TGIF

Well I made it through another week and man was my Friday busy!
The entire city went crazy with calls. I went to 23 different types of incidents during my 10 hour shift, but the good thing is the day went by super fast. The hard part is that when you run on high octane all day long you hit a lull afterward and just feel like crashing out on the couch. But I had to go work off duty at a night club until 0230 hrs. Needless to say I was wiped out big time!
There was a break in the storm for a few minutes so my partner and I ducked into Taco Time for a quick bite to eat, but quick was an understatement. Just as we get our food a call comes out as a blocking accident only 2 blocks away. We were short on traffic officers (remember the mean guys on motorcycles) who handle accidents so we thought we were going to get stuck taking the call. We stand up and look out the window and don’t see any accident so we let dispatch know it’s not blocking so we don’t have to go. Whew! We dodged that bullet…. So we thought! On a side note, I feel a little guilty sometimes because here someone gets into an accident and all I think about is chowing down my #4 with chicken, no tomatoes and sub olives. Hey let’s be honest, those mexi-nuggets rock! Anyway, dispatch gets back on the air and says one of the vehicles is taking off. Now it’s a hit-n-run. The fleeing vehicle is a big white van (great, another kidnapper van) headed east bound right towards us. We stand up and see it drive right by Taco Time so my partner and I look at each other like should we or shouldn’t we. So we do a quick cop version of rock, paper, scissors and off my partner goes. I’m stuck bagging up our food when my partner radios that the vehicle isn’t stopping. I now have the decision to keep bagging the food or possibly miss a pursuit. Well there is no way I’m going to miss a pursuit so I have the cashier bag our food and off I go. Well the guy eventually drives home and then gives up. But he is tanked! He blew over twice the legal limit and went to the clink. Hey, maybe that could be a new slogan… “If you drive and drink, you’ll go to the clink!” Then again maybe not. And as four my #4 with chicken, it was all soggy and the nuggets were soft. Bum deal, huh?! Maybe I should ask the court for reimbursement when this guys goes to trial?
Well the rest of the shift was call after call and I was happy to end my day because I worked my tail off. Bye the way, where does that saying come from? If you know please let me know.
Moving on…. I remember one of the last times I was that busy and I decided to stop by McDonald’s on the way home from work. The van in front of me pulls into the lot and I see two teens kick the side of the van. But the van leaves and never stops so I go through the drive-thru. I’m like the third car back when the same teens run by me and up to the car ordering food. At first I thought they knew the driver but all of a sudden one of the teens punches the driver. I see the wife get out of the car and she looks really scared. The driver gets out and is trying to call 911 and the teens are up in his face big time. Seriously, can you imagine being with your family and two punks come up and jack you up? It is just so wrong and unfair that these guys get to ruin someone’s day like that. Well I get out of my car and take out my badge and yell for them to stop. They turn and look at me like how dare I interrupt their punk session and one of them charges right at me. Mistake #1, don’t get between me and my food. Mistake #2, don’t take on a defensive tactics instructor unless you are a stud. So the guy shouts out some profanities and tries to punch me. I block the punch and grab him and then I throw him up against the wall. Then I slam him down on the ground WWF style. The guy then scurries away. I guess he wasn’t as tough as he thought. But then out of the corner of my eye I see the other guy come at me so I grab him and knock him to the ground. I jump on top of him and tenderize him a bit until the on duty police arrive. While I was waiting I see another guy behind me so I turn and there is this guy who says “Hey, I’m just watching your back man. I see you got things covered.” Well the police arrive and the wife is telling my buddies what happened. She was crying and saying that these mean guys came up and punched her husband and then this cop comes over and starts throwing the bad guys around like the “incredible hulk”. At that moment my buddies look over and I just smile and shake my head like “yep, I’m the man!” It was pretty funny. And I got to put in overtime for it too! And as for the guy who “had my back”, without either of us knowing he was invited to a men’s camping trip for our church and he said that he thought I looked familiar and we ended up putting two and two together. Now Marty is a member of our church and we laugh about this story from time to time. God is really cool, huh?! What a small world. =)