Part Time Jobs

Cops work part time jobs. It’s just the way it is. I work them too. They are a nice way to earn extra money. My family is going on vacation in a couple of weeks so I have been working as much as I can to have extra money for our trip, in fact I am working a part time job now. It is a nice thing to be able to work and pick up some quick money.

There is a lot of gas exploration going on around the area. My job tonight is to sit at the lake watching some equipment making sure nothing happens to it. It sure is a nice night to be sitting here; I should have brought a fishing pole. It’s a tough job but someone has to do it.

A Pursuit

Last Sunday I returned to the midnight shift. I like working midnights. It starts out busy especially on Fridays and Saturdays and then slows down by quitting time allowing time to complete paperwork.

About 10:30 I was riding around town looking for something to do when I heard a pursuit on the Sheriff’s channel. The pursuit was in a town about 15-20 miles away and headed towards my city. I didn’t figure they would come all the way to town because of the distance and because there were several major roads for them to turn on, but I began to listen. The officer in the pursuit said he was going 140 mph.
A short time later the officer said they had passed the interstate and were continuing towards town. I stopped to see if I had spikes in my car, I did. I figured if they got into town I could attempt to spike the car and end the pursuit.

I found a place at the end of town closest to the pursuit and waited. They passed the exit they would have taken to come to where I was so I hurried to the other end of town where the highway crossed the street I was on again.

As I was trying to get to the other end of town I heard that some of our officers had joined the pursuit and that they were passing a road ahead of me. I figured I had missed my chance since they were ahead of me.

I kept going because the highway they were on makes a loop around town and they were about to come up on the curve in the loop. That meant they had farther to go to get where I was going to try and spike the car then I had to go.

I made it out to the loop and got out just in time to hear the engine of the car being chased. It came around a bend in the road about a mile away and was flying. I had about 30 seconds to get ready so I hurried and set my spikes up so I could pull them in front of the car as it approached.

As the car got closer I pulled the spikes into the lane of traffic going toward the pursuit to make it easier to get the spikes pulled into the lane the car was in. The car came up toward me and veered into the oncoming traffic lane. I think he was trying to stay clear of me. That meant he drove right over my spike strip, it looked like I got all four tires.

The car was way ahead of the pursuing officer’s. It continued on, about 30 seconds behind him was the first pursuing police car. About another 30 seconds behind him came two of our cars. Then a few minutes later a few more county cars went by as I picked up the spikes.

The pursuit continued for a while longer. I knew I had seen the car run over the spikes with all four tires but I began to wonder if I had successfully spiked the car because he kept going.

He ended up making it to the neighboring county before running into a ditch and wrecking. Once he wrecked he bailed out and ran on foot a short distance before being caught.

I learned later that he had wrecked because his front drivers tire had been flattened by my spikes and he had been driving on the rim. Once he was in custody he said he had stolen the car from his brother in a neighboring county. He also had swallowed some cocaine.

I have been in my share of pursuits. Some are not very exciting and some are scary; it depends on speeds and circumstances of the pursuit. I had never been in a position to spike a car when I had spikes so this was a first for me. It was pretty interesting and caused quite an adrenaline rush, mainly because of the speed the bad guy was going and the short time I had to get prepared.

An 18 Wheeler, A Missing Tire, And A House

I was driving around when another officer was dispatched to a wreck where an 18-wheeler had lost a tire. The tire supposedly hit a house.

I wasn’t doing anything so I thought I would drive by and take a look. The 18-wheeler was sitting in the center turn lane and was missing two wheels off of the back drivers side of the tractor.

There was an older man standing on the porch of a house. I went and talked to him and asked where the tire was. He took me into his bedroom and showed me the tire. The tire had gone through the wood frame house and ended up against a dresser. There was wood, insulation and other building materials scattered throughout the room.

I then talked to the truck driver. He said another truck driver had told him on the radio he had lost a tire. About that time he saw a tire go past him and into the house. I can only imagine what he thought as one of his tires passed him as he drove down the road.

It turns out the older man who lived in the house had built it in the late 1940’s. He had been a naval aviator in World War 2. I talked to him for a few minutes about that. It was pretty interesting.

Sometimes I get to meet interesting people at work. He was one of them. World War 2 has been something I have been interested in since childhood. Since becoming a police officer I have met a member of the Flying Tigers, survivors of Pearl Harbor, a sailor that was on the U.S.S. Enterprise at Midway, a soldier that landed on Omaha Beach on D-Day and several pilots from the Air Corps during the war. All had interesting stories.