I don't know what the deal was this week but it was hard for me to get things finished. It just seemed like I would sit down at the computer and then 2 hours has already gone by. I would keep getting interupted with this or that. It was really frustrating.
The Nintendo DS caper:
It's strange...you have all this gear on, a rifle, shotgun, and batbelt with all these high speed toys. You have a strong shiny patrol car and car computer for looking up things and investigating and fighting crime....but lots of your time goes to cases that probably won't go anywhere. I went to a simple theft call about a week ago. A young gal had her xboyfriend come over and he left after stealing her nintendo ds. Simple report....or so I thought. I typed it up and that was it. I tried contacting the suspect but he wasn't home so I just left it at that. It got turned back to me on my monday with many suggestions "try this.....or try that...did you try contacting so and so etc etc.....the thing was only worth about 100 bux. Not that I don't care, I mean I would be mad if mine got stolen but I don't think I would loose too much sleep over it. So I gave it the ol boy scout best. It seemed like each time I thought that I was done with this dumb thing I would have to follow-up on some other portion of it. I tried all week long to get ahold of this kid. I tried stopping by his house all hours of the day and nobody was ever home....I was so sick of dealing with this thing over 3 or 4 days.
I finally found the guy at the high school and had a chat with him. He said that he didn't take it despite certain facts that would lead me to beleive that he did in fact take it. I basically told him that the victim just wanted the nintendo back and I'd be happy to facilitate the exchange since she didn't want to press charges. I told him to think about it and that I would be back in the morning and if it had mysteriously turned up in the lost and found no harm no fowl. Not that its an excuse for what he did or that I'm not fighting for justice and punishment but with juveniles they really dont get prosecuted unless its a felony or something very serious....the system would just be too bogged down. I went back the next day and no nintendo and the dude didn't show up for school. I charged him and referred it to the prosecutor...somehow I don't think I've seen the last of this case and Im not holding my breath thinking its gonna go away knowing my luck...sigh.
Collision:
Got an accident call. Went to a local supermarket where a lady had thought she was hitting the brake but instead hit the gas then panicked and pushed it to the floor...causing her car to go past the parking space, over the curb, over the sidewalk, into a fence, breaking the fence and slamming into a dumpster........pretty easy report actually. We are not allowed to cite on private property unless there are certain kinds of crimes present. It was a nice way to sell the bad behavior and come off looking like a nice guy "I'm not gonna cite you today cause well accidents happen and you seem like a nice lady". She was very very very thankful and complimented me and the department on how nice we are! You don't get thank-u's very much so that was nice.
Burglary....another one of those last minute calls you dread right before getting off work. I went out there and this was the third time the house had been hit....ex-roomate lesbian lover that went bad. Unfortunately you have to take an entire new report for each occurance. Pretty easy report but it was at the end of my shift and I was tired....I was having the neighbor who was actually the property owner (rents this other house out) fill out a statement and I left before grabbing it and my entire clipboard with all my paperwork. Sigh.....you know there were alot of useless things that I thought they stressed at the academy. I remember being so mad that instructors would get mad because you forgot one form, or a particular book but now I see the lessons taught in that attention to detail and being aware of where all your gear is at all times....its so easy to just forget simple things like that....luckily the guy was still there when I returned after thinking I could just go home and he had all my stuff. Crisis averted but it really made me think of why routine is so important. Every day I set up my car a certain way...place my ticket book here, my flashlight right there...my mapbook in the visor etc etc and take things out in a certain order and put them in the right place every time I get ready to go home....its a crucial lesson that I'm still learning and its really important.
The Liar:
Pulled a car over for not having a front license plate posted on the car. Its required by law and I've gotten so much good stuff off stops like that. I pulled the car over and thought it would just be routine (although I absolutely hate that phrase "routine traffic stop" because there is no such thing). The gal said she didn't have her license on her. Its pretty normal, you just get them to tell you their name and date of birth and address etc. She gave it to me and I wasn't getting any record of anybody by that name.....I explained to her what was going on and she said that there must have been some mistake because she claimed to have a license etc. I arrested her for no valid operators license without ID (criminal offense in the state) and had her in the back of my patrol car when things got interesting.....she gave me this long winded story about how she wasn't sure which date of birth she had because she had immigrated to the country and according to her they often give asian people new dates of birth due to lack of records from their home country? Right...."whats your social security number?" I asked......"oh i dont have my card on me. Who do you know over the age of 18 that doesn't know their social security number.....huge clue number one that someone is lying to me. Well after a little bit of the name game I finally got a driving record that seemed to match up. I was just gonna scratch her a ticket and give her a court date and I even "verified her identity" with a friend of hers over the phone. I ran the name a couple more times and this "near hit" kept popping up for a small warrant in elensburg off of a different date of birth but similar to the one she was using. I called my sarge and asked him if i could at least take her to the jail to get fingerprinted....this was after I told her that I was just gonna give her a ticket and have her walk home......so off to the jail we went. I don't know if she thought I was bluffing or what.
So we polled up to the sally port and she goes "well hey I just want to tell you something before we go in there". She totally coughed up the goods.........told me she was using her cousins name etc. What a jerk.....I almost gave her a criminal citation based off her cousins information...this just totally pissed me off turns out she had a very very very suspended license...1st degree which is rare to find. I brought her into the jail. I had asked her if she had ever been arrested before and she said no. The jail staff recognised her the second they saw her.......ran her real name through the computer and she had a wrap sheet as long as my arm and lots of jail photos oh and she had like 5 warrants to boot. Thankfully the jail was full (the nice cushy lynnwood jail) so she got to go to the county jail with a "making false statements" and failing to cooperate charge on top of that. Man that made me mad. To think that her cousin would have been in all this trouble and I tried explaining that to this gal but man she was self serving...obviously.
The Russian Contractor fiasco:
Disturbance call...man fighting with his boss at a tile job at a house. Possibly someone stabbed with a screw-driver. The caller said his boss went off on him and hit him in the face and punched him in the stomach. I was the first guy on scene and was waiting for backup and this guy came runnin up to me...he was like "i'm the one who called". I had jumped out of my car and he was rushing toward me so I cleared leather and started barking order at him. I didn't know who this guy was or what was going on and its so easy for a suspect to claim to be the victim etc. Finally my back up showed up and I let the guy talk....he said that he had a fight with his boss and he thought he was gonna get stabbed cause this guy had a screw driver in his hand while he pounched him etc. He looked fine and didn't have any injuries.....hmmm. He said that the guy took off in a white 4 door car. I got on the radio and started talking to my partner right as he was flying up about half a block away and I told him to check north of there and my partner hit the lights and was off like a bat out of hell. As I'm talking to him these other two guys came up and I thought they were the "victims" buddies and they just sat there quietly while this guy told me this huge story about how he had fought with his boss over a crappy job he had done on some tile work. After about 5 minutes one of the buddies came up and said that he was the boss in question......WHAT? I was like what the heck is going on.
Yeah well the boss was there he didn't take off in the white car...the guy had made everything up and totally lied to us. The boss was totally calm...long story short the "victim" had been doing some really bad work so the boss got mad and fired him on site and made up the whole story.....long story short it got cleared without having to take a report and I gave the 'victim" a ride home a couple cities away......stupid.
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