My week started out with O for two nights and ended with an in-service training class.
Our first call on Monday was a robbery/delayed report. The call came from a pay phone at a gas station. Once we arrived, the male told us that he had gotten paid earlier that day and had cashed his check. Then he went to a game room and turned $1300 into $3400. I should take him to Vegas. He left the game room and was walking along the road when a car pulled up and two men jumped out. They put a gun to his head and took his money. This happened about 2 blocks from one of our command centers. So, then he gets on a bus, and takes it to my part of town. His walk to the bus stop and subsequent bus ride took 90 minutes. Once we had heard his story and O had gathered all of his information, I asked O what he thought actually happened. O said that it probably happened about like he told us. That is a possibility, but I doubt it. O then asked me what I thought happened. I think that he cashed his paycheck and then went to the game room. At the game room I think that he lost all of his money. Then he left and wondered what he was going to tell his baby’s momma. He got on the bus and had some time to think. He hatched the robbery idea and called us. His story just did not make any sense. A little luck is one thing, but $1300 to $3400 is more than a little luck. He should have gone straight to a stop-in-rob and bought a lottery ticket. Why not go straight to the nearby command station to report the robbery? Why ride a bus to a different part of town and then report the robbery? Lots of questions without any good answers.
A few hours later, we checked by on another robbery. A young man that lives in the area was sitting at a table outside of a Starbucks “borrowing” the free wifi. A group of 4 males approached him and asked him for the time. Right after asking, one of them jumped on him and another one grabbed his computer. The males then ran off towards downtown. The victim flagged down one of our officers, N. N got on the radio and put out a description of the males. Right after the description went out, another officer saw 4 males matching the description. As he approached them, two of them ran off. We responded and saw one of the males running down a nearby street. I accelerated the patrol vehicle and caught up to the runner. As we came to a screeching halt just in front of the runner, he saw me and decided that I must be related to Brian Urlacher. Because he threw himself to the ground face down and put his hands behind his back. It was not his first encounter with law enforcement. At about the same time, another officer saw the other runner and took him into custody. That runner still had the victim’s laptop in his possession. We brought the runners back to the scene and the victim positively identified them as the robbers. It was a great example of quick and effective police work.
On Tuesday, O was with me again. We checked by with B on a disturbance a few hours into the shift. Once we arrived, the male that answered the door told us that his ex-boyfriend had just hit him in the face. We asked him what happened and he told us that there was a knock on his door at 2 AM. He decided to just open the door without looking. As soon as the door opened, his ex-boyfriend whom he has a restraining order against for previous violence, punched him in the face and then ran off. Who opens the front door in the middle of the night without first looking outside? Peephole maybe? Then added to that is the fact that he knows that his ex-boyfriend wants to harm him and he still just answered the door. Nothing quite like making it easy to be victimized. At least make the ex work for it a little bit.
On the way to dinner we were dispatched to a burglary of a business. A nearby piano bar had been burglarized. The entire front of the business was glass, but they do not have a glass break sensor connected to their alarm. The bar has a motion detector, but it only covers the entrance. So, the burglars broke the farthest window from the door. Then they absolutely destroyed a video game and vending machine that were by the windows. They even took a few beers out of a nearby cooler and had refreshments while they worked. They finally set off the alarm when the walked to close to the front door. There is not telling how long they were inside, but from the damage to the machines, I would bet they were in the bar for at least 5 minutes. It might be time for the bar to get a glass break sensor.
I rode solo on Wednesday. There were a few loud noise calls and another fake call by the same guy from last week. Towards the end of the shift, I checked by with A on a suspicious male. He was walking around a neighborhood looking into cars. When A approached him, he had a knife in his hand. She told him to drop it, and he did not listen. Luckily for him, she did not shoot him, even though she would have been justified. She was able to take him into custody without further incident. Once he figured out that he might go to jail, he said that he needed an ambulance. Then he asked us to “pinkie swear” to something. He refused to give us his address and then sang his phone number to us. He went to jail for safe keeping, and for walking in the street where a sidewalk is provided.
I was solo again on Thursday. I was dispatched to an accident involving a wrecker driver. A Cadillac did not yield the right of way leaving a stop sign and was hit by the wrecker. No one was injured. The Cadillac was an older model and had a minor dent on the rear quarter panel. The wrecker sustained quite a bit more damage and the bumper was bent severely enough to touch the tires. From the damage to the wrecker, if it had been a new Cadillac, the trunk of the Cadillac would have been ripped off. They don’t make cars like they used to.
I left work Friday morning and went straight to the academy for my first mandatory in-service class of the year. This class was on decision making and ethics. The first half of the class was taught by two assistant Chiefs. They were both very good speakers. They tried out something new on our class. They broke us into groups of 12, handed us a sheet of paper, a Sharpie and a box of crayons, and asked us to redesign the department’s logo using the mission statement as a guide. We had 15 minutes and then we had to present the logo to the class. The exercise was a little “touchy-feely” but ended up going smoothly. Each group’s design was impressive and it was interesting to hear them explain their logos.
The afternoon was a disaster. The first speaker was a dead ringer for Margaret Chu, except she was not funny. She talked about sexual and workplace harassment. I say talked, but in reality she read. Each Powerpoint slide that came on the screen, she read. I am relatively certain that everyone in the room could read. It was brutal. She advised us to refrain from hugging in the workplace. Not because the parties involved will be offended, but because an on-looker might complain. I guess B and I will have to stop embracing. Too bad. The last 90 minutes was spent watching a video of the department’s lead counsel discussing what he thinks we need to know. Just like last year he talked about the Golden Rule and quoted scripture. It was extremely boring. So, boring in fact that I am sure that I missed a little of his talk.
That concludes another week on patrol.
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