"Hot" Pursuit

Hot Pursuit

(rated E for everyone!)

You all know if you have been reading my stories for very long at all, that I seemed to do my best work at night. I really did love working the night shift except for getting tired about 5:00 a.m. and not sleeping very well during the day. Never did get the hang of that. Mostly because we worked two weeks of night, two weeks of afternoons and two weeks of mornings. THAT SUCKED. Rotating every two weeks was so hard on the body and sleeping habits. But so much stuff happens at night, so much of a different world exist out there for those of you that do not know that. It is so weird seeing this world in two different ways. Most people ...and I did say MOST....work during the day, pay their bills, have a life, and then sleep at night. Well then there is another world that sleep all day, play all night, are out drinking, up to no good, out doing crimes, and causing havoc among the rest of society. When your mommas told you Nothing good is going on after Midnight...she was right. There just is not much good going on after midnight for sure. And I loved it!!!! Car burglaries, in dark times, bar fights, late evenings after a few drinks have been consumed, domestics, same story, home from work, had a few beers and wham oh, the yelling and screaming begins. Oh yes, the life of after darkness is sure different than the other world.

I was patrolling late one night on the east side of town, where I loved working. More exciting things happen there, yes, the crime rate is higher on the east side than the west. I see a car speeding east bound on Broadway, I get turned around and take after it. It does not want to stop, so not only are my lights activated, but I turn on the siren. It still does not stop. I call out in pursuit but I have not gotten the tag number, not gotten close enough yet, when the car turns north on 16th. At 16th and Randolph the car stops. I call out with the vehicle and I am approaching the car. While I am making contact with the driver, and I don't even remember having a chance to get his license from him, a girl starts screaming from her front porch that her house is on fire. I turn to the sounds of her screaming and sure enough...her house IS on fire. All is a split second I tell her to get out of the house, call headquarters to send the fire department to my location for we have a house fire, and I yell at the driver to not go anywhere and to wait right there. I run to the house as the girl is screaming her family is in still inside, I yell at her to get out and wait for the fire trucks. I run inside and see the sofa is on fire. Her parents and some other people are still in there, I yell at them to get up and get out. The parents run to the kitchen and start grabbing things to pour water on the sofa. I do too. How stupid is that???? I tell them to get out and they won't leave. We keep pouring water on the sofa, the house is full of smoke, and you can hardly see at all. I make the people get out, I can hear the fire trucks coming, and there is no sense in staying in the house any longer. I ask them if everyone is out and they tell me yes.

The fire trucks get there and put the fire out, pull the sofa out of the house and start to fan the house out so the smoke will clear out. I look up and see my friend David M. from the Oklahoma Highway Patrol standing there at his car. ( I love when the Troopers show up!!!) I ask him why he didn't come and help. He said he did.....He tells me he learned from the years at the Volunteer Fire Department that you don't just go running into burning buildings. So he said I was here to see if you needed pulled out of the house. Thanks buddy. No problem he said. I looked up and looked around and guess what???? The car I was chasing....they left. Can you believe that? As I was inside risking my life doing something really pretty stupid, and they just leave. And I gave them a direct order NOT to. Of course the tag was not on file, I did not know who the driver was, so they got a freebie that night. And me?? Well I learned a valuable lesson, AGAIN....get people out of a burning house and don't stay inside. Let the firemen do THEIR job. Oh well. I loved my job!!