More Fun

I used to work night shift on this really shitty beat. We referred to the various crappy apartment buildings by just their street numbers - no street names - and we all knew where we were talking about. It was that bad.

I drove by the very crummiest of them one night in a raging snowstorm. There was an unoccupied car idling at the curb, headlights on. On a hunch, I ran the plate and it came back as stolen. I called it in and confirmed the stolen status, then darked out and parked a block or so away, waiting for backup. I wasn't parked 30 seconds when 2 people came out, got in the car, and drove off.

My plan was to just keep them in sight until backup arrived, but they must have seen me. They whipped into another apartment parking lot, skidded to a stop, and the driver got out. I pulled in behind them, lights and siren going, and expecting the driver to run, but he didn't. I jumped out and got him and the passenger, who was still in the car, at gunpoint. I radioed in my status, and asked any backup to step it up. As it turned out, the closest cop who wasn't tied up on something else was miles away.

I remember standing there in the horizontal blowing snow, no coat on, holding the guy at gunpoint for what seemed like forever. He kept telling me how cold he was, and how bad he needed to get back in the car to get warm. I could just visualize this jackass backing up over me to get away, so I told him in no uncertain terms that if he moved I'd shoot him. That seemed to do the trick.

Finally, I could hear my backup's siren, and he arrived shortly thereafter. We took the driver and passenger into custody. It turned out, the car had been stolen in a home invasion robbery in a nearby city, and the passenger had a boatload of warrants.

Not a bad snag.