This was my last week with O. He was set free on Friday. I ran three burglary of a residence calls this week and watched a scooter take a tumble.
O rode with me on Monday and Tuesday. On Monday night the desk sergeant called me into his office and asked me how O was doing. I told him that he was doing fine and that he was ready to be set free. O has a phone and if he has any questions, he can call me. I asked O if he was ready and he thought that he was.
Our first call on Monday was a burglary of a residence. A woman got a call from her alarm company while she was out of town. The alarm company told her that the back door sensor had been activated. The woman asked her mother to check the residence and the mom came by but did not find anything wrong with the place. The woman returned home a few days later and quickly realized that some of her belongings had been stolen. The suspect had entered through the back door. No windows had been broken and there was not any damage to the back door. In fact, the back door was still locked. However, the back door was only secured by a little twist lock on the actual handle. The kind that you might normally see on a bathroom door. There was not a dead bolt or any other type of lock on the door. And the woman lives in this place by herself. After O gathered all of the information for the report, the woman told us that this was the second time that she had been burglarized. I did not want to alarm her, but the woman was lucky. I told her as gently as possible that she was essentially inviting people into her home with that kind of lock on the back door. In the part of town that she lives in, there are people that go around and check out homes to break into. They go house to house and look for easy access. I told her that her place was the poster child for easy access. The only thing that kept her from coming back to an empty apartment was her alarm.
Tuesday turned out to be O’s last night with me. It was a slow night and all we did was check by on a few calls. Our first check by was at a disturbance that had been holding for over 90 minutes. A woman called saying that her boyfriend was destroying their residence. We arrived and the place was surrounded by a 10 foot tall fence with a locked gate. There was no getting over that fence. We banged on the gate and rang a door bell, but no one answered. Our dispatcher called the residence and a male answered the phone and said that the police were not needed. There was a supervisor on the scene, but there was really nothing that we could do. We did not have enough information to break down the gate and forcibly enter the residence. Even though it did not feel right, we all just had to leave.
Then we checked by on a major accident involving a scooter. We arrived at the address and there was nothing in the street. A man walked out of a nearby restaurant and told us that the man involved in the accident was inside. We went inside and found a very drunk male eating some pizza. He told us that he had been riding his scooter on a nearby street and was struck by a car. He crashed and the car kept going. He said that the scooter should still be in the road. He called some friends and they picked him up and brought him to the restaurant. We left and went in search of the scooter. We checked the area in which he said the accident took place and could not find anything. If a person is involved in an accident, let alone a scooter accident where he claims to be thrown from the scooter, you would expect him to be injured or at least have abrasions or torn clothing, correct? Not this guy. Now, he did not look like a yuppie lawyer, but rather like he had just left the local smoke shop and slammed a case of beer. In any case, he was not injured at all, not a scratch on him. I guess he just wanted some attention.
Our last call was another burglary of a residence at some crack apartments. A crack head came home after being gone for three days. He could not get into his apartment. So, he did what any crack head would do and kicked in the door. He found two other crack heads sleeping on his bed. When we arrived, the crack heads were still asleep on his bed. We roused them from their slumber. One of them was a 19 year old female. The other was a 25 year old male who told us that he had permission to be there. The other male owed him $15 and told him that he could stay there until he came back home. Apparently the crack head that lives in the apartment forgot the deal. The primary unit took the two crack heads to some other crack apartments nearby where the male’s brother lived. While we were there the resident crack head gathered up all of his belongings (two backpacks) and said he was going to find a new place to live. Outstanding.
Wednesday night I was riding solo and we had a rookie dispatcher. It is always BRUTAL when a new dispatcher is training on our channel. We are so spoiled by our regular dispatcher. She is great and takes very good care of us. The rookie dispatcher was being trained to send any call to any available unit as soon as it hit the board without regard to beat or work history. So, if you got a call and just stayed on it, she left you alone. As soon as you cleared a call, she sent you another one. If you were the only one clearing calls, you are running around like a chicken with your head cut off. It makes for a long night.
I checked by on a panic alarm at a residence. A panic alarm is supposed to be for a burglary, robbery, home invasion, or something like that in progress. For panic alarms, we run code 1, lights and sirens. We arrived and everything outside looked fine. I knocked on the door and a short time later a male wearing only a towel answered the door. He said that he hit the panic button by mistake on his remote. We impressed upon him that for panic alarms we come code 1 and are not too happy when it turns out to be dude in a towel that just hit the wrong button. He went on to say that he tried to cancel the alarm, but the alarm company told him that panic alarms can not be cancelled. So, he knew we were coming. Which then begs the question, why did he not get dressed? I told him that the next time he hits the wrong button to feel free to mix in some pants and a shirt.
My last call on Wednesday was a robbery. I arrived at the location and found a man in his late 20’s just absolutely weeping like a little school girl. I asked him what had happened, and in between sobs, he said that he had been at a local bar buying drinks. Two males walked up and wanted him to buy them drinks. He refused and then decided to leave the bar. The males followed him, grabbed him, punched him in the stomach, and then took his money. After getting robbed, he walked through 4 crowded blocks to the place where I found him, a 24 hour restaurant. He weeped that he wanted an ambulance to check out his stomach because they punched him where he had recently had surgery. At that point, he lifted up his shirt to reveal what looked like a 5 year old one inch long scar. At that point I wanted to ask him is he was menstruating, but that would have been insulting to all women. The ambulance arrived and the man demanded to be transported to a nearby hospital. My guess is that he was out of pain medication, and wanted to try to get a new script.
Thursday started off with another burglary of a residence. The door had been kicked in and the apartment had been ransacked, but nothing had been taken. The resident told me that two other apartments in that same complex had also been burglarized that day.
A short time later I was dispatched to another panic alarm at the same residence as the night before. This time, I was not in such a hurry, since I figured it was another “wrong button” on the alarm remote. I arrived and sure enough, that was the case. This time it was the roommate that hit the wrong button, and thankfully, he was fully clothed. They really need to get the buttons on their remotes figured out.
I was the print unit on Friday night. I did not run any print or picture calls. But, I did check by on other calls. I checked by with A on a loud noise in the ward. I was following her toward the call when I noticed a big SUV in the left lane begin to slow down rapidly. The SUV was being followed by a male on a scooter. The male was wearing a helmet and was carrying a green purse. Apparently the male was not paying attention. He looked up a little late and was startled to see the SUV stopping. The male panicked. But instead of squeezing the brake for the back tire, he grabbed the one for the front. This caused the scooter to stand up on its nose, and then flip over. I turned on my lights and stopped next to the carnage. As I pulled up, the guy was picking himself up off of the ground. I was doing everything in my power not to laugh, but was not successful. I got out of the car laughing. I could not help it. The male turned out to be ok and he was able to get his chick magnet scooter fired up and running again. The male nor the scooter ever hit the SUV. He took off and I continued on to the loud noise call.
That concludes another week on patrol.
No comments:
Post a Comment