machine guns and lunch dates

Well, suffice it to say this weekend was hands down the most exciting one of my life! (well, besides the proposal weekend). Let me back up first.

Thursday I had court for my clinic. Thursdays are just "payables." Basically that means there's no judge present and it's the second to last step that gives people a chance to come pay the fine to the prosecutor. Usually they're speeding tickets, driving after suspension, things like that. Fridays are legit court days, judge and all.

Saturday morning was spent hanging out with this little guy. Perfect morning for some window sitting. M was golfing with the guys Saturday morning...

So I had a lunch date with an OLD friend from college. It was nice to catch up with her. This is what I wore: my new F21 dress ($9.50 online!), an old H&M cardigan, and a jade-like necklace from Heritage I believe from last year.

NOW, let's go back to the excitement. Friday night I, along with the other girl that does clinic with me, went on a ride along. The 3rd clinic student goes to the U and for their clinic they HAD to do a ride along. So, we thought it'd be fun to do one as well.

We showed up at the precinct at 9:00 for roll call. We sat in as the sergeant went over bulletins and people to "look out for" so to speak. The "overnight" shift is also known as "dog watch." After roll call the officer I was paired with, "Officer B." got a call about a potential burglary over at a warehouse nearby, the alarm was going off. We walked out to the car and it started to rain pretty good,..and he mentioned that these types of calls are usually nothing especially with the rain like it was. We pull down the street, whip a U-turn to check out the parking lot, and see a black SUV pulling out of the parking lot in front of us. Officer B says "well look at that, we may have something." and he initiates a traffic stop. I will tell you, after watching hundreds upon hundreds of hours of Criminal Minds.. sitting in the front seat as the rain pours down, watching Officer B approach the car (with a hand on his gun, just in case) had my heart SLAMMING in my chest. 2 other squads showed up a few minutes later to check out the scene and see if there was any evidence of a burglary. The man in the car said he was out for a walk on the trails and had parked back there so it was a shorter walk. It's 9:45 on a Friday night and it's pouring. hmmmm, okay. The other officer looked around but saw no evidence of a break in, so they ran the guys license and plates and let him go.

We conducted a few traffic stops after that, but wrote no tickets.

Officer B told me that the dog watch crew tries to meet up at 11:30 at a particular Holiday station for soda. The officers can all instant message each other, in essence, on the computers in their cars. SO, to be funny, Officer B IMed the sergeant on duty to ask if it was "okay" if I came to their secret meeting. I started referring to this as their "secret soda stop." It was about 11:18 so we were going to go to the secret soda stop early,.. we pulled into the parking lot and got a call about an assault at a bowling alley nearby. This was the first time he really flipped on the lights and started to FLY down residential streets. I will tell you this: NOTHING, and I repeat NOTHING is as exhilarating, terrifying, and adrenaline-inducing as going 70 down residential streets in a squad car. We get to the bowling alley and Dude 1 and Chick 1 were saying Dude 2 hit Chick 1 (who was pregnant) in the face. I got out of the squad and was standing there listening. Apparently, Dude 1 said Dude 2 was "stalking him" because Dude 2 accused Dude 1 of sleeping with Dude 2's mom. chicka-whaa? OH and Dude 1 owed Dude 2 money. Chick 1's sister came out and was all "He did WHAT? he hit you" and the cops were like, "don't even, lady." and made her stand out of the way. All in all, no arrests and no charges were filed.

We finish up there around 11:25 and head back over to the Holiday to try our secret soda meeting a second time. We pull in at 11:31, head inside, and Officer B gets a call. All I heard over the radio was "hit and run" and "gun".... Officer B's face gets super serious, he says "let's go." very seriously, and then we run, not walk, out to the car. Did I say my heart was racing during the potential burglary stop? This time it was damn near jumping out my throat. I know things are about to get serious. We're flying around and he's on the radio trying to get more information. [What ended up coming out was this: a toyota was involved in a fender bender with a blue van, the toyota stopped, but the van didn't. Toyota calls dispatch screaming about being involved in a hit and run and that he was following the van. Dispatch told him not to do that. Next thing dispatch hears is the toyota catch up to the van, and the passenger in the van say "just kill them! just kill them!" and the toyota freaking out yelling "he has a gun!"]

We end up over by a very 'trendy' part of town near the lake, and come up behind a teal van. Officer B asks what the plate was, reads off the plate of the van, and dispatch confirmed that the numbers matched. We're the first car there, so Officer B flips on his lights to initiate a traffic stop. In my head I knew it was going to be serious but I wasn't prepared for what happened next....

Officer B opens his door, uses it as a shield, draws his gun and starts yelling "HANDS IN THE AIR." I about shit myself, pardon my french. Next thing I know 4 or 5 other squads are pulling up, forming a V behind the suspect, cops are opening their doors, drawing their guns, and yelling as well. My door flies open (which in this situation almost induced a heart attack) and one of the cops is practically falling on my lap as he uses my door as a shield. (I went to college with the cop, actually...) It's only after I scoot out of the way/onto the console in the middle that I notice the sub-machine gun in his hand. (HOLY F%$# --was my first thought).

Officer B yells, "HANDS OUT THE WINDOW! Open the door from the outside, put your hands in the air, and walk backwards towards the sound of my voice!"... the driver isn't getting out of the car. So Officer B repeats his directions more firmly. The driver puts his hands out the window, opens the door, steps out, and then makes a move like he's about to turn around and face the officers. (my hands are over my face, jaw dropped, as this is going on.. just trying to stay out of the way of the cop that's sitting on my seat with the machine gun). Officer B (and about 3 others) scream "TURN AROUND. HANDS IN THE FUCKING AIR!" oohhhh god oh god oh god oh god- is what I'm thinking.

Finally the idiot does as he's told, and is cuffed on the ground. Officer B then directs my college buddy to "call out" the front passenger. So they tell him the same thing (this one was far more compliant) and he's cuffed. Finally the third and last passenger was taken from the car and cuffed as well. They then formed a shape like this ==> \ , with 3 cops, and tactically moved in to clear the van. They saw some alcohol in the back so that provided probable cause to search the rest of the car for evidence of a crime (oh look, crim pro coming in handy!)

During this, the driver was cuffed and in the back of the squad I was riding in. Officer B was off talking to other officers and searching the car so basically I was sitting in the car alone with the guy, which is when he started trying to TALK TO ME. I was panicking so finally when another cop came by and told me I could get out, I did. Not before I noticed he was on his cell phone back there, somehow, despite being cuffed. So I told one of the cops, who then proceeded to take his phone. They did a sweep of the car no gun was found...also looked in the grass near the area of the stop and couldn't find a gun. Dispatch got ahold of the victim's car and they said they wanted nothing to do with any of it anymore. After 4 unsuccessful attempts to get the driver to blow into a breathalizer (which was INFURIATING the cop, because it was clear the guy was 'faking' it on purpose) the driver only blew a .06. After all that, the officers had nothing to hold any of them on, so we let them go.

Once I stopped shaking I asked Officer B why the stop was treated the way it was, and he said any time there is a report of a gun involved, or a weapon, or the suspect is dangerous, they do that kind of a stop (called a felony stop). We performed a few more stops later in the night.. a DWI that wasn't actually a DWI,... a welfare check on an allegedly suicidal guy- except we only had his address as of 10 years ago. SO we just scared the crap out of a different person at 2:00 a.m. Last, we had a (VERY) drunk guy, who was on dialysis, wandering around the parking lot of a BP at 3:30 a.m., so we waited with him while the ambulance showed up, as he dry heaved (Bleck) and they took him to the hospital.

I highly recommend a ride along to everyone.. It's really a unique experience, and one I'll remember for the rest of my life.

-Kelly