"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!!

Update

Update for Friday!

Don't be alarmed, but Scott and I were in a car accident today. We are ok, but sore. Tomorrow we will be MORE sore. It could have been so much worse, but this is my first real accident. We were at a stop light and was hit from behind. In my new car. My first new car. Oh well, it is just a car, we all have insurance, and we all walked away. Bless his heart the guy that hit us just kept saying he was so sorry, just so sorry. I told it was going to be ok, that's why they are called "accident's" otherwise he would have been arrested for ADW...Assault with a Deadly Weapon. He just looked at me. Later he asked me what I did, I had told him we had just retired and moved here. When he asked me what I did for a living I asked him if he really wanted to know? He said yes?! I said I am a retired police officer. Oh. Nothing else was said. Bless his heart. I took Scott to the hospital to be checked out for his neck was hurting, I did see him go flying even with his seat belt on. But he is fine. Just pulled muscles. Tonight I am starting to feel it, but I can't whine about it. I made some comment about how big of babies men are! Dang it!! Should have kept my mouth shut!

I will try to post about the puppy present to Caleb (yes we still delivered that puppy!). I got a short video clip of it and it made my eyes tear up. It was very sweet. But for tonight, give me drugs and a soft pillow. And with no puppy, a full nights sleep! Good night all.

April 1, 1991

No April Fools Joke!

(Rated T---Tragic)

April 1, 1991, I had been on the police department, lets see, five years, 2 months, and a few days. I had been assigned to the mid-watch shift which means I was working 7:00 p.m. to 3:00 a.m. My days off were Sunday, Monday and I loved that. Of course after working Saturday night/Sunday morning I hardly ever got off on time. You could pretty well count on getting a DU I every Saturday night, the bars close at 2:00 so by 2:30 you could find, or they would find you, DUI. Then it would take about 2 or 3 hours to finish that call from the stop, arrest, impounding the car, breath test, and of course the paperwork. That makes you getting home around 6:00 or 7:00 in the morning and of course you have to wind down before going to bed. Needless to say Sundays are tough days because you can't sleep all day like you are used to because you need to sleep that night on your day off. Then you hope to go bed half way early on Sunday night and sleep pretty soundly. The phone rang Monday morning, early. I don't remember what time it was. My husband, a juvenile detective answered the phone I heard the conversation, but I was tired and I was used to him getting phone calls about work all the time. I usually had to wake him to answer the phone. The momma in me heard it on the first ring. He on the other hand had to have it ring a few times to wake up. "I'll be right there" I hear him say as he hangs up the phone getting out of our water bed. He goes to work on Monday mornings, this is just a little earlier. But I remember the date, April 1st. April fools day. People at the police department are ALWAYS playing jokes on each other and I figure this is another one of those days. We ( I mean they) have been know to call someone in the middle of the night to ask them if they needed to pee!!?? Just to wake them up. Silly I know, but I tell you police officers are just weird people, do weird things, and used to be a very strong brother/sisterhood. ( I don't feel it is that way now, certainly not at the department I worked at!) So as Tim got up and got ready for work I figure he will get there and they will say "April Fools" but since he is already at work, he might as well stay! It was only like a couple hours early. I don't remember even asking him what the call was about, I didn't really care, it just means I have to get up and get the kids ready for school instead of him taking care of that.

I roll over, go back to sleep, I have a few more hours till I have to get up. And go back to sleep I do. The phone rings....I grab it with a weak hello and it's Tim. I once again figure an April Fools comment is coming, I am not really in the mood, and I hear him say, Mike killed his wife and the kids were there with him!! Mike? Mike? I know three Mike's at the department and I know Mike A has been having troubles at home but I can't believe this. Then I hear him say Lisa, Mike killed Amy! Amy? That's not Mike's wife's name. Her name is Linda, what is he talking about? My head is starting to clear a little and the names are starting to come together. I say to him, this is not funny, don't kid about stuff like this. And he says to me in a serious tone," I'm not kidding." I start to believe him as the sleep fog is lifting. "There is an arrest warrant out for him and if he comes out there to get his boat or anything, you have to arrest him!" Mike, boat, Amy, crap, I know who he is talking about..... my husbands dear friend, Mike who is going through a horrible divorce but got out of there with "his boat" and parked it at our house for safe keeping. No, this is not funny you guys, Mike would not do this. This is NOT a funny April Fools joke.

Mike had about 17 years with the police department, several years with the military, and several tours in Vietnam as a helicopter pilot I think. He had been my husbands partner at work and they liked to fish together some as well. When we had our babies we got each other gifts, if someone needed something or help, we were there for each other. Mike had worked about everything there was to work at the police department and now he was assigned to the DARE division. He worked with kids of all ages and loved it. And more than anything else, he loved HIS kids. He had two sons from his previous marriage, he had adopted Amy's daughter from her previous marriage, and then they had a daughter together. Mike LOVED his kids more than anything. But as most police marriages, theirs was going south real quick. It was becoming pretty violent, Mike would call Tim and say that Amy was breaking up his stuff. She would call and say Mike was hitting her, or he was breaking her stuff. It went back and forth. Tim finally told them to not call him, but to call the department and report it if it was such an issue. I don't remember what all they ended up doing, but they went to court, they were getting a divorce. And it was NOT a pretty divorce. Court ordered home evaluations, children interviewed and evaluated, blah, blah blah. Mike did a lot with his children, honestly, probably more than a lot of dads. He took them fishing, and to the lake, they hunted, they spent a lot of time together so this divorce was very hard on him.

Sunday Jessie had called and asked her daddy if she could go to church with him. He said she would have to ask her mother, but it was fine with him. She was only five but she could use the phone and call daddy. He liked that. She ran in to ask her mother but Amy said no. I don't know why. Maybe she had other plans, maybe she didn't want to get her ready, maybe she didn't want Mike to have her even for Church. I don't know but she said no. Did it anger Mike? I don't know that either, but I would say yes. He went to church without her.

What happened next is really hard to explain, really hard to grasp, and really hard to talk about. This is not just "a case" to work. Where you detach yourself and work it.

In the night, rather very early morning, Mike broke into the house. He had cut the phone line and I don't know if he had a key or broke the door. He was not suppose to have a key, but he had kids that lived there. The boys had moved in with Mike, the adopted daughter had even moved in with Mike. It was just Jessie and Amy that lived in the old familiar home of several years. In a quiet neighborhood where not much happened, the houses were pretty nice, middle income families, hard working people lived there. And they lived on a nice little cul-d-sac. That is where they called home. But not Mike. He had not lived there now for several months, the divorce was coming to a head, the fight for the kids was fierce, and word was that Amy was moving back to the Northeast to hook up with her ex-husband. Word was that he was into drugs and Mike was not going to stand for it. He was not going to let Amy take their five year old daughter out of the state, to a life of who knew what. Well Mike knew. He worked police work long enough to know. He worked juveniles detectives long enough to know what kind of life little Jessie was getting ready to embark on. But not if he could help it. Mike was one of the kindest men I knew. He was funny, soft spoken, a good cop, a great DARE officer, a good dad, son, and friend. But not that night. No, that night Mike was someone/something none of us knew. He became a murderer. I don't know what happened. I don't think anyone knows. But what I think, feel, believe is Mike went to the house to have it out with Amy. He cut the phone line so she could not call the police. I think he went into her bedroom to maybe tell her how it was going to be. Maybe not, maybe he went into the bedroom to kill her. And kill her he did. He shot her multiply times. That is a sign of overkill, anger, pent up emotions. Maybe he wasn't going to talk, maybe he was just going to take care of her leaving with the kids, maybe take care of her not letting the kids be with him, maybe he was taking care of her being in control, not any more. He shot her something like nine times, in the bed. Jessie was in the other bedroom, he walked in there and picked up his sleeping princess and took her to his suburban. He drove her back to his house. His little house that was not the like the house he had just left. The house that he had spent years saving and working to buy for his family. No, it was not near the house of years gone by. But it had three sleeping teenagers in it. One son was on the sofa. That is where he slept. He laid Jessie down with him, leaned over and kissed her. Then he told his son, I hope you can forgive me for what I have done. Then he was gone. He got in his suburban and drove away. He called the assistant chief and told him what he had done. He had shot and killed Amy. Turn yourself in Mike he was told. No, you know what they will do to me in prison, I can't do that. Speculations was he was probably going to run to Mexico. Live there for the rest of his life. I knew better. Mike was not going to Mexico. My friend was going to El Reno. His favorite place to hang out. His, well Amy, family had land there. Mike knew it well. He had hunted that land for years. He knew it like he knew the back of his hand. I knew that is where he was. We were all told that if we saw or heard from him we had to call the PD right away. We were told to try and convince him to turn himself in. I don't remember all the details, I was not privy to all the details, but it seems Mike went to El Reno like I thought. He was hiding back in the woods and a highway patrol plane flew over the site. Really, every one knew it was a very likely place for him to go. The plane radioed the county deputies where Mike was. With an arrest warrant in hand they crept in to make the arrest. Seems it was late evening when this all occurred. So as the sun was going down, setting in the west, the police officers moved in, guns drawn, rifles loaded, shotguns in ready position. This was not a police officer they were arresting, this was a cold blooded murderer. As the officer approached the truck, Mike lifted the gun, and fired one shot. Mike died of a self inflicted gunshot wound to the head. It was over.

Mike could have killed himself in Enid. At the house. But he could not do that. Jessie was there, she would have found it. His fellow brother officers would have had to work it, and we all know the pictures, and the way investigations go. No, Mike could not do that to his family. Mike left also to make sure that if anyone was going to shoot him, it would not be one of us. You know that I do not know any of this for sure. This is what I think, what I feel, what I believe. It was over? No, not yet. There were four children left behind. I did not go to Amy's funeral, but I went to Mikes. It was not an honorable funeral. The casket was closed of course with a picture of Mike sitting on it. We were all there and I was pretty close to the front. In came the family. In came the children. The boys, young adults were sitting there and Jessie came over to the oldest one. He lifted her up, sat her on his lap and there she sat. There she looked up into her brothers eyes and said, Mikie, where's daddy? She reached up and gently patted Mikies face with her little hands, her little five year old hands that had colored pretty pictures, played with play dough, that had gone fishing, that had folded in prayer, gently patted her brothers face as she softly says once again, I could hear hear her say it, Mikie, where's daddy? I cried. There would be no 21 gun salute to honor her daddy, a war veteran, and a wonderful man that served that community for so many years. No, we were there to bury a man that had robbed these children of not only their mother, but also the daddy that they all loved so much. He robbed them of a life of they will never know. It was over.....in the mail two days later, Mike received a letter. He was recommended to get custody of the children. Over? You decide.

Rookie Mistake

The Day I Thought I Was Going To Die

Rated E--Explicit/graphic

Well this is another one of those "while I was on patrol" stories, but again it was one of while on the morning shift. Funny I can't remember what day of the week it was but I know it was a weekend so that narrows it down to either Saturday or Sunday. And for some reason I believe it was Saturday. It was fairly early on that morning. Our shift started at 0600 and we were on the streets by 6:30. I had zone five, that was the poor part of town, I had trained in that zone, and was familiar with it. So I was patrolling my zone which was a pretty good size one. Far as area, it was probably one of the largest. Several square miles, but I loved it. The area I patrolled was called the Ville. I don't know why it was called that, had been called that long as I can remember and as long as others remembered. But we can't call it that now. It is offensive, and we have to call it Southern Heights. I still don't know what it means, but even the people who lived there called it that. There were some really good people that lived in the Ville, some very old people for it was an old part of our town. But it had seen its better days, was getting pretty run down, with lots of drugs, and violence occurring. Low income apartments had been built in that area and now were pretty much shut down. They were old and dilapidated. Yes, it had seen better days in that part of town, now seedy characters lived there, and then the really nice people that could not afford to leave their residence which they had called home for years.

I was a Rookie. I had not been out on my own for very long. I knew the "rules", I had gone through the academy, I had made good grades. I was even pretty text book smart! Hey, I even had a college degree to boot. But that just didn't seem to matter this day. For I had Rookie-itis. I think it might be the same thing as "buck fever" for deer hunters. You get caught up in the moment it seems. Today I got "that" call. A burglary in progress. Two men had broken into a house down in the Ville, way down in the Ville and I was going to go. But someone else beat me there. That figures. And the bad guys had already left. But they had a description of the vehicle and direction of travel. I knew that area pretty well and I knew there were not too many ways in and or out. So I started going to where I thought I might catch up with them. The other officer starts calling out the description of the vehicle. A newer model white pickup occupied by two white males. Zoom, they went right past me. Man I slammed on the brakes, whipped around and started after them. I radioed headquarters stating I had the suspected spotted. Ok,this is a felony. They broke into an occupied dwelling house, burglary 1st degree, felony. I know how to do a felony traffic stop, I KNOW HOW TO DO IT. And you are suppose to have two cars to do it. Wait for backup, that is what you do. So just follow them till backup can get there. But we are going fast, I am not thinking very clearly, what do I do??? I turned on my lights and sirens. The driver of the vehicle pulls over. I have my car pulled behind him, offset a little to the left, I get out of my car and tell the driver to step out with his hands up. I have my .357 drawn and pointed right at him. The driver steps out and walks towards me with his hands up. He takes about three, four steps and then all the sudden the passenger jumps out of the truck. I yell at him to stop! Get back into the truck! He starts walking towards me. I order him back into the truck now. He looks right at me, his eyes are that piercing look, the look of I don't care what you say. His hands, that is what you watch, they slap towards his chest as he yells, what are you going to do? Shoot me? Well shoot me Bitch! Go ahead, kill me, what's wrong Bitch, can't you shoot me. Now I have to tell you, I WAS SCARED. The eyes, the body language, the verbal language, I knew I was not in a good position and there were two of them. I glanced at the driver, I told him "Don't you move!" He said, "I won't". I yelled at the passenger again, "Stop!, Get back in the truck now." He kept walking towards me, he kept yelling at me, "Shoot me, go ahead, shoot me @#$@!$. As he walked towards me I thought....I have about two choices, either I will have to shoot him, or I will have to get out of there. What that means is to get myself out of the kill zone. I got back into my car with the door still opened, put the car in reverse and backed up. I was still in my doorway, drawn down on the suspect when my backup arrived. Rick pulled in behind me and jumps out of his car. He runs up to my car and I quickly tell him what is going on, and now all the sudden the passenger acts like nothing is wrong. His whole attitude has changed, his talk, his demeanor, everything. Rick tells the driver to get his hands on the truck and don't move them or he will shoot his ass. (sorry! you all) and the driver looks at him and says "yes sir, I won't move!" We then approach the passenger who is starting to act a little froggy, Rick holsters his gun and grabs the guy. I holster mine and the next thing I know Rick has the guy in like a bear hug, spins him around and I yell, "take him down Rick!" Like I must be a cheer leader or something, how stupid! and Rick and the guy just fall straight down. Rick on top. I remember that sound to this day. Rick is a pretty good size guy and the passenger was not THAT big. Bigger than me, but not nearly as big as Rick. And I remember the sound of that guy's breath leaving his body. Ooossshhhh, all his air has been knocked out of him. We grab the guys hands and handcuff him quickly, and then yank him to his feet. We put him the car and then arrest the driver as well. As you have probably figured the passenger was pretty drunk, the driver not, but still caught up in the situation which is not good for him! And of course I got a talkin' to by Rick. I kind of got yelled at like, what the @#$@ are you doing not waiting for backup? Don't you know how to do a felony traffic stop? Yes sir I do. Then why didn't you do it? I don't know, I was afraid he was going to get away from me I guess. Next time you better do it right. Yes sir.

That was pretty much it. Still to this day I second guess myself. Would I have been within my rights to have shot him? He was unarmed. This was before Pepper Spray and Tazer guns. But I truly fear that if he would have gotten close enough to me he would have grabbed me. He would have tried to take my gun. I KNOW this, I feel it, I felt that day I would have died if he would have gotten close enough to me. Was I a coward to get back into my car and back up? Was I coward to not have shot him? Let me tell you, police work is not for the weak. You have to make split second decisions, and then you get to spend your next 20 years thinking about the should of/could of's if you're lucky. That was a day of life experience. No textbook could have prepared me for that. It would have been nice if I would have done what I was taught, it was a Rookie Mistake. Thank you God for being there with me. That was a close one.

That Little Stinker!

Confession Is Good For the Soul...NOT.

(Rated E for everyone!)

Ok, I am not sure how to start this story, it was not my normal "one night while on patrol" type of story. It was actually one Saturday while at work on the afternoon shift a hundred years ago. Yes, I was a Rookie. The low man on the totem pole, the peon, you get the picture. And it is never fun being that person. Saturdays were pretty slow, none of the brass was there so the station is always a lot more fun. I always liked working the weekends, more quiet, more relaxed and a whole lot more fun. One not so fun duties of a police officer though was to assist the animal control people. I don't like that part. We had to go out and removed injured or dead animals from the road, I hate that. I don't want to touch a dead animal. I don't want to touch an injured animal, it might bite me. I don't like dogs (except for mine) for I am scared to death of them. I worked for a vet in college and have been bitten more times than I care to count. I don't like it. So helping animal control is NOT one of my favorite thing to do.

This Saturday I am called to the station by the sergeant and told to come get the .410 shotgun to kill a skunk. I went to the station and told the sergeant to please ask someone else to do it. He said I am not asking, I am telling you to get the shotgun and go shoot the skunk. I said why? He did not do anything to me and I am against killing this animal just because. He said are you refusing to do it? You better think about that. Well I knew a threat when I heard one, I am not totally stupid, and I might be a little bit of a slow learner, but I knew better than to refuse to do this. So I said no I am not refusing and went to get the shotgun. I drove out to the animal shelter to meet up with the guy. We go out to his truck and he tells me there is a skunk in the cage and when he opens the trap door I am suppose to shoot it. I tell him, I don't like this. What if the skunk sprays me? I will stink and I just don't see any sense in this. Now I do understand that skunks carry rabies. I have horses, I know about this stuff and skunks are not generally good animals. But I just don't like killing something for no real reason. He tells me to wait till the skunk gets a few feet away from the cage and then shoot it.

Well I decide I guess I better get this over with. I load the shotgun with the five shotgun shells they gave me. I am told I should be able to kill it with a couple shots. The guy takes the skunk out to the middle of this field like area, removes the tarp/covering thing from off the cage, and raises the door. Of course he is hoping that I wait for him to get out of the way before I start blasting the little devil, and for the sake of paper work I do. In fact I feel I need to wait till the guy gets completely out of the way. Like back to the office far as I am concerned. He tells me to go ahead and shoot it. The skunk has come out of the cage and is just out by a few feet sitting there. Shoot it now he tells me. So I shoot, hit right behind it. I see the dirt fly and I see a scared little skunk take off for the woods. He yells at me, you better shoot him again, I think you missed. Dah, ya think??? So I shoot again. BOOM!!! I miss again. The skunk is running faster and faster towards the woods. Well I would be running faster and faster too if someone was shooting a shotgun at my backside. BOOM, I shoot again and then again. I have now shot four shots at this poor little rascal and have yet to hit him. I have shot the dirt all around him, I have waited for him to get a really good head start on me so I don't get sprayed, and I MIGHT have waited just a little too long. I get to laughing, the animal control guy gets to laughing at me, it is no use. I am not going to be able to shoot this skunk and kill him. He is too far out of range by now. And besides, the little stinker stuck his tongue out at me and wiggled his fingers in his ears yelling nanny nanny poo poo at me just to get one last gig in at me. I figure if this guy can out run me from shooting at him, he deserved to live another day. I swore the animal control officer to secrecy and he promised. Now I have to go fill the paper work out. Anytime a gun is discharged you have to get a time and temperature reading from headquarters and fill out one or two forms. You then draw a little diagram of the big bad officer shooting the poor little skunk. So I did. Yes I had a girl policeman stick figure shooting a long barrel shotgun at a little poor skunk laid over on its side dead. You have to show where all the shots went etc and all that junk. So I did the only thing I could do knowing I was going to be in serious trouble for not shooting the skunk. I had to lie. Now please don't think bad about me, I am not a liar, and I didn't really refuse to shoot the skunk, it was just harder than I thought. He was running away, and he was little, and I did let him have a little bit too far of a head start and my heart just wasn't really into it. So yes I was wrong for lying, I am very sorry I did it, but I put on the diagram that I killed the skunk. Then I was asked why it took four shots....I lied again. I said I had to make sure that he was really good and dead. They never asked me to shoot another skunk again. Do you think they bought it?

Dog Fight At Work

The Chihuahua and Her Pitt Bulls
(rated C for Courageous)
(Or S for Stupid!)

Well it has been a while since I have been here, but I am sure you remember the routine. One night while on patrol I get a call to a domestic in progress in the low income apartment complex. I was working the "mid-watch" shift which is 7:00 p.m. to 3:00 a.m. and we usually stayed pretty busy. This was no exception. It was the three of us as usual, Tommy, Scott and Me and we all went to this call. It was a guy beating his girlfriend. We arrive and can hear a loud argument going on, and maybe even things being thrown. I don't remember for sure I just remember we went to the back door and are pounding to be let in. She comes to the door and of course now he/HE settles down. Jerk! I don't know why I can't remember the details right now, but it seems she was showing signs of abuse, but way back in the day we could not arrest for domestic abuse unless she would file a complaint. Most the time they wouldn't. Usually out of fear of being beaten worse when he got out of jail. But I do remember a cute little boy shaking in fear, crying for his mommy was getting beat. The guy was not his daddy, but rather her boyfriend. She was a little thing too. Very skinny, young and a cute girl, but her hair was all a mess, her clothes were a shamble. There was not much room, when you go into the back door you were in the kitchen. Just right inside the door is a little space before you got to the counter top and sink. It is real narrow, don't even think there was a table in that room but there might have been. I just remember it being about five feet wide, kind of like a shotgun house if you know what I mean. The rooms are narrow and it was a two story apartment. Living room, kitchen and maybe a bathroom downstairs, and a couple bedrooms upstairs. That is pretty much it. We get the girl out of the house and she just wants to leave. She wants to take her boy and leave. So we let her. I have NEVER had any tolerance for domestic abuse. I don't know, maybe it is because I am a woman, or maybe I just have a very strong sense of justice, whatever the reason, I always took it as a pleasure to work a domestic. Crazy? Yes, but it was my goal, my mission to save the world, one woman at a time. And I gave it my best shot. Today was no different. I told her she did not have to take that. She did not deserve to be beaten. And more than anything else in the whole world, she needed to be treated differently for the sake of her son. She needed to protect him, and to teach him that is not how you treat a woman, or any life for that matter.

Well after she leaves I just can't let it go. I was angry. I was really upset with this jerk and there was nothing I could do to him if she would not cooperate. So I had a plan. I didn't say it was a good one, just a plan devised in a short amount of time (maybe a couple seconds or so.) I knew my partners really well. I had joined the police department with them, they were like brothers to me and they would NEVER let me get hurt. I knew that as well as I knew my name. So armed with that knowledge I put my plan into action. I jumped right into the middle of this man's face and started nagging him. I could not shut up. I was ragging on him like a little Chihuahua after another dog. The big bad guy was just standing there. I made some comment like "oh, you like to beat women, well come oh big guy, hit me. " "Come on man, hit me, you seem to like beating on women, just do it." I taunted him, I attacked his ego with no mercy. Now I am not telling you what I did was right, heck I won't even tell you what I did was smart, but it was my plan. The only one I had at the moment. I wouldn't shut up, I would not stop. I kept barking and barking. One time I looked over my shoulder and saw Scott standing there with his arms folded across his chest. He stand 6'4" at least, pretty rugged looking, standing with his feet apart chest wide. Tommy, he is about 5'10" and is about that broad too. He has a huge barrel chest with a tiny waist and hips, and little short legs. Both guys have on their black police boots shinned and the leather we wore then was that shiny stuff. Not the dull or fabric stuff of today. It seems Tommy had his hands on his hips standing there and they just both were watching me. They were the Pitt Bulls standing behind the loud, hyper Chihuahua, and I was not on leash either. They were not trying to call me off, they were just waiting. I knew what was going to happen. Take a shot, just one punch, that is all I needed for him to do. Yeah it might hurt a little, maybe even a lot, but not near as much as he was going to hurt when my guys got through with him. AND he would be going to jail. I could see the smirk in Tommy and Scott's eyes when I took the second to glance at them. They knew exactly what I was doing and they were going to let me. They were there to protect me when I got in over my head. After what seemed an eternity I ran out of steam. I stopped. He never moved. He stood there, just stood there. I turned to leave then turned back and I told him, I better not ever come back here on a call where you lay a hand on her again. YOU HEAR ME? I better not ever have to come back. I didn't threaten him, I merely made him a promise. And my word is good.

The Disobedient Student

Sometime Things Just Happen!

Ok, this story does not start out with "one night while I was on patrol". This story actually takes place in the middle of the day in the middle of a junior high school. As you may or may not know about me I taught the DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) program in our town for many years. I love teaching and have found I really like the older kids. High school was one of my favorite places to teach, but we did away with that program (which was stupid if you ask me, that is where kids need the most influence, reinforcement, help, continuing education, etc!) But thankfully we were still teaching in the Jr. high as continuing education. One day it was during lunch time and the principal hollered at me to come help. I think the ladies in the office got me over the intercom in the teachers lunch room where I would eat lunch once in a while with them instead of the students. I am told the principal needed help out in the hall by the front doors. So I jump and go quickly, never want to keep a principal waiting, plus he never called for me to come and HELP without good cause. So I pick up the pace a bit and see him talking to some female near the front door. He tells me he asked her to leave and she would not. Now I do not know who this girl/lady is but if she is asked to leave by the principal, she needs to go. Move on down the road, go away, do what the man says. But she has a different idea. She says she is not leaving. Now you see, this is where I have issues. You are being told to leave a building where you are not wanted and don't belong. I don't know what is going on, but I do know the principal has the right to ask you to leave and I will back him up on that. He said to leave, so go. And if you don't want to go then your next choice will be HOW do you want to leave the building? On you own accord, or in handcuffs, or with an ambulance, or what. Life is ALL about choices. I can't tell how old this girl is. I am thinking she is in her 20's but I just don't know, can't tell. I have never seen anyone so determined to STAY at school, usually people can't wait to get out of that place. But it seems she has decided she doesn't want to go so go she won't do. Hummm???!!!! Ok. Let's go to the office. The bell is getting ready to ring, she has had plenty of time to leave, we have had this discussion long enough and I STILL can't figure out why she won't leave. What is up with this? So I tell her we are going to the office and I am going to figure out what is going on here and she will probably be arrested for trespassing. The bell does ring for the older students outside to start coming back in to class. We need to get up to the office on the second floor to get out of the way. NOW she decided she is going to leave. Oh no, you already had that option, that option is no longer available and you are going to the office. No she says, she is going outside. I grab for her arm to "escort" her to the office when she pulls her arm away from me and makes a fist. I don't know if she is going to hit me or if she is just pulling away, it happened all too fast. But as I reach for her arm she makes the fist and I FEEL she is going to try and hit me (something I am not too crazy about) so I reach up and grab her arm and the next thing I know she is on the ground with me on top of her. I put her hands behind her back, grab my handcuffs out and cuff her. It wasn't much of a scuffle, but it caused some commotion and a little noise and when I finished handcuffing her I looked down the hall. Only to see all the lunch room kids, and the kids starting to come in from first lunch all looking at me. I had engaged the person, put her on the ground to avoid being hit and handcuffed her in a location where I was observed by many. The kids were all watching with their mouths wide opened. I heard the kids were the best behaved the rest the day than they had been in ages. I was even told the story hit the other junior highs by the next day and those kids were behaving pretty good as well. Teachers all asked me if I could teach them that move. Funny thing, I don't even remember how it all happened. You know, that self defense mechanism kicks in pretty quickly when you fear you are about to be hit. Oh well the kids were watching, maybe we should have someone come in and refuse to leave more often, great for behavior modification in students.

We Bought Grass

Drug Dealing At It's Finest!

(rated F-funny again!)

I was reading my blog from last night still laughing at one of my finer moments. Thinking how cheesy it was and that you all probably think I am pretty lame. Sorry about that. This won't help that image much either. But it makes me laugh too. I guess that is a lot what police work is about, laughing. We laugh at how stupid people really are. The average person just doesn't see this part of society thank goodness. And not that I am trying to show only the stupid stuff, but you have to admit it is more fun, and more interesting to hear about this stuff than the average run of the mill day to day boring life stuff. Right? And then again, I hope you can find the humor in this stuff and that I am not so warped that only I (and maybe other officers) find it funny. But here goes another one. This is really short so don't expect too much OK?

Being one female of only about five on our department I was selected to work with the narcotics unit from time to time. If we had a female informant that had to have a female officer to strip search the informant and to wire her up. (To record the transaction) OK, side note here. I have a lot of respect for the narcotic officers. They have the worst job in the whole world. Their hours are horrible, the people they deal with are some of the lowest, sickest people in this world and if you know ANYTHING about drugs, you are dealing with a drug not a person. That person has no control over their lives any longer. I have so much sympathy for people on drugs. I feel so bad for them and their families. It is not a pleasant life, one of drug or alcohol abuse. So when I am asked to work with the narcs I do so for I respect those guys, but I honestly hate that part of the job. People get killed, they DIE because of drugs and there is nothing to say one night on a drug buy that won't happen to me or you. Narcotic officers are sick sick people as well, but they have a job, a horrible job to do!!!

OK, back on track here. We were working a deal one night and it goes something like this:

Phone call, informant to dealer.

Informant: Hey man do you have any grass? I want to buy some grass.

Dealer: Yeah I've got some, how much do you want?

Informant: Oh I don't know, maybe just a dime bag. When can we meet up?

Dealer: I am getting ready to leave so it will be later.

Informant: No, man I need it now, I can run by now to get it.

Dealer: No, I am leaving. I'll tell you what. I will leave it at the bottom of the stairs on the underside. (they were outside stairs leading up to the second floor of this little old house.) I will leave it there and you can leave the money there under the rock. I will be back later to get it.

You better not (screw) me over.

Informant: No man, I wouldn't do that to you. You know me, I have always been up front with you. Now is this some pretty good grass?

Dealer: Yea, this is some good grass dude.

Informant: OK

So we go and buy our "grass" for $35.00 bucks. Then we have to test it to make sure it was actually grass...it was. It was Bermuda grass!!!!!! We got ripped off big time. $35.00 bucks for some marijuana mixed in with Bermuda grass. Bermuda grass that you grow in your front yard lawn and mow. Bermuda!!!! I still laugh at that. OK, we got ripped off, but it didn't matter. It was the same as if they had sold us the real stuff, for they presented it as marijuana, but we paid $35.00 for GRASS. I still laugh out loud at that one. What, you mean you can't trust a drug dealer????

One of My Finest Moments!

This is a Great Moment!!!

(rated F for FUNNY!)

You know, there are just some things that you do better than others. I am not a good speller, sorry, but I spell how I hear it and that has been proven to be terrible for the English Language. Thank goodness for spell check. But I do other things well, I have a great heart for children, I am very good at my job (well when I had a job, before retirement!) I am a very good teacher, a really good friend, a pretty good listener, and a great advise giver. Not so good at telling people NO when I don't want to do something, (middle child syndrome!) and I try to please everyone. That can't be done, big failure at that one!!!! But sometimes I have these moments that I am really proud of. Here is one that to this day I am still very proud of.

One night while on patrol I get a call to a hotel where the manager advises they believe kids are there partying, you know, drinking underage. It is not very often we could catch the kids in the act of drinking at the hotels, it is rather hard. And I didn't figure this night would be much different. But just in case...... I did park my car where it was not seen from the hotel window. The room happened to be on the second floor and all doors are on the outside, this was not a very big hotel. So I park my car, get out and head up to the room number given. Now I need to move fairly quickly so not to be spotted by anyone looking out, or anyone coming and going. I luck out and make it up the stairs without being discovered. I peak in the window still not discovered by the kids inside and I can see they are having quite the little party. A pretty good size party at that. It is loud, they are busy, and I am feeling lucky tonight. I get to the door and knock on it when I hear someone say "Who is it?", "it's me, Lisa, hurry up and let me in". "OK", the door opens and to their wonder stands a police officer blocking the door in all her glory. I am grinning. It worked, they really just opened the door and let me in. Oh my gosh. That was too stinkin' easy. Like shooting fish in a barrel. I just can not believe this. They can't go anywhere for we are on the second story and there are no outside windows that they can get out of. There is alcohol everywhere and they are BUSTED!!! A lot of the kids know me for I patrol the main drag known as Van Buren. But I am just so tickled that I actually caught them. I tell them to just have a seat on the bed, or floor and we would get this all straightened out. Two guys were from Texas, they had come to visit "grandma" and were staying in a room a couple doors down. They were just invited to come party by someone while walking up the stairs together. They said sure and now I have to arrest them for they don't live in town or the state for that matter. Oh momma is not going to be to happy about this visit I bet. Another couple had just walked in and had not even started drinking. Everyone said Officer Jobes, they had not had anything to drink, they didn't even know we were drinking they just came by because we called and told them to. Yeah, right! But when I had about 25 kids, I was OK with letting those two go. But in the middle of my "investigation" the phone rings. Of course I had to answer it. "Hello." "Hello, who is this?" "This is Lisa why?" "Hey man, you have to get out of there quick, tell everyone to leave NOW, the cops are on their way there so run." "Really?" "Yes, Hurry" "Hey, guess what?" "What?" "I AM THE COPS".....silence on the phone..... "Really?" "yes." "OK." I tell the person on the other end of the phone they need to come to the hotel room. They tell me OK, they say it is their room and they will be right there. I thought Yeah, right. They showed up! I could not believe it. They not only showed up but they told me it was their alcohol too. There was a keg in the bathtub, and liquor all over the place. So by the time I tagged all my evidence, got help in transporting the arrested suspects, wrote tickets to the others time had passed. I got my stuff in the car, and a couple "arrestees" and we went to the station. Some other officers came in and asked who got the keg? I was beaming and said...ME. Man they say, that is a keg of Little Kings. Yeah, so? You see I am a non drinker. Don't you know what that is? Nope. Well come to find out it is our six point beer which is a big no no here in Oklahoma. Not the little stuff like 3.2 beer that you can buy in the grocery store. So not only did I get a good bust, but I got the good stuff at that. It was a really good night for me. One of my most proudest moments. Yeah, I fooled a room full of drinking teenagers, hey, I'll take them any way I can. Pretty proud of myself still to this day!

First Isn't Always Good

First can suck!

(Rated g-graphic in spots)

First, that is what we want to be. Think about it if you will for just a moment. We have always been taught that first is the "only" thing. First in the race, first in the world series, first in college football, first in the super bowl. Second place is nothing but first place loser. Yes, first has its place and that is where we want to be, most the time. But I can tell you there are many first we DON'T want. In my job first can be a good thing, or it could be a bad thing. I sit here at my computer tonight and I think of some first I am very thankful I do not have. My friend is going through many "first" that are of the absolute worst. She lost her mother six months ago, and her mother was one of my closest friends in my life. So for her, first sucks. Her first birthday without her mom, her first holiday without her mom, right now her firsts are not occasions of joy. They are often times of pain getting through them. But by having very strong faith she overcomes them, the pain is still there but she is surviving.

There are other first that hurts as well. I think it is sad that I can remember many of my first and they are at the expense of others and their pain. My first pursuit and my first stolen car, both at the same time, to this day I remember it. Red Cadillac ran from me and then they jumped out of the car to run and the car rolled back and hit my patrol car. My first accident! I remember my first homicide (posted it previously, a very interesting story), these first will leave an imprint on ones brain for a life time. This night I am remembering is no different. My night and my "brothers" night of first will forever be sketched in our memories. Tommy, Scott and I all joined the department at the same time. Actually there were seven of us, but as the years went by the three of us were the only ones remaining from our academy. And the three of us drove back and forth from Broken Arrow to Enid each week, spent our time studying together and grew up together with twenty one years at the department. We were brothers and sisters in law enforcement. I love my brothers, they took care of me (protected me!!) many times, and I them. We were the three musketeers no doubt!
This one night was in the summer that I remember. I was very young on the department and still very eager to get into any and everything. Oh to be young again! Got a call to the parking lot of a hotel on our busy main street in town. A shooting victim was there in the parking lot. I remember getting there and found a female with a shot to the gut. She was a rather large lady. and she had been shot with a .357. I was thinking it was going to be a gut slinger, but it wasn't! What's up with that? I just don't get it. But rather (as I sit here I still see it in my head and that has been probably 20 years ago!) it was nothing but the fat, the white blubbery junk coming out. She was talking to us, wait, I know her! Oh my gosh, this is one of the ambulance people. She is not on duty, not in uniform, but I recognize her. I can't believe this. Who shot you, what happened? The ambulance gets there and they too are in shock that one of their own has been shot. Quick, get her stabilized, screw that, get her to the hospital, NOW. Let's go, move it. The hospital is just a few blocks away. Really, only about six blocks, LET'S GO! They get her to the hospital and I am there with them. We are trying to figure out what is going on. She dies. It's that simple, she died. She shot herself in the gut, in the parking lot of the hotel/restaurant to get the attention of her girlfriend and she died. That's my first. While I am at the hospital they get another call, the ambulance people do, and all this while they are dealing with the death of one of their own fellow workers.

The other call is tragic as well. While I am at the hospital Tommy gets a call to the fairground area. There is an old drive in theater located just south of the fair grounds. It is not usable, hasn't been in years, but kids sometimes like to go and hang out there. the owner had been warned to destroy or secure it so kids could not get up in there. But he didn't. They had climbed up to the inside of the screen to hide from the adults. The screen is kind of like an "A" frame. Just like the letter I typed, the front part of the A is the screen and the line going across is a platform in the screen. That is where the kids would hide out. That night there were several kids there drinking. They were having a good time, most of them older teens, you know 17, 18 maybe even some 19, 20 year old. But there was one young girl. She asked what time it was for she had to be home by a certain time. Lo and behold, no one had a watch. This was before cell phones etc. One boy volunteered to climb back down the ladder to get into his car to see what time it was. Now understand that this movie screen is several hundred feet up in the air. While he is climbing down to go to his car the girl looks to see how far he has made it. When she looks over the edge she loses her balance and falls head first. Her brother sees her, of course they are all screaming. He runs to the ladder and is going down fast as he can. This is a horrible day. He gets to the bottom and has to step in his sisters brain fluid and brain matter to get to her. She is dead. He holds her, he is crying, what has happened to his sister, why has this happened? What do they do? They have to go and call for help. All because they were up there drinking, hiding from the police, the adults in this world that just want to keep them safe. Now forever he will have this image of his sister, head broken, shattered. So it was a first for several of us. Tommy had to have the fire department come with their ladder truck so he could get up to the crime scene. He said he was not about to try and climb that ladder like the kids did. The fire department had to literally wash her fluid away, a first for them. It was a first for those kids that they will never forget. It was my night of first suicide/shooting. Yes, sometimes first is not where we want to be. And about six weeks later, the mother drives off the road at a high rate of speed and kills herself. Sometimes, first sucks.

The Chase Is On!!!

Well good morning. Been awhile since I have been here with a police story. So are you ready for a pretty good one? This is one of my favorite memories of a Trooper friend of mine. He has since died of a brain tumor leaving behind a wife and two little boys. If I ever see those kids I will tell them the story of the night that "The Chase Is On" with their daddy.

Yes as the drill goes, one night while on patrol, I was in the east sector of Enid when a call comes out for help. The uniqueness of the call is it came from an Oklahoma Highway Patrolman. They don't call for help very often so I was THRILLED when I was close by and was allowed to assist. Trooper Puckett was at 10Th and Willow in pursuit of a truck, possible 88. Meaning a drunk driver. He advised he had activated his lights and sirens but could not get the subject to pull over. I just happened to be about 4Th and Willow and they were coming right for me. Oh boy, I mean OH BOY!!! As they approached the intersection the suspect turned north on 4Th street, but he was not driving at a high rate of speed. Oh well. I jumped in the "pursuit". As we drove north he just kept going. I pulled beside him and yelled at him, like that was going to do any good, and saw him drinking a cup of coffee. I kid you not. He had poured a cup of coffee from his thermos and was drinking a cup of joe. He also took the time to smoke a cigarette!! We continued in the pursuit and I realized, oops, I was out of the city limits, and you are suppose to ask permission to leave. So I radioed permission leaving out one small detail, that I was ALREADY out of the city limits. You know, you get kind of caught up in the moment and forget exactly where the line is. It's not like there is a big sign that says "Now leaving Enid" Yeah right! I giggle, I ask permission to do something I have already done, sounds just like something a kid would do. Oh well, we were in hot pursuit of a ...... slow moving vehicle. Now this was in the day before we had the Pitt maneuver. So there is no driving up to him and bumping him off the road. Really there is no reason for it anyway. Sometimes our speed would get up there a little but for the most part he was driving about 55 mph. Hey, I have never been north of Enid before. I have lived here for a few years (was transplanted from Tulsa due to getting married in college) and I have never driven to the north. Someone says are you to Four Corners yet? What the heck are they talking about. I don't know what Four Corners is. Heck, I don't know where anything is. I have never been here before and it is dark outside. "Uh, that's unknown headquarters." Silence. I am sure they are laughing at me for they can tell by my voice that I have no clue where I am. I am just following the pretty red and blue flashing lights.

Well we are headed towards a little town and I hear someone say that the police chief is going to try and intercept the guy. As we get closer I hear gun fire. Crap! The bad guy is shooting, back off, back off!! No, it is the chief trying to take out the suspect. Are you KIDDING me??? I am right behind this guy and you are shooting at him (ME). Well of course it doesn't do any good, trying to shoot out a tire is almost impossible (and against our dept. policy) So we get past the "road block" and continue in pursuit. By this time I am really sure I have no idea where I am. I hate that feeling. But the chase must go on. We cross over this old bridge and all the sudden I see the guy run off the road and goes through a barb wire fence and drives out into the pasture. Now wait a minute. I am in a BRAND NEW POLICE CAR. I kid you not. This car doesn't have hardly any miles on it and I am not going to go running through fences, into pastures chasing some idiot. There are perfectly good other cars to do that, and they are all right there behind me. So I let them go in after him. I figure...what goes in, must come out. So I will wait for him while they chase him in there. Now I get to really see the show. Here is an old beat up truck driving in the dark with his head lights on driving through a pasture. As he drives over the terraces you see his truck go up and down and the lights bouncing as he does it. You can see the cows running for their dear lives and the little calves too. Then you see a ton of police cars all with overhead lights flashing, sirens sounding, following right behind. Over the terraces they go with all the lights bouncing as well. By this time you have several troopers, deputies, a couple private security cars and me on the outside just waiting. Guess what? I was right, he came back through another fence and started back into town. And I was right behind him hot on his tail uhmmm, I mean trail. By this time the tread on his tire is flying off. Rubber going all over the place but that is not stopping him. As he continues down the road the sparks are just flying, shining in the night as the rim is riding against the pavement. I stay right behind him when I see ole George go past us. He drives to the next main intersection, jumps out of his patrol car, pulls out his huge honker of a gun, a .44 magnum and as the tuck approaches him he shoots into the engine of the vehicle that is driving pretty slow by now. Several of the chase vehicle, including me all drive up there fast as we can, throw our cars in park and run up towards the guy. I see the troopers open the door of the moving truck and grab this guy out of it and throw him on the ground. As the truck drives right towards a gas pump. I yell, stop his truck.....I can just see the truck driving into the pump causing an explosion and we all die over this stupid idiot. One trooper catches up with the truck and throws it in park. By this time the guys have grabbed this guy and are throwing him on the ground barking orders, "get down" put your hands behind your back, don't move, etc and in the commotion of it all they just throw him down and all jump on him to apprehend him. Not wanting to be left out of the fun (this shows crowd mania at it's finest) I decide I need to jump right into the middle of it all. So I just flat, literally, jump right on top of everyone and everything. When we finally get him subdued, and handcuffed, and take a step back, my dear friend, David Moffit says, man, I have a goose egg on my head. He must have hit me with something. Then I start laughing, kind of quietly for I realize that during the "apprehension" I jumped on top and hit David in the head with my big ole walkie talkie (back in the day they were monsters strapped to your gun belt) and have cause injury to my partner. That's not uncommon. It was stupid for all of us to be tackling him, but you just get caught up in the moment. So what's a little goose egg on the head as a battle wound to show for it.....I still laugh when I think about it. I don't think I ever told him it was me that nearly split his head open instead of the drunk suspect. But what I think is the funniest part of all of this. George put this guy in the back of his patrol car and he is yelling at him, why are you running, you idiot, why didn't you just stop. And this guy looks up at George with his red face, bloodshot eyes, slurred speech and stinky drunken breath and says to him "oh, were you chasing me?" I still laugh out loud to this very day, as did all the others standing around listening to another drunk idiot in this world.

Gottcha!!!

Gottcha!!! (Rated S for Scary, better watch out!)

Oh man, this one will get you. You will not be able to sleep, or get into your car ever again!


This time I was , yes say it with me!, on patrolman one night!! (good, you are learning!) when I got a call of a domestic after the fact in this little trailer park. This place is impossible to find, serious, if you do not know exactly where it is and how to get into it, you will NOT find it. You have to go to the grocery store, go behind it, drive down the alley, cut back into the driveway and there are about half dozen trailers in there. It was a hot summer night when domestics are the most common. It is hot, so people tend to drink, drink a little too much beer and the fist flow freely. I hate alcohol. Well that is not entirely true. I hate how alcohol makes people act, what it makes them say, and what it makes them do. I have seen so much stuff happen because of alcohol...rapes, crime such as assaults, burglaries, driving under the influence, you know, all that general stupid stuff. Tonight was going to be no different. Just like all the other hot nights when people drink too much. Pay day, Friday night or Saturday, all make for fist city. I don't remember having any backup that night Probably didn't. A domestic after the fact usually is a one unit call. Unless you have reason to believe the suspect might still be there or be coming back, then one unit can handle the call. But no matter what domestics are one of the most dangerous calls an officer can make. Always in the back of my mind I am thinking what if the suspect should return? What if my backup can't get here in time? What will I do? Can I shoot another person? Can I actually pull the trigger if I have to? All these things are going through my mind as I take this call. I have always loved working domestics. You see, I am going to save the world one woman at a time. I am going to help her leave this situation. I am going to help her see the light. Yes, I am playing Superman as a woman in blue.
No, I do not favor women and always take her side. I am always fair, I am always honest, I believe in being open minded. I have arrested women for domestic abuse as well as men. And yes, women are becoming much more aggressive in our society. But I can tell you that in 21+ years of law enforcement the majority of victims from domestic violence are women. This night was going to prove the same as many others.

As I was finding this isolated trailer, this very desolate place I was preparing my mind for this call. It was hot, and we are taught to drive with our windows down to hear people talking, screaming, or noises that might indicate a crime is taking place. I remember finally finding the place and the call being intense as most of them are. The place was a mess, a complete shamble. He had torn the place up and guess what?? He can do that. He lives there too, he can destroy all the property if he wants and there is nothing I can do about that. I talk to her and give her advise, I give her information as to what she can/should do. I tell her who to talk to at the District Attorney's Office on Monday morning. I try to get her to leave and go stay with someone else. The place is already torn up, no sense in staying to "protect" your stuff. That is always their excuse for not leaving. I was there for quite a while taking the report and doing what little I could. Then it was time for me to leave. My job here is done, the report will need to be completed, turned in to the sergeant at the station, but for now, this is all I can do. I get back into my car and put it into drive and was pulling out of the parking area when all the sudden something jumped from my backseat up to the front, but in order to do that it had to come under the "cage" and up by the armrest and it was a dag gum BLACK CAT. It scared me so bad I threw the car in parked, jumped out with my heart POUNDING, and the silly thing just lumbered out of the car like, oh hey, thanks for the look see, catch you later. And with a flip of his tail he was gone. I hate it when things scare me like that. I learned to ALWAYS check my car if I leave the window down or the door unlocked. Like my other postings, good thing you can do something wrong and live through it. That one nearly caused me a heart attack. Good thing I am not superstitious!

I've Been Duped

I've Been Duped

(Rated E-Everyone)

As I sit here thinking about this story I fear that you will all think that cops are stupid, or that I am anyways. But I have always had the ability to laugh at myself for some of the dumb things I do or have done. I figure if you can't laugh at yourself, then....you miss out on a good laugh! I know I do some pretty dumb things, and some things are just funny, not necessarily dumb. So I have another short but funny story. And please understand that I realize that these stories are a lot more funny to me than to you, but that's OK too.

One day I was on patrol (that is because I was a "patrolman" hence I should be on patrol!!) Anyways, one day while on patrol and DOING MY JOB, I received a call to such and such address to assist the party there unlocking their car. The car was in the driveway but they needed my assistance. This is back in the day when we still unlocked cars, don't do that any more. So I went to the address, pulled in front of the house and went to the front door. As I knocked on the front door I could hear someone inside tell me "just a minute". I replied "OK". I stood on the front porch waiting, figuring they needed to put the dog up, or put the baby down, or hang the phone up or any one of a multitude of reasons to have me wait for just a moment. No big deal. It was a nice day and I waited patiently as any good officer should. But after a few minutes I was afraid something was wrong so I knocked again. But again I was told "Just a minute", and again I replied "OK"! Now I was a very good officer if I do say so myself and so patient I was. However after several more minutes and no one coming to the door I knocked again a little more loudly. This time I heard the voice inside inform me to wait once again, "Just a minute". Don't get me wrong, the day was gorgeous, and I didn't mind waiting outside, but I was really beginning to become concerned as to why I was being given the run around plus bored and honestly, ready to get back in my car. I decided to go to the neighbors house and see if they knew the person needing my help. As I was trying to find someone to talk to two young men (late teens/early 20's) came walking/jogging my way. They hollered at me and said thanks for coming to help, blah blah blah, we got the car unlocked and I was getting ready to leave. But I asked the young man who owned the car who was in the house that answered me when I knocked. He said, no one was home and no one should have been in the house answering me. I informed him that each time I knocked on the door I was in fact answered. He had a very concerned look on his face, when he then looked at me and asked what I was told when I knocked. I told him I was met with the same reply after knocking and that was "Just a minute". At which time he started laughing. In fact he was about to bust a gut. I failed to see what was so funny. He invited me into his house and right inside in the living room was a big cage and a beautiful parrot. I had stood outside for several minutes enjoying a wonderful day being a very obedient officer after being told to wait just a minute by a bird, and I even had answered him in return, I've been duped.

Dang It,Hate It When That Happens!

Blond Moment for a Brunette (rate E for Everyone)

It is suppose to snow tonight or so they say. Yeah right, I have heard that before many times. But I remember one day when it did snow, and wouldn't you know it, I did one of my "other" stupid blunders. Most of my postings start out with "one night while on patrol" but not this one. No, this one occurred in the middle of the day. Well, rather about 11:30, lunch time for the high school kids. It was snowing, snowing really pretty good. I love a good snow. It was cold out, the white stuff coming down and whirling around in the good ole Oklahoma wind. And I was on patrol. Sad to say I don't remember why I stopped this car, but I did. I can't remember if they were from out of state or what the situation was, but I do remember we were kind of on a side street, away from all the main traffic. For what ever reason I turned on my overhead lights and stopped this car. I jumped out of my patrol car and went up to them and told them what ever was necessary, had a short conversation with them and sent them on their way. Going back to my patrol unit (in the snow) I went to open the door only to find it was LOCKED. Car running, lights on, cold outside, snowing, me with no jacket, LOCKED. How in the world did this happen. All I can figure is when I jumped out of the car I must have hit the locked button. Now as luck would have it, no, I did not have an extra key, but rather all the kids were getting out of school for lunch. And I was right on the street most of them took to leave for lunch. Yes there I was in all my glory, standing there in the cold, pouring down snow, cold, wet, winter day with police lights on and me just standing there next to my car. No other car around me, no accident, NO COAT on, just standing there like I don't have a care in the world. And now the worst part..I have to get back in this car some how. When an officer locks themselves out of the car and the other officers find out they are unmerciful. Oh how cruel others can be. You think Rudolph had it bad with his nose, that's nothing compared to how police officers will torment, torture another officer for doing something stupid. The only thing I could do was call for assistance on the walkie. I know, I will call Susan, she has done stupid stuff, she won't make fun of me. She will help me. 599 to 620....Go ahead 599. Hey 620 where are you? At blah blah blah. 10-4, could you come to my location and assist me for a moment? 10-4, be there in just a minute. I did not call for help very often, so it was a curious thing that others wanted to check and make sure I was alright. Great, just what I needed was "others" to come help. And come help they did. All I wanted was for Susan to go to the station and get the extra set of keys for my patrol car. Quietly and quickly. I was freezing. But before Susan could get there to "help" me, I think every unit on duty came by to see what I needed and there I stood in all my glory locked out of my car, in the pouring down snow, with no coat, no hat, no gloves, police lights going and I didn't even get to write a ticket!!! Dang it, I hate it when that happens!!

We Did It Wrong!

We did it wrong...

Did It ALL Wrong

(rated E for Everyone!)

In police work there is the right way to do things and then there is the WRONG way. Sometimes you do it the wrong way and live through it thank goodness. And then sometimes.....you don't. I also learned that life is a learning experience never ending. Boy am I glad that you can do something the wrong way and live through it, AND learn from it. As was my case one night while on patrol.

I am amazed at how many people do not know the difference between a burglary and a robbery. Pretty much the easiest way to describe the difference is people are robbed, places are burglarized. So a house or shop is burglarized, but a person is robbed. Of course there are several different situations and it might be called something different in each state but that is a very simplified explanation. Anyway, where I lived there was a University called Phillips University. The campus is very old with the main buildings in about a two block square, then you have the dorms, the athletic buildings, the baseball field, the golf course and apartments that surround the campus. One dorm was very old and dilapidated, not being used at all. And that is where I got a possible burglary in progress call early one evening.

Now remember there is a right way to handle a burglary in progress call and a wrong way. In this situation two cars were dispatched to this building where we met up with the campus security guy. I arrived first and am told that he thinks three teens had entered the building. He had found an opened window that was in the basement. My backup got there and we went to check things out. Sure enough there is a window where entry could have been made. The security guard said he did not know if anyone was in there or not but he was told the kids had been seen going in but not coming out. Now it was not not dark yet which was good since the old building no longer had power running to it. So no lights. Great. The building is about three stories high plus the basement. Lots and lots of places that kids could hide. Did I mention there were LOTS of places these kids could hide? This is an old dorm, so you have bedroom after bedroom and closets and bathrooms and some junk stored in different places. So in other words, it was a mess. Now with a building that big we should have had lots of help. We didn't. Everyone was busy on other calls, this also was back before we had a dog on the department that we could send in!!! Darn it. This means Rick and I were going to have to search it ourselves. Great. Well if I hadn't mentioned it enough already we did it ALL wrong. Ok, first we started searching from the bottom up. That's wrong. You always start at the top and work your way down. Why you ask??? Because what happens when you corner something? It will fight, so you want to leave it (them) an out. That leads to mistake number two. You need someone on the outside waiting for the suspect to flee and capture them. We didn't have anyone there. Well not at first anyways, remember I told you that everyone was busy on other calls? It's not like we have tons of officers anyway. That night we probably only had about five officers, oh maybe six or seven including traffic officers, MAYBE. And that is for 72 square miles. I have now identified two mistakes. Number three will come, trust me. Rick and I got our flashlights and started searching the building. No one in the basement, so let's hit the first floor. We check each room and closet including the bathroom areas etc. Second floor next. Here we go, same song second verse. Check each bedroom, each closet, under the bed if there is a bed in the room, check the bathroom areas, stalls, every nook and cranny. By the time we finish the second floor Ricks flashlight is gone. We have only my flashlight left and it is starting to get fairly dark outside. By this time we are getting really lax...mistake number three. We have our guns holstered, we are talking to each other and just giving it a quick once over. Open the door, shine my light quickly into the room, nope, nothing there, don't hear anything, go to the next room. This is crazy. I am tired of walking up the stairs, checking 200 thousand rooms, I am bored, there is no one here and I know it. Blah, Blah Blah. This is crazy. We are walking down the hall and are getting to the last few rooms and I am ready to go. Honestly so is Rick. I have to go first into each room because I have the only working flashlight. We get to this last door, the door is on the left, I use my left hand and open the door, flashlight in my right hand (mistake number four! Nothing should have been in my gun hand!!!) stepped in to give it a quick glance and then let's get out of here. Rick, and by the way he is a pretty big guy, older (I can say that for he was older than ME!) guy that had previously been on the department and left to work the oil boom, and after it busted he came back to the P.D. to finish out his years for the police retirement. Here is the rough and tough big ole guy behind this little young female and when I walked into the room of this OLD OLD dormitory--- it was occupied. It was occupied by a big huge flock of sleeping pigeons! And when I shinned my flashlight into the room, talking to Rick, I disturbed the whole stinking mess of roosting birds. Well do you know what a flock of pigeons do when they are unexpectedly disturbed!!??? They go NUTS---They take off flying!!!! Everywhere. Some went for the window, some came right for me and some towards the door where there was a bit of hope to escape into the hallway. And what happened next is almost indescribable!

I SCREAMED LIKE A LITTLE GIRL!!! But it is not so much that I screamed as it was WHAT I screamed. You see, as a police officer I did not cuss, and I out of my mouth came the blood curdling scream of SHOOOOOOT!!!!! That is not what you should scream when you are doing a building search for bad guys!!! I screamed shoot I mean SHOOOOOOOT and started running backwards AWAY from the herd of stampeding pigeons!! I am screaming, running backwards and run over poor Rick who does not know what is going on. As I am screaming shoot, he is grabbing for his gun but can't get it because I am running over him. Then he sees the stupid birds and is startled (?) by my reaction. He yells at me, I don't know what he said, I don't remember, it doesn't matter because by this time another unit has arrived and is downstairs waiting for us and watching for escaping bad guys. This guy, Charlie, hears me scream "shoot" and so he doesn't know what is going on. He doesn't hear any gun fire, so he starts trying to reach us by our radios. By this time I am laughing uncontrollably at how stupid I am, trying to get Rick peeled off my back where I nailed him in my reverse gear, he is laughing and we neither can get it together long enough to answer the radio and then we hear the urgency in Charlie's voice. He is worried to death as to what has happened to us. "Signal 11, signal 11", he screams at us on the radio. That's police talk for what's your status, or, are you ok????? Finally we muster up our strong, in control voice, and reply, "we're 10-2" (means we're OK) just a slight mishap. Think about that picture....two officers with not a care in the world, talking, checking out an old dark building, opening door after door then a door to slumbering pigeons, all the while trying to escape due to the fear of being killed by Alfred Hitchcock's " The BIRDS" backing up so quickly that I nearly kill Rick by me running him over, or us both dieing from laughter. There were many mistakes made that night, thank goodness we lived through it. The pigeon's well I don't have a clue, I just got out of there as quickly as I could and went home to empty my shorts!!!????

Round and Round We Go

Round and Round We Go

Rated E--everyone

In Enid we worked very closely with the Oklahoma Highway Patrol and I loved it!! Nothing like needing help and having the Calvary show up. These are some of the neatest men I had ever worked with. They were in a league of their own. So when they ever needed help you better bet we ran to their aid. They just don't ask for help very often, well not unless they just wanted to visit later maybe. Anyway, one of my very favorites was Joe T. Joe was a big ole guy with not one ounce of fat on him. He was probably about 6'3" lean, mean, fighting machine. He had coal black hair with a streak of white that made him almost look like a skunk!!! But you did not dare make fun of him (oh yes I did!!!!) One night Joe called in pursuit of a drunk and asked if there was a PD unit available to help in the area of 100 E. Elm. I was in the area so I ran over there. I asked him where he was, you know what direction had they taken, so I could try to catch up with them. He said at the M&M Bar. I was en route when I heard him say "we are going around the M&M bar." OK??!!! Isn't that where he just said they were? They have not gotten very far...I was very close to the area and so when I got there I could hear the siren and saw this OHP Trooper, bright red lights in the night and sirens loudly blaring, driving at a very slow rate of speed, chasing this old beater of a car "around" the M&M Bar. Not quite sure what I could do to help this situation (especially since I was laughing, hard to drive and laugh your butt off at the same time!) so I just stayed in place to see which direction the suspect might go. Then he starts back around the bar again! It is so funny, I just sit there and watch this "pursuit" and listen to Joe call out his pursuit. "Headquarters I am in pursuit of Oklahoma tag ****** at 100 E. Elm" "we will be going around the M&M Bar" silence for just a moment and then you hear,"headquarters we are going around the bar again" Silence on the radio, but I am watching the whole thing from the street. You see this is a little hole in the wall bar with a dirt alley beside it and a little parking lot to the east of it. And you have this Highway Patrol Car with all its lights and loud siren, going at a very slow rate of speed following this old clunker of a car and the guy just keeps driving around and around and around the bar. Patrons come out because of the noise but stay out of the way. Finally the man just stops in the alley. I think he must have gotten dizzy! Really he ran out of gas! The poor little dog in the back seat was thrilled the ride was over. The driver went to jail for DUI. I laughed and laughed and laughed. Another great night of fighting crime!!!!

Unbrotherly Love (Rated G-graphic!)

This certainly is not Philadelphia, the city of Brotherly Love. Enid is small town city in northwest Oklahoma with big city crime at times. But all towns have that. No one and I do mean NO ONE is exempt from crime in their town or life for that matter. I have learned never say oh he could never have done that. Oh yes he can or could. As it was on this date late one night I was on patrol when I received a call that a man had just been shot. The dispatchers still had the subject on the phone and advised me that the suspect had left the scene. It was dark, I do not remember what time of year it was, but I do remember it was dark. I was working the "mid-watch" shift (6p-2a) and I am thinking it was in the winter months. I am also thinking it was about 8:00 p.m. We were told the victim had been shot in the chest with a shotgun. Now this is kind of sick but I was thinking wow, this is going to be a gut slinger. A man shot in the chest with a shotgun. As a police officer we do kind of live for sick calls. Man I am flying to the call when my sergeant pulls up right behind me. We both park in the street and run up to the house. The front door is locked and the next thing I know sarge is kicking in the door. I am thinking (very fast) man this poor guy has just been shot and now someone is kicking in his front door. If the shot didn't kill him the heart attack of us kicking in his door might. I really thought that. I thought this is going to be bad, it is going to be bloody, I was ready for it. I was ready to work a really bad call. I was psyched up and ready to go. As we make entry into the house the victim is standing there in the living room on the phone to headquarters. And the big burly man, a big barrel chested man was just standing there on the phone with no shirt on and all that was going on was a few drips of blood coming down his chest. Drip, drip drip. That's it. Where was my gut slinging shot in the chest call? Where is my adrenalin rush, gun toting, bad guy chasing call? This is it???? drip drip drip???? Sarge yells at me to lay the man down on the floor. He tells me to work this as a homicide. I thought, this poor guy is hearing all of this, I am still waiting for the heart attack to take over. The victim tells me his brother had shot him. He tells me the story of how it all came about. The victim was at his house watching TV. He hears a knock on his door so he answers it. It is his brother and he is yelling at him about him cheating with his girlfriend. The brother tries to tell him he is not cheating with his brothers girl friend. But he would not hear of it. He points the shot gun at him about the time the victim pulls the storm door shut and boom. The suspect brother shoots his victim brother right in the chest. The ambulance shows up and takes him to the hospital. I am told he has about 8 or 9 pellets in his heart. They are going to transfer him to OKC but it is foggy out so he will have to be driven the 90 miles rather than med-a-flighted. Sarge comes to me and says, I bet we will work a suicide before the night is over. You see, the brother is mentally unstable and he has not been taking his medicine. The victim just could not reason with his brother. The last he was seen he was driving away to the north in a black pickup from the crime scene. No one had any idea where he was or where he might be going.

Nothing more happened the rest of the night and I was getting ready to get off from work. I got a call to go to the hospital for they were bringing in an assault victim from a small town south of Enid. They asked I check it out and see where the crime occurred so they could determine who would be working it. Who had jurisdiction over this crime. Everyone else was busy and they asked that I stop by and check things out. No problem, the hospital is right by the police department so it was right on my way. I went into the emergency room and was sent to the big room right of the nurses desk. So I walked back there and on the gurney was a guy bleeding profusely from the face. In fact it was really gross. He just laid there making cooing sounds. Sounded like a dove, weird. The ambulance guy tells me that he picked the victim up from the bar where some patrons had heard a horn honking and they went outside to see why the horn would not stop. When they got out to the vehicle they saw a man leaning over on the horn. He had been beaten up severely so 911 was called. No one saw what happened and they did not know him. So we had a mystery on our hands.

I go back to the victim to see if he can tell me what happened. Well I go in and I take a good look at him and decide he won't be telling me anything. No he isn't dead, he has no mouth. We start figuring out this is my victims brother from the earlier call. He was not beaten up, he tried to kill himself...and failed. So after leaving Enid from shooting his brother, this guy now drives to the area south of town. He went to an oil lease road and tried to shoot himself. As he put the shotgun under his chin he reached to pull the trigger but could not quite reach it. As he reached for the trigger, it caused his head to turn a little to the side and tilt upwards. When the gun went off he shot his chin, mouth, teeth, lips, and nose. They were gone. And I do mean gone. It looked like a big ole package of hamburger meat with a hole punched in the middle. It was just ground meat on his face. After pulling the trigger and not killing himself he gets back into his truck. He drives to town for help and as he pulls up to the bar he collapses and lays over on the horn. The patrons come out and find him thinking he has been beaten up call the ambulance and we are back to the present at the hospital. Well I went to talk to the doctor and we looked at the x-rays. It was interesting to see the buckshot all lodged up in the naval cavity. It was like, blow your nose mister and get the lead out.....oops, you don't have a nose. I have called headquarters and told them what I had. By this time the detectives and bigwigs are showing up. We are all in the exam room when the captain starts to ask questions to the man. But he can not talk. So the captain says, someone give him your pen and some paper to right on, we have to have the answer to some questions. It is decided my pen and steno pad gets to be used by the bloody man. Captain is questioning him pretty hard and asks him where is the gun. The guy says it is out on the oil lease road. Captain needs to know where the gun is more specific. We need to recover the gun for many reasons, evidence, and you don't want someone else to get their hands on a loaded shotgun, especially a kid. So the captain sternly says to him, listen mister, I need to know where you got shot, now you better be thinking about it and tell me. The man takes my notepad and in bold short choppy handwriting writes his answer to the captain and you can see the attitude by his body language. He writes: IN THE FACE!!! Captain looks at him and says, "No sh** Sherlock!" and walks out of the room. I saw many officers turn there backs trying so hard to not laugh out loud at the poor man with no face. I think the detective had already figured that much out!!!!

Follow up to the case: The man was rushed to the hospital in OKC where he was treated successfully. The brother who was shot in the heart was released from the hospital in about three days with no surgery. They left the pellets in his heart saying the surgery was too risky. The victim declined to file charges on his brother saying he was mentally unstable and he just could not send him to prison. He refused to cooperate and the district attorney didn't file the charges. The captain went to OKC to give the man some papers about charges being dismissed. This was a few weeks after the incident and reported back to me that they had done reconstructive surgery on the man and if you did not know what had happened you would never guess the man had shot his face off. I don't think he was ever able to talk for he had no tongue and I do not know what ever happened to the brothers. Never heard from them ever again. I hope life if treating them well.