The Sweet Smell of Success

Well the last couple of days have been relatively boring.
Tonight I was assigned to our new DUI detail. Apparently we havent been getting enough DUI's so they are devoting two officers to this task every night. Rookie Gump got picked for the first night ( a Wednesday not prime dui hunting season). I spent the last five hours driving a loop through the city hitting all of the bars trying to spot someone to stop. I realized that it is funny how the forbidden fruit is so plentiful, by this I mean this whole week i have hardly stopped any cars and just cant find something good and easy like a headlight out. Tonight when I was supposed to be stopping only drunks it seemed like every other car had a light out. I guess that is just the way it is.

I did have one thing of interest yesterday. I answered a call of a disturbance in progress at a very well known apartment complex.

*a note about the term disturbance in progress, this can be anything from two people disagreeing over paying for something all the way up to 30 people in a parking lot with guns knives bazookas or even a small nuclear weapon. This is a very common call for us and serves as the catch all for dispatch. Anything they dont know how to label becomes a disturbance.*

This turned out to be a fight between three men. When i arrive i only find one guy who has been beaten up. Talking to the man he was less than cooperative, he gave me almost no information about the attackers and seemed very eager for me to leave. I soon learned why this model citizen seemed uncomfortable talking to me. He had three warrants on him, one from acworth one from kennesaw and one from Tacoma Washington.

*a note on how warrants work. (wow your learning alot today) When the computer shows a warrant the dispatcher has to send a message to the agency that has the warrant to see if it is still valid and they wish for you to arrest on it. You cant arrest on a warrant until it is confirmed and they say they want to place a hold. *

This man already seemed ready to fight and now I had to stall while they confirmed if they would want him. As my partner said I acted like the dumbest cop in the world. I asked him every question like three times. He finally said " I already told you this five times I dont want to talk about it anymore" but continuing my academy award performance I simply responded "wait Im confused I just need to get a little more information for my report, can we start back at the beginning." Needless to say I was very happy when they finally confirmed the warrants and much to my surprise Washington State wanted to come get him. He later told me it was for stealing a car. So at the end of the day this guy got beat up and taken to jail on three warrants. Guess when it rains it pours.

This call makes me think back to my other great acting debut.
Back in December I answered a call to a house that makes frequent calls for service. This night the call was that the woman was complaining about her neighbors generator making noise. I should have known something was up when the dispatcher dispatched the call then called my training officers cell phone to talk with him about it, but dumb old rookie me didnt see it coming. I arrived on scene and thought well I dont hear a generator I guess they turned it off. I started walking to the door when the bottom dropped out and rain began pouring down on us. I knocked on the door and an older lady in a housecoat open it and said "come in, come in." Being glad to get out of the rain I stepped in to talk to the woman and that is when it hit me. The most God awful stench of stale cat urine you could ever imagine. The smell took your breath away. As soon as I stepped into the house the woman started walking into another room "come in here this is where you can hear it really well." My mind fighting through the fog of the cat urine assault made the fateful decision to follow her. Next thing I know the three of us my training officer the woman and I are all packed into this tiny space cleared in an utterly filthy bedroom. The temperature seemed to be hovering around 100 making the urine smell even more enjoyable. The woman set on the bed and said "come sit here so you can hear it." Thankfully my mind cleared from the fog of urine enough for me to stammer out "ahh no thanks ill be fine right here." The woman began telling me about how her neighbors had a generator and they were shooting wires into her house. She said that the wires made a sound like crickets and that some times she could hear talking over the wires. I was quickly realizing I had to find a way out of here because she wasnt going to leave without something good to tell her. In a moment of desperation picturing myself having to Taze an old woman as she fought to keep me in this dungeon of Cat Pee and dirty clothes it came to me. I turned to her with my most official sounding voice "Maam since the problems involve wires that is going to be a utility company problem. I will leave a note for them in the morning telling them to drive by and check the wires." She seemed shocked "youll do that for me? Your so nice your the nicest police officer that has ever been out here." "Im just doing my job" I assured her as I almost ran out the door.
Ahh the sweet smell of success ....or is that just Cat urine still soaked into my uniform?

This reminds me I need to get around to looking up what part of the power company handles the wires making talking cricket noises.