan through to it's fruition.
 
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