I’ll admit that in composing the title for this blog, it didn’t come from my intention to make it sound witty. It was by pure accident and it wasn’t until I read it out loud (which I usually do with the entire articles when I proofread them) that it made me chuckle. For these are short stories, and shorts stories at the same time. It’s funny how things come together like that.
In the spirit of the season coming up (Halloween), I decided to reveal some times in my career that proved to be an adrenaline rush, possibly even frightening. These were times I was in real danger of losing control of my intestinal functions. I believe real life can be much more scary than any horror flick Hollywood can put out. Some of these stories are extremely short, and others longer. It is for that reason, I have placed them into two blogs–the one here and the next one, Go Home And Change Your Shorts Stories–Second Pair. And to all of my fellow officers that say that they have never had the crap scared out of them at times, yeah, right. I hope you enjoy these stories with the same excitement I had in experiencing them.
**********************************************************************
It was during my first week in field training when my FTO and I were dispatched in the late evening to a burglary alarm at a gun shop that was closed in the downtown area. It was situated right off of South Main St. just under the South Main St. overpass. We arrived behind the business and parked the cruiser under the overpass. As we approached the rear of the building, we checked access points there and began walking up the north side of the business. I slowly turned the corner in front and shined my flashlight in the darkness through the glass window. At that moment, I got an instant boost of adrenaline and, falling back on my training, I instantly reached for my sidearm. The reason– there was a man in kneeling position dressed all in green camouflage with a rifle pointing directly at me. Just before I pulled my Beretta out of the holster, my FTO grabbed my right wrist and yelled, “Stop!! It is only a mannequin!!!” Then he started cracking up laughing. I guess he wanted to see what reaction I would have. It took me a little while to get my breathing and heart rate down. The next time we worked the day shift, we spoke to the owner of the shop and let him know that his dummy almost suffered being double tapped. He immediately took the mannequins out of the window and repositioned them . I reckon it would take a real dummy to point a weapon at a police officer.
**********************************************************************
This occurred close to the end of my first year as a Suffolk Police Officer. One late afternoon, I was parked in a lot speaking to a fellow officer regarding what he wanted enforcement activity he wished to get involved in that night, when we heard a fellow officer had just pulled over a stolen vehicle with at least four occupants inside. We immediately turned on our emergency equipment (lights and sirens) and took off toward his location. While heading up the two lane highway, we were approaching an intersection where we had the right of way and the roads to the right and left of us had a stop sign. As soon as I entered the intersection, a lady driving a Ford F-350 pickup truck ran the stop sign and T-boned me on the right side of my cruiser. I was knocked out immediately when that occurred. The rest of what happened came from the officer that was traveling behind me.
Once the collision occurred, my body went to the right onto the passenger seat.Both vehicles became airborne, where my vehicle split the utility pole there in half. The top of the utility pole snapped down on the top of my cruiser knocking off my light bar. When both vehicles hit the ground, the F-350 truck rolled on top of the passenger side crushing it. The truck then rolled back, righting itself.
While I was still unconscious, my partner ran to my vehicle, panicking attempting to open the door to get me out of the vehicle. I woke up briefly where I remembered hearing him screaming my name. From his perspective, he saw smoke inside of the vehicle and believed the vehicle was on fire. Later, he realized that what he saw wasn’t smoke, but the fine powder that is expelled into the air when air bags are deployed. The powder is sort of a dry lubricant in order to deploy quickly. I had to be cut out with the Jaws of Life, and thank you to all the brave firefighters that helped me that day! My partner ended up having to go home that evening to process what he went through. I guess this is his shorts story. Thank you, my friend. I have never forgotten you show of concern and bravery that day.
Now whether or not I needed to change my shorts after the crash, I was spared that knowledge of possibly soiling myself since in the ambulance they cut off all of my clothing. They wrapped my in the sheets and then transported me to the landing zone for Nightingale. I woke up briefly again in the helicopter and being told my the nurse on board that I was in a severe accident but that I should be okay. The paramedics at the scene did not know if I had brain or internal injuries. Thankfully, I only ended up with a concussion and severe soreness. I was out of work for a couple of months recuperating.
My chief at the time went to the scene first and spoke with my partner and the officer investigating the crash. With that information, he came to the emergency room and let me know that he had already spoken to the officers and that he was going to clear me from the crash, so I didn’t have to worry about anything but getting well and coming back. That was a load off of my mind, for at that time I couldn’t remember what happened. Thanks Chief!
Now, I think it’s important to say that my wife had no knowledge of what had happened. I was told that during the chaos of the scene, someone had failed to phone her and tell her that her husband was in a crash. However, what took place in our home at that very moment I suffered the crash could only be God who prepared her for what she was about to learn.
You’ll have to understand my wife to realize why this event was so significant. She is a private person who does not like being in public by herself with people she does not know. She very rarely will even go to the grocery store by herself. But at the very moment I was in the crash she had looked at the clock at home and it was verified at that exact moment she felt a need to go to the grocery store. So she showered, got dressed, and as she was putting on her shoes, she even marveled to herself on why she was doing this, since I would be off tomorrow and she could have waited until then.
When a fellow officer in particular heard that I was involved in the crash, he came in on his day off and volunteered to pick up my wife and bring her to the hospital. He assumed she already knew and was waiting on him. At the time she was putting the key into the door (yeah, back then those richer than me had key fobs), when she saw out of the corner of her eye a white vehicle pulled in front of the driveway. When the officer exited, she looked at him and he asked, “Do you want to go with me?” Now, just imagine if you were getting into your car and a cop jumped out of his cruiser asking that question. All she could say was, “What?” He replied, “Didn’t someone call you about Jonah?” She told him no, and he told her to jump in and he would tell her on the way. He could not tell her how I was because at that time he didn’t know.
When they walked into the lobby of the emergency room, my wife told me that there were so many police officers in there they had to ask a lot of them to leave. That is another thing that I will never forget. Thanks guys!! But what took place next was probably a shorts story from the officer that transported my wife. Two men came from the back and were approaching them. Thankfully, my wife only recognized the Chief. The other man who the officer knew well was the departmental chaplain. His heart dropped, believing that they were about to make a death notification. However, to the relief of my wife and the officer they told her that I would be okay.
I stayed in the ICU just for observation that night with Vicky beside me. She stayed the night with me and, when the nurses told me they had to make sure I was ambulatory before I left, I got up and was walking, albeit at the speed of a fast snail. My wife was there to steady me. Thank you sweetie for then and for everything you mean to me!
That same officer with his wife, who was also working as a police officer in Suffolk, showed up in the morning to take us both home. Thanks guys!
Thanks to God for looking out for me and getting me back to complete my career!
**********************************************************************
One evening, a few of us officers were on a foot chase with someone that had run from my traffic stop. We ran down this path and one of the officers tackled him and was placing cuffs on him. I had just ran through a spider web and trying to get the webs off of me when the suspect was being secured. I grabbed him and stood him up. Immediately, he tried to run from me while I had my hand grabbing his arm. I asked, ” And where do you think you’re going?” He yelled back, “Naw, man, look!!!” The other officers shined their flashlights on me and their eyes got wide. I looked down to see the largest spider I had ever seen sitting on my chest looking up at me. And I’m saying it’s the largest I had ever seen, and I used to work in pest control at one time. I guess it wasn’t too happy I destroyed its dinner table.
One of the officers told me to be still, he then deployed his baton and used it to flick the critter off of my chest. We wasted no time getting back to our vehicles. I have never seen an arrested subject so eager to get into the back of my cruiser before. I can’t talk. I was in the driver’s seat in about 1 1/2 seconds after I secured him in the back seat.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++
PROTECT YOURSELF AND YOUR FAMILY–CLICK THE PHOTO BELOW NOW AND EQUIP THEM WITH THE BEST SELF-DEFENSE PRODUCTS ON THE MARKET!!
