Wednesday, April 30, 2008

It's Contagious...

I am convinced there is a "stupid bug" that floats around among my co-workers. Occasionally it will bite someone and they will do something... well... stupid. I can tell you, I am not immune to the effects of this bug.

Some of the symptoms I have personally experienced:

I have left my station keys inside the station. Several times. To the point that I now carry no less than three at any given time while on duty. Same with patrol car keys.

I once took off to a hot call in another officer's patrol car. Fortunately, he was babysitting a prisoner and never knew his car was gone.

I have left the station without my gun. Once. I guarantee that'll never happen again.

I almost left my gun in the gun locker at the county jail once. I remembered it after I got outside to my car.

I took my gun INTO the county jail once. Fortunately, nobody paid any attention to it. Or at least they pretended not to.

I occasionally pull out on a vehicle, and by the time I weave my way through traffic and catch up to the vehicle, I forget just exactly why I was going after them. I have never actually gotten to the driver's window and forgotten though.

I once ran a red light in the middle of the day. In my marked patrol car. With Mrs. "Smith" in the passenger seat. I turned the lights on really fast and honked a hard right turn to make it look good though. I don't think anyone noticed.

Nobody is immune to the stupid bug. Fortunately, it doesn't bite me any more often than it bites most of my co-workers.

11 comments:

Officer Wright said...

Cops, all the time, forget to lock up their gun when they bring a kid in. It's funny with a rookie, because they are always apologetic, but a veteran officer and a veteran hall staff can get into a pretty good argument once in a while.

Murphy's Law said...

My best one is locking the keys in the patrol car, with the engine running and a prisoner in the cage.

Fortunately she was too drunk to notice and the tow truck was already on scene to take her car, so I was able to get him to pop the lock real quick and didn't have to do as others have had to do--call back to the station for another key while praying that the spare set for that car wasn't missing.

Front Porch Society said...

Had to chuckle. I remember a few years back when I worked as a Reserve Officer with another department. The officer who was my assigned partner and I had to deliver a prisoner to the county jail. We get to the jail, he puts his gun in the locker box, we drop off the prisoner, and then go back on duty. 2 hours later our shift ends and we are getting ready to head to our personal cars when I notice and remember that my partner has not had his gun on him for the 2 hours because he forgot it in the jail locker box! He was so NOT happy when I pointed this out to him. We never told a soul...we just got in his truck and drove up to the jail to get it and went on our way. To this day, we never told anyone!! (well, except for me telling you now)

Mrs. "Smith" said...

I noticed...as I recall, I even said,"It's red!", just before you went through it. It was a good cover-up, though, I'll give you that.
;)

Unknown said...

That is not so funny. I think the same bug bit me.

Anonymous said...

I have been bitten by the same bug.
I work for the D.O.C. There was a case where an oficer working the mess hall walked off and left his radio setting.A offender as a joke pushed the man down button. That created a big problem.The officer went to the bathroom.Need less to say the Captn. was ticked.

TheBronze said...

LOL! I've done #3 (modified), #5 and #7.

#3 During a T-Stop, did my inital approach to the car w/ my Roscoe still in the trunk from booking a prisoner.

#5 went into the jail w/ everything but my Roscoe.

#7 drove right through it because I wasn't paying attention.

#3 and #7 were both with my FTO!

Honestly, I don't know why anyone uses a lock-box at the jail when you can just put it in the trunk.

Officer "Smith" said...

Yes, dear. I believe your exact words were "It's red. It's RED! IT'S RED!!!!" before I realized you were talking about the light. And thank you, I tried to at least make it LOOK good.

And yes Bronze, I normally do lock the pistola in the trunk, but when they were working on our jail we had to park the cars outside the sally port, so I took my gun in and locked it in the lockbox.

Kojak said...

Hey, I have to admit guilt to alsmost all of those. I am notorious for typing on this stupid computer, kinda like I am doing now.and either running off the road, coming to close to hitting another car while typing, and of course running the occaisional Red light. I don't know what I am going to do when I retire next month, guess I'll be gettin a few tickets!!! Hey I know I'll just run they won't chase me anyway...

Ohhh, on a side note did you get your package?

TheBronze said...

Smitty,

Just to be clear, the comment about the trunk wasn't at you, just in general.

Jeff said...

Hey you have nothing to worry about I'm really very envious. I only get bitten by the common sense bug.
My life is full of errors but now and then I get something right.