I spent the majority of the week north of the bayou, riding my new numbers in my new district. There seems to be an increase in property crimes in the area covered by my station. I rode with B one night and might be the print unit on Fridays.
Monday was my first night on the street since the rotation as the print unit came to a conclusion. It was supposed to be my first night riding my new numbers. I was assigned new numbers when I received the new days off a few weeks ago. I was not riding those numbers since I was still doing the print rotation. When I arrived at roll call, the desk sergeant asked if I would ride in my old district for the shift since they were short handed. I agreed and B and I rode together. B told me that his apartment complex parking garage had recently been hit twice by burglary of motor vehicle suspects. On two different nights, a total of 9 vehicles were burglarized. Most of them had windows shattered and small items taken from inside the vehicle. That sucks. His garage is well lit and when it comes to apartment garages, it is rather difficult to get inside.
A couple of hours into the shift, we were dispatched to a suspicious event at an apartment complex. A resident heard some glass breaking and then observed two males walking in the parking garage carrying a briefcase. We arrived and used a 911 key to gain access into the garage. A 911 key opens a red metal box marked, you guessed it, 911, that is near the entrance gates of most apartment complexes in our area. Then we started checking the parking garage for damaged vehicles. We checked the lower level and came up empty. To get to the upper level, we had to use the 911 key again. On the upper level, we found an Audi with a broken out passenger side window. The vehicle was registered to an apartment in the complex, but we were unable to contact the owner. After leaving the case number in the vehicle, we drove toward the exit and noticed another damaged vehicle. This was a nice Jaguar which had a broken passenger side window as well. This vehicle was also registered to the complex and the owner answered the door. It was his briefcase that the resident had seen being carried by the two men. We gathered his information and then called for the new print unit to come lift prints from the Jag. Two side notes from this call:
1. It was amazing that both vehicles were actually registered to apartments inside the complex. It seems like most of the time, the vehicles we deal with are not actually registered to the address where the owner lives. It makes our job easier if vehicle owners keep that information current.
2. It is difficult to gain access into these new apartment complexes. Most of the time, we can get into the parking garages with the 911 key. From there, it is a challenge. Sometimes a key fob is required to make the elevator work or to open a door that gets from the garage into the actual apartment complex. This gives the people that live in the complex a feeling of security, but it can really slow down first responders in an emergency. It was not an emergency, but both times we went into the complex on this night, we had to ask residents to let us in. There has to be a better way, either some type of universal key fob for all apartment complexes that is given to first responders or just have a key fob in the 911 box so that we can access the entire complex after gaining entrance to the garage.
Tuesday night was my first night actually riding my new numbers. My beat is now north of the bayou. My second call was for a person down at the entrance of an apartment complex. I arrived to find a male passed out in the grass by the gate. I woke him up using a sternum rub. His pants were undone, I did not know why and did not want to ask. So, I just told him to button them up so that the mouse will stay in the house. He told me that he had been out drinking in the nearby bars and that he did not know how he got home. He said that he lived in the complex and gave me an apartment number. I checked him for weapons and then we found his apartment. He checked his pockets for keys and came up empty. Suck. I told him to sit by his door and I would check the grassy area where I found him and then return. I returned to the grass and amazingly enough, found his wallet and his keys in the grass.
I returned to his apartment, and he was not sitting in the hallway. Not good. I checked the other nearby hallways and came up empty. Then I took a closer look at his apartment door, and noticed that it was slightly ajar. I knocked, pushed it open, and called out his name. He answered. I entered his apartment and found him lying on the floor in his living room. He had become impatient and had kicked in his apartment door. He said that it took three tries. No neighbors came out into the hall or called the police. He told me that he had been a detective in a nearby city. He had been fired a year earlier for DWI. He had been stopped on traffic in the city where he worked by an officer that he knew, according to him. Then, for this reason alone, he had been fired. After leaving him in his apartment, I Googled him. As is usually the case, he only told me part of the story. After his DWI, his department busted him down from a detective to an officer. Then he had a series of other alcohol related incidents that led to his firing. It seems that he is still having issues with alcohol.
Wednesday night was uneventful. I ran an alarm call at a huge house that backed up to the bayou. Everything was locked up tight. A little later, a burglary of a residence in progress call dropped. It was in a nearby beat, so I checked by with the primary officer. A female answered the door and she seemed a little shaken up, but not what you expect to find if someone was actually just trying to get into her apartment. We found out that the incident took place 20 minutes earlier and that she did not even call the police. She called her ex-boyfriend who then called the police. She said that an ex-boss that liked her had come to her apartment. She would not let him in and he freaked out. He started banging on the door and windows and eventually broke one of the windows. While this was going on, she called her ex-boyfriend who lived 30 minutes away for help. Things were not making sense and we were not getting the whole story. The primary officer got her info for the report and by the time we left, the ex-boyfriend had arrived to take care of her.
At the end of the shift, I was dispatched to a criminal mischief report at a Valero. I arrived and found the front door had been shattered. The glass was still in the door frame, but it looked like a spiderweb. The clerk was less than helpful with information. He said that he had been there all night and that the door was in tact when he got there. Then, when he was about to clean the door, he noticed that it was broken. He did not know when, who, or how it happened. It is a small store and I asked him again if he had been there all night and he said yes. I asked how did he not notice the front door shattering, and he did not have an answer. Another instance of only getting part of the story.
On Thursday, I actually had other officers in the new beat with me. They were not needed as it was the slowest night of the week.
Friday night I was back as the print unit. The officer that has the permanent print slot has Friday and Saturday nights off. So, if manpower allows, they want me to be the print unit on Friday nights. I had one print call at a burglary of a residence. The suspect broke out a window on the back door, removed the chain and went inside. The deadbolt (which is keyed on both sides) was sticking so the residents were not using it they said. A laptop and jewelry were stolen. I found some smudges on various surfaces, but not anything with ridges. The residents think a teenager that lives in the complex is responsible for the recent burglaries, but they do not have any proof. I gave them some tips on securing their residence, listened to them vent, and answered some other questions for them.
That concludes another week on patrol.
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