Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Ride along with the police (updated!)

Whoops, I didn't realize the last one even published. I typed the title and had to run out, and I must've hit publish instead of save.

So. I went on a ride along with the police. I have a really good friend who is a cop, so I get to ride along whenever I want. It's so much fun. When we go on calls, I get to go up into whatever situation arises, except if it's something obviously dangerous. It's cool to not have to wait in the car and get to go along with him inside people's houses.

We had quite a few calls - I'll tell you about most of them ...

~ First call was an elderly welfare check. An older gentleman (86y) with dementia is being taken care of from his grandson. An anonymous caller wanted him checked on because they believed the grandson was taking advantage of him and not taking care of him. We went in his house and did an initial investigation. There were cockroaches ~everywhere~ and the fridge was full of rotten food. The grandpa was sitting in the living room with the grandson and seemed to be doing okay. He was extremely skinny though, which worried us about not eating. When asked about dinner that night, he said he had a big drink with whipped cream and we saw he had a starbucks frappachino in the trashcan. I certainly hope he ate more than that for dinner.

After taking pictures of his kitchen and the contents of the refrigerator and an interview with the grandson, we left with the information we'd be calling APS (adult protection services) the next day. The grandson was visibly upset, saying someone is out to get him by calling the police, but from what I saw, it was substantiated. I hope everything goes okay.

~ We then toured the city, checking his regular "route" to make sure nothing suspicious was going on. So we parked in a parking lot to check on speeders. He let me use the radar gun to find someone to pull over. I hate getting tickets (don't we all!) so I felt a little lame helping someone get one, but I'll admit, it was fun. The car itself has a built in radar detector, so I wasn't the sole operator in picking up someone's speed, but still, I was having fun doing it. We pulled a few people over and out of 5 people, we gave only 2 tickets, the remainder getting warnings. One girl we pulled over (15+ mph over) freaked out and was crying and carrying on. I almost felt bad, but the reaction was just so over the top. She said she was a hoarder, which didn't make much sense as an excuse for speeding.

~ Then we got my favorite call of the night. A kid (22y) called 911 to say he thinks he was overdosing from smoking too much marijuana. I begged we take the call and we did. When we got to the house, the firetruck and ambulance was waiting down the block for us to clear the scene. There was the kid, sitting on the front stoop, very stoned. I stayed outside with him while they checked the situation inside and the paramedics were called in. I swear, I had to hide my laughter because it was freaking hysterical! Overdosing from marijuana? lol. Impossible!

The paramedics tried their best to have the kid decline going to the hospital, telling him they couldn't do anything for him. The only thing he needed was time. But he insisted on going, saying he was afraid he was going to pass away. The weed ended up being his cousin's, which he had a medicinal license for, so that was fine and dandy with the police and it wasn't confiscated. But the kid got possession and to add insult to injury, upon searching his room, he had a butterfly knife, so got another charge of possession of an illegal weapon. What. A. Dumbass. The cops were making fun of the kid on the radio and my favorite line was "maybe we should do some community outreach and bring him a bag of cheetos".

~ Next was a DUI pulled over by the k9 unit. We had to come on scene to transport the guy because k9 doesn't have room due to the dog. This guy was not drunk, but was on some drugs of some sort. He couldn't do any of the roadside tests and was immediately arrested. We took him down to the hospital for blood work to figure out what he was on.

Side note -- The nurse who came in to take his blood told me he recognized me from the pin incident. lol! I can't believe he remembered me!

Anywho, the best part was seeing the way this guy was dressed. Parachute pants, silk shirt, a red embroidered cell phone case on his belt, 2-3 bracelets, a pink scarf, 2 ~big~ necklaces and almost more rings than fingers. He was the epitome of style I tell you! I'm almost forgetting the mullet and the huge mustache. Hot hot hot!

~ The next call was from a woman saying her ex husband was over banging on her door screaming about a cell phone and she had a restraining order against him. He had since left, so we went looking for him. We got to his apartment (which I stayed in the car for this one) and they went in and arrested him. We took him down to the station and did the paperwork for bringing him to jail. I sat at the table and bullshitted with the guy while my friend was typing up the paperwork and I was given the job to fill out some paperwork regarding what the guy was wearing and had on him to turn in at the jail. After this, we went down and took him to the main jail in town.

When at the jail, we were waiting outside to have them buzz us in and they wouldn't buzz the door because they said "the prisoner needs to be restrained". The guy was in handcuffs and my friend held up the guys hands to show them. But they persisted, until we realized they thought ~I~ was a prisoner too! Heh.

~ While we were in the jail, a call for a house fire came in. We raced to the scene to find an abandoned house engulfed in flames. The fire department was already there and they were trying their best to put it out. So I sat in the car (it was 20 degrees outside!) and watched the house burn down. They got it out before it fell into itself, but it was pretty damn cool to watch.

By now, it was 3am and I headed home. It took awhile to wind down after getting home, I mean, who could come home from all that excitement and just go to sleep? Definitely not me! Maybe the police were used to it, but I certainly wasn't.

And that was that. All in all, it was a really fun night.

17 comments:

Jen said...

That sounds like such a blast!

areyoukiddingme said...

There's not that much excitement in my neck of the woods!

Mermaid said...

The hubs is a K-9 cop. He gets interesting calls. He gets so stoked when the dog gets his man. Yes the dog lives with us and is my pet, too.

Glad you had a good time! Glad your title didn't mean you were in the backseat!

Anonymous said...

Wow! What an interesting night you had!

Maybe you should consider police work as a second career! I could so totally see you as a cop.

Lisa said...

Sounds like a fun night!

Jenera said...

What an awesome night! I will have to pass along the marijuana kid story to my hubby. He will find that extremely funny.

jill said...

Very intriguing! Thanks for sharing :)

http://999reasonstolaughatinfertility.blogspot.com/ said...

Sounds more fun than my night!

Jen said...

Wow...that sounds sweet!! What a good time.

~*JaYmE*~ said...

HAHAH. Sounds like an awesome day! I think you've found your calling... COP Nancy! =)

Kristin said...

Oh how cool! Been on the medic end of calls but I'd love to do a police ride along.

Sara said...

I think it would be very interesting to ride along with a cop. Very cool.
And I love that the poor kid though he overdosed on pot. I know the feeling...funny shit.

Sarah said...

Sounds like fun to me! :)

Misty Dawn said...

That sounds like such fun! I dunno if I would be brave enough to do that. I'd be worried to be caught in gun fire. LOL

mommybird said...

Sounds like an adventurous night. My uncle's a cop and he has some very exciting stories to tell. People do weird things.

Jamie said...

That sounds like great fun! The best part about being a cop - it would be something different every night.

jenn said...

So cool! I am dying over the pot overdose!