The night was going very smoothly for a Friday. We got our two report calls, a theft, and a burglary of a motor vehicle. Then it was time for traffic. Four stops later, four citations, and eight violations and it was time to write our reports. In the middle of our report writing, a call dropped and another unit was dispatched. The call was a person down in a vehicle. That usually means someone that has had too much to drink. They start to drive, realize they are drunk and pull over somewhere to sleep it off. I knew that the dispatched unit was meeting someone for dinner at that time, so I volunteered to run the call for her. I had no idea what I was getting us into.
We arrived on the scene to find an ambulance, a squad (specialized EMTs), and a fellow officer. Turns out that a wrecker driver was driving through the area and noticed a male leaning in through the window of a parked vehicle. That vehicle was parked haphazardly, close to the road in an apartment complex parking lot. The wrecker driver made the block and the male was gone from the window, but the male in the car was slumped over. The wrecker driver was concerned for the driver's well being or he just really wanted a tow and called the police.
The ambulance arrived to find the male, N, passed out behind then wheel. The vehicle was running and it was in park. They began to try to wake up N. After some effort, they were able to wake him up and get him standing. At that point, a fellow officer arrived. After a quick evaluation, he believed that N was intoxicated and placed him under arrest for public intoxication. While searching N incident to the arrest, the officer found a small baggie of cocaine in N's pocket. That fact alone completely changed the course of events to come, but that was only the beginning.
Now that N was going to jail, we had to do an inventory of his vehicle since it was going to be towed from the scene. Inside the vehicle we found a small pharmacy. N was in possession of Marijuana, Ecstasy, Xanax, and Hydrocodone. He had a crack pipe, Marijuana pipe, scale, hypodermic needle, and other drug paraphernalia. All of this was found in the driver's side door pocket. The rest of the vehicle was a complete disaster. There was trash and clothes and food everywhere. The car smelled strongly of body odor with a hint of death thrown in. We popped the trunk, and found the cause of the death smell. N had the carcass of a dead animal in the trunk of his vehicle. When I asked him why and what it was, N said that it was a small deer and that he was a taxidermist by trade. A little weird.
Then we tried to figure out just who N was. He did not have any form of identification in his possession. N told us his name, but he kept saying that he was born in 1952 when he looked to be about 30 years old. Usually when someone lies about their name or date of birth to us, they have an outstanding warrant. After five officers tried, P was finally able to get a real date of birth from N. After running him on the computer, we found out that he had an outstanding felony warrant for possession of a controlled substance (shocker) from a nearby county. Wonderful. That meant that we had to take him to the criminal courts building to have him warned by a magistrate before we could take him to jail. I sent off the warrant information to the dispatcher and she confirmed the warrant.
Then things went from bad to worse. N said that he wanted to kill himself and that he needed to go to a psychiatric hospital. And the hits just keep on coming. So, luckily for my rookie and I, AR came by and helped us. She took the drugs to the narcotics division to weigh and tag into evidence. Then she entered the charges for us. That saved my rookie about 3 hours of work. Other officers helped as well, it was a team effort.
After N's car was towed, we left the scene and took N to have him warned. N was very rude to the magistrate. He was cycling. Up and down. He would be polite and then freak out. The magistrate got the freak out. N said later that he had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and that he had been off of his prescribed medications for years. The self-medicating was not going so well. We then took him to the psychiatric center where he was evaluated by a doctor. The doctor released him the psychiatric unit of the county jail. N was down again and started talking about wanting to die and trying to bang his head. So, I made a deal with him. I told him that if he calmed down and did not bang his head on the way to the jail (10 minute drive) I would call his mother and he could talk to her. N had been requesting to talk to her because he wanted to tell her goodbye. N thought that he was going to prison for at least 10 years. N was calm on the drive and I let him talk to his wife (his mother did not answer the phone). His wife was not very understanding (who could blame her?). She said that she was tired of it all and that he had been gone from the house for a few days. She seemed more concerned with the car which was her means of transportation.
The booking process at the county jail is not very streamlined for non-county officers. Luckily, the deputies were very cool and helpful and made the 2 hours that we were there enjoyable. I sent C to the patrol car to start on the report and talked to the deputies while we were waiting for the district attorney's office to approve the charges. Once that was done, we left the county jail and went to finish the report. We finally finished everything about 4 hours after the end our shift. C did a great job on the report and everything else. It was an overwhelming scene for a rookie. It turned out to be a great training call and a little overtime every now and then is not a bad thing.
We arrived on the scene to find an ambulance, a squad (specialized EMTs), and a fellow officer. Turns out that a wrecker driver was driving through the area and noticed a male leaning in through the window of a parked vehicle. That vehicle was parked haphazardly, close to the road in an apartment complex parking lot. The wrecker driver made the block and the male was gone from the window, but the male in the car was slumped over. The wrecker driver was concerned for the driver's well being or he just really wanted a tow and called the police.
The ambulance arrived to find the male, N, passed out behind then wheel. The vehicle was running and it was in park. They began to try to wake up N. After some effort, they were able to wake him up and get him standing. At that point, a fellow officer arrived. After a quick evaluation, he believed that N was intoxicated and placed him under arrest for public intoxication. While searching N incident to the arrest, the officer found a small baggie of cocaine in N's pocket. That fact alone completely changed the course of events to come, but that was only the beginning.
Now that N was going to jail, we had to do an inventory of his vehicle since it was going to be towed from the scene. Inside the vehicle we found a small pharmacy. N was in possession of Marijuana, Ecstasy, Xanax, and Hydrocodone. He had a crack pipe, Marijuana pipe, scale, hypodermic needle, and other drug paraphernalia. All of this was found in the driver's side door pocket. The rest of the vehicle was a complete disaster. There was trash and clothes and food everywhere. The car smelled strongly of body odor with a hint of death thrown in. We popped the trunk, and found the cause of the death smell. N had the carcass of a dead animal in the trunk of his vehicle. When I asked him why and what it was, N said that it was a small deer and that he was a taxidermist by trade. A little weird.
Then we tried to figure out just who N was. He did not have any form of identification in his possession. N told us his name, but he kept saying that he was born in 1952 when he looked to be about 30 years old. Usually when someone lies about their name or date of birth to us, they have an outstanding warrant. After five officers tried, P was finally able to get a real date of birth from N. After running him on the computer, we found out that he had an outstanding felony warrant for possession of a controlled substance (shocker) from a nearby county. Wonderful. That meant that we had to take him to the criminal courts building to have him warned by a magistrate before we could take him to jail. I sent off the warrant information to the dispatcher and she confirmed the warrant.
Then things went from bad to worse. N said that he wanted to kill himself and that he needed to go to a psychiatric hospital. And the hits just keep on coming. So, luckily for my rookie and I, AR came by and helped us. She took the drugs to the narcotics division to weigh and tag into evidence. Then she entered the charges for us. That saved my rookie about 3 hours of work. Other officers helped as well, it was a team effort.
After N's car was towed, we left the scene and took N to have him warned. N was very rude to the magistrate. He was cycling. Up and down. He would be polite and then freak out. The magistrate got the freak out. N said later that he had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and that he had been off of his prescribed medications for years. The self-medicating was not going so well. We then took him to the psychiatric center where he was evaluated by a doctor. The doctor released him the psychiatric unit of the county jail. N was down again and started talking about wanting to die and trying to bang his head. So, I made a deal with him. I told him that if he calmed down and did not bang his head on the way to the jail (10 minute drive) I would call his mother and he could talk to her. N had been requesting to talk to her because he wanted to tell her goodbye. N thought that he was going to prison for at least 10 years. N was calm on the drive and I let him talk to his wife (his mother did not answer the phone). His wife was not very understanding (who could blame her?). She said that she was tired of it all and that he had been gone from the house for a few days. She seemed more concerned with the car which was her means of transportation.
The booking process at the county jail is not very streamlined for non-county officers. Luckily, the deputies were very cool and helpful and made the 2 hours that we were there enjoyable. I sent C to the patrol car to start on the report and talked to the deputies while we were waiting for the district attorney's office to approve the charges. Once that was done, we left the county jail and went to finish the report. We finally finished everything about 4 hours after the end our shift. C did a great job on the report and everything else. It was an overwhelming scene for a rookie. It turned out to be a great training call and a little overtime every now and then is not a bad thing.
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