Friday, November 28, 2008

Back in the saddle

Many of you know by now that the reason that this blog went a few days without being updated was because I went down to Roanoke, VA and accompanied Roanoke Cop as he policed that city and kept the good people safe for another night.

We started out with a run to deal with a baby's daddy who was threatening the presumed mother of his child with a knife. Before we got there, he loaded up several bags of toys and clothes for the baby and ran away with them. We weren't able to find him, but we did recover the stuff that he took as he ditched it in his flight from the forces of justice (us). It was nice watching Roanoke Cop hand her back the stuff and hearing her express genuine gratitude as she told us that there would have been no Christmas for the baby without that stuff.

Of course that was Wednesday night and the guy's probably sitting up in her apartment again even as you read this...

We rolled on an armed robbery next, were a couple of knuckleheads ripped off a pizza delivery guy at gunpoint and stole two pizzas, the hot bag, and a wallet containing six dollars from the delivery guy. Other units happened to see suspects matching the description of the robbers duck into a nearby house while discarding two empty pizza boxes--pizza boxes which had the address that the delivery man had been taking the pizzas to. We helped set up a perimeter around the house as other officers made contact with the woman who lived there. She got all ghetto girl and refused to allow her house to be searched, but based on the pizza boxes and the suspects inside who matched the description of the robbers, a search warrant was requested and everyone in the house detained until the warrant could be obtained and executed. When we went home hours later, the officers on scene were still cataloging firearms and items believed stolen that they found inside. This great piece of police work by the Roanoke cops will probably close out several previously-reported burglaries and robberies and put a few serious creeps behind bars for a spell.

After this, we rolled on another armed robbery where four guys with guns had ambushed a guy outside of his residence and relieved him of $400 cash. Roanoke Cop was lead on this one and he quickly obtained all of the relevant information despite the fact that neither the victim or his friends spoke any English. He then called for K-9 to track the robbers and we ran through yards and brush as we accompanied the K-9 officer and his German Shepherd on the track for a bit, but alas, the trail ran out and the criminals were not bitten, shot or otherwise brought to justice...not yet, anyway.

We made a few traffic stops but didn't turn up anything, and we eventually ran up against the end of his shift and logged off without arresting anyone or stopping any green pick-up trucks.

We did, however, have a nice dinner courtesy of his sergeant (much cooler than most sergeants I've had, just for that) and we talked to Liz up in Alaska on the phone for a bit, and that's always a pleasure.

But it felt good to get back out there and do some real police work again, even if only as an observer, and it gave me a chance to try out different feet throughout the night to see which one worked best in different situations. (If you look at his blog, you'll see part of me with my running foot, which worked quite well for basic patrol stuff even though I'm not supposed to do anything but run with it.)

And we also kept the citizens of the city safe. Neither al Qeada terrorists, Outlaw bikers or Japanese ninjas caused any trouble in Roanoke that night. Apparently they heard that RC and I would be rolling together and decided to go do something else because we couldn't find any of them on the streets all night.

Well to be fair, they could have been riding around in a green pick-up truck...

5 comments:

  1. Anonymous11:03 PM

    Glad you are back.

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  2. Glad you were able to get up that way and help RC out! :) I am sure it felt good to be back on the street. :)

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  3. Good to see you posting again.

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  4. Glad to hear you are alive and kicking. Sadly though , I have to be careful to whom I admit that I know someone from WV who ...

    1. Lives in a trailer park ( but dont you all ? )

    2. Has a large dog ? ( but dont you all ? )

    3. Has delsusions of being Mel Gibson ? ( I would have guessed Dale Earnhardt ? )

    4. Only if I see one of those Australian Holden Interceptors with a supercharger sticking out of the hood will I begin to beleieve you :)

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  5. Anonymous4:31 PM

    glad you had a great time!! Welcome back

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