About 10:30am in the morning on August 16 we received a report of a bank robbery in progress. We arrived shortly after the robber left the scene and had a look at the surveillance video.

The criminal had no type of cover over her face, nothing to disguise her appearance. Since we had the suspect’s face on camera, we alerted all officers to be on the lookout for the robber. We got a report about 3 hours later from a local used car dealership that the suspect was just in there buying a used vehicle with the money she stole from the bank.

Since she bought the car the dealership had all the info they needed on her, including her home address and the name and address of her employer.

We visited her work place and, behold, she was at her workplace doing her job. She was even nice enough to have driven to work in the used car she bought with the stolen money.

One night my partner and I were in the driveway of an informant, waiting for her to come home. A young man arrived, wanting to see the same person. We told him we were there looking for some “coke.”

We struck up a conversation with the guy, who convinced us he could get us some coke from his dealer. He made the call, and we all agreed to meet a few miles away. The third party arrived. We watched as our friend met the dealer and brought the coke back to us.

As my partner and I watched the deal go down, I rummaged through my partner’s glove box until I found a package of headache powder, and opened it into the palm of my head. My partner asked about my headache, but I was fine. I told him to just play along.

Our new found friend brought us the bag, and as I expected immediately began begging for part of the “score” as payment for his troubles.

Departmental regulations, and state law did not allow me to deliver cocaine to another person. I told our friend that I had no bag, or I’d gladly give him a share. Before you could bat an eye, he produced the wrapper off his cigarettes. Under the street lights, inside my partner’s car, the guy could not see that well, but watched with great expectation as I held the bag of cocaine over the cellophane, and began dropping headache powder from the palm of my hand. He could not believe how generous I was. After thanking me many times we parted ways.

The guy made the mistake of giving his real name, but it didn’t matter. I knew him from an arrest a year prior while working in uniform.

After our undercover operation we had been working on was finished we stopped by our friend’s house with a warrant for sale and delivery of cocaine. He didn’t think he should be charged because that stuff was so “lousy” anyway.

He and his source were convicted.

Anyone who has driven one of the older model Ford Escorts, especially the standard shift models, knows that while they are reliable cars, they are definitely not noted for rapid acceleration or high top speed.

One day, in my hometown of Northville, New York, a friend of mine was driving his Ford Escort - just a bit too fast. Seeing that he was about to be pulled over and cited, he decided to TRY and outrun the police officer.

He forgot two important things:

1) A Queen Victoria will invariably accelerate more rapidly and have a higher top speed than your average Ford Escort.

2) Every road leading out of the town goes UPHILL.

Needless to say, he was caught rather easily and, as a result, was charged not only with speeding, but reckless driving and resisting arrest.

Police say a young man left a Stafford County grocery store Tuesday afternoon with cigarettes he didn’t pay for.

But something the man left behind—his identification—ended any mystery police may have had about who he was.

Justin Michael Smarr, 19, of Stafford was charged with shoplifting after police stopped a vehicle he was riding in shortly after the alleged incident.

Sheriff Charles Jett said deputies had no problem recognizing Smarr because he’d left identification with a clerk at the Food Lion store on Garrisonville Road in North Stafford.

According to Jett, Smarr entered the Food Lion at 905 Garrisonville Road at 1 p.m. and went straight to the cigarette section.

An employee saw him place three packs in his pocket and carry one to the checkout counter, Jett said.

As the clerk asked for identification to see if Smarr was old enough to purchase cigarettes, the employee who’d witnessed the alleged theft approached.

Jett said Smarr became flustered, then said he had to go home because he’d forgotten his money.

Smarr walked briskly to the exit and began running toward a waiting car once he got outside, Jett said.

A lookout for the vehicle was given and Deputy C.W. Reed, who was off duty, spotted it on Walt Whitman Boulevard, about four miles from the Food Lion.

Reed stopped the vehicle and detained Smarr and the other car occupant until Sgt. Michael Jenkins arrived.

Jenkins interviewed Smarr and learned that he’d tossed the allegedly stolen cigarettes out of the window when Reed turned around to pursue him.

He also told Jenkins that he didn’t realize his identification was missing until he got to the car. By then, he apparently decided it wasn’t worth going back to get it.

The missing cigarettes were recovered, Jett said.

Story courtesty of the Fredericksburg, Virginia Free Lance Star

Some years back I responded to a 911 call for help. The call originated from a 7-Eleven store that was closed at the time. When we entered, we discovered a subject lying on the floor with a broken leg. He told us that he had been locked in by mistake, and was trying to get out by leaving through the ceiling. He said he had fallen through the drop ceiling and broke his leg. He then called 911 for help.

There was only one problem. When we checked the roof of the business, we found that he had broken in through the air conditioning. As he was moving around in the ceiling area, he fell through and was injured. He was forced to call 911.

One night two years ago I was heading home on the freeway, operating my 1995 Honda ACE. I was dressed in riding attire which includes black leather jacket, chaps and gloves. I certainly did not look anything like what you would expect a police officer to look like. I was nearly halfway home when, in my rear-view mirror, I observed a vehicle only a few feet off my right saddlebag.

Fearing of a collision, I accelerated out of his way. The vehicle accelerated past me, but once by me, I could tell the driver must be quite intoxicated, as he was taking up two lanes, nearly colliding with several other vehicles in the process. As I was on my motorcycle there was very little I could do except watch and assist if disaster occurred.

Just before we got to my freeway exit, I was overtaken by another motorcycle, and observed him and the suspect vehicle take the same exit I was. As both vehicles entered the corner, I observed the car (that was in the right lane ) start to lose control, and started drifting into the lane occupied by the motorcycle. The operator of the motorcycle sees the vehicle coming into his lane and slows down. The vehicle glances off the guard rail, then bounces back into the right lane and continues on.

This quite clearly angered the motorcycle rider, he came alongside the vehicle that had now slowed to approx 25 mph and shared his feelings to the driver, that included all the usual gestures and foul language.

As this portion of the off ramp is straight and flat, and speeds were quite slow I thought I would attempt to have the driver pull over and stop. I didn’t think he would believe I was a police officer, but it was worth a try. I pulled up alongside of him just as the other motorcyclist was pulling away, I motioned him to roll down the window, which he did. I then identified myself as a police officer, and told him to pull he vehicle to the side of the road. Much to my surprise, he did.

While still on my motorcycle I asked him to turn off the engine and step out of the vehicle, which he did. As this area is unlit I cautiously got off my bike and approached the driver. On approach it was very clear this person was quite intoxicated, but without any assistance, or a phone I was extremely limited on my options. I considered just taking the keys and turning them over to the nearest RCMP office, at least this would keep this person off the road for the time being.

As a last resort I asked the driver if he by chance had a cell phone on him. Much to my surprise, he fumbled around, found his phone, then turned it on for me, and handed it to me. He even reassured me the battery was charged. I immediately phoned 911 where I was patched into the local RCMP office where, by coincidence, my wife was working in the radio room, as a dispatcher for the drinking driver counter attack program.

A patrol car was immediately dispatched to my location where the driver was arrested and his car towed. Breath tests were conducted on him, finding he was over twice the legal limit. Obviously the amount of liquor he had consumed not only affected his ability to drive, but he wasn’t smart enough to conceal the fact he had a phone.

If he had not offered his phone to me, the worst that would have happened would have been a walk home!

I am a field training officer with the Nevada Highway Patrol in Carson City, Nevada. At about 10:30 one night, my trainee and I were on a traffic stop beside a side entrance to one of the local casinos. As I watched the trainee complete the citation, an obviously intoxicated man staggered out of the casino. He made eye contact with me then stumbled across the sidewalk to the curb.

He looked both ways then crossed the street, heading towards the parking lot by walking between the patrol unit and the violator vehicle.

I pointed to the man and told the trainee, “There is your DUI for the night, hurry up.”

We quickly finished the traffic stop and drove through the parking lot looking for the man. As we drove past a black Ford Ranger, the truck started.

Sure enough, it was the drunk guy. We quickly turned around to contact him before he left the parking lot. By the time we turned around, he was driving out of the parking lot. We made a traffic stop on the truck, and administered the field sobriety tests to the driver. He didn’t perform very well and was arrested for DUI.