Darya: This Week in Lawrenceville

We haven't been terribly busy this month until last night. And it might as well have been the full moon. I like staying busy, so time is going by quickly.

I think they are going to assign me to the spare car I've been driving this week. It is still a pig-sty. The guy who used to drive it threw his gum wrappers in the passenger side floorboard. I vacuumed a bunch out of there the day I got it. Last Sunday, I was taking a prisoner out of my backseat when I noticed more gum wrappers back there. So I vacuumed those out. On Thursday, there were more back there, so I got them. EVERY day since, I have gotten more gum wrappers out of the back seat floorboard. I guess they had gotten all up under the passenger seat and are working their way out. So I've been giving him a hard time about that. I also have found various items floating around, including a cell phone case, ladies watch, and paperwork. I've been putting the items in his mailbox as I find them. Unfortunately, I won't be here when he comes in on Tuesday and finds them. I thought about going to go over to the Goodwill and see if I can find a gigantic pair of panties and leave them in there for him. But I've been giving him such a hard time, that pay-back is already gonna be hell. I've decided to leave it alone.

I have been surprised by the support of the guys about my car and the oil. Yes, they are giving me a hard time about it. And I was wrong for not checking it. But most have said there has to be more to the situation, since an engine with 6,000 miles on it, that was serviced at 3,000 miles, couldn't lose that much oil without me noticing either oil on the ground, or it smoking.

Friday night, our downtown merchant's association hosted a concert on the historic courthouse grounds. I suppose Shawn Mullins gets lots of air-play in the Atlanta market since he's Georgia-born. I was surprised at the number of people who haven't heard of him or heard his songs. But there was a nice crowd out there, despite the rain early in the evening, and the heat and humidity. They were sedate, polite, and mostly cleaned up after themselves. And traffic wasn't too much of a booger.

After the concert and traffic had thinned, I got to meet him.

Friday's stupid-call-of-the-day was kids pouring water off a balcony onto other kids and their parents called the police. Yesterday, I got my stupid-call-of-the-day right out of the chute. The hospital called us to report a gun-shot wound in the Children's E/R. Here's the kicker: The "weapon" was a kid's plastic pellet gun, and it occurred the day before. The 10-year-old's brother shot him and it scratched his eye. The parents had already disposed of the "toy". They brought him in because his eye was still irritated the next day and wanted to head off infection. I think common sense has just gone out the policy window.

I should've seen what the night was gonna be like.

Next call was given to Mike. A scary-looking female had been arrested at Walmart last week for Shoplifting. They told her never to come back. Well, come back she did. This time, she had stolen a digital camera - apparently she does this frequently - but she dropped her purse as she ran. So I went to back Mike up on that, and it turned into a night-long thing for him. I spent my evening backing him up.

I checked the area for the scary-looking female. I say that because I was looking at a booking photo of her and giving it out to the other units. In the photo, she looks like she's out-of-her-mind crazy, so I said, "She's 5'3", brown hair, scary-looking. 130 lbs, slight build, scary-looking." We went to the address listed for her, and I went to the back door. Mike and the other unit to the front. As they knocked, the back door opened and a black male stepped out. I asked him where "Bertha" was, and she came right out. At that time, my focus was on her, as we didn't' know if she would run. He disappeared. We all entered the apartment and I accompanied her to the upstairs to retrieve the camera. Meanwhile, the guys stayed downstairs and checked to see if the men there were wanted. After we arrested the female and went outside, I said, "Wait! None of them were the one that opened the door!?!" We decided not to pursue it, as we were starting to get busy. Mike had to go back over to the Walmart to get information for his report. I went with him to keep an eye on the prisoner. As I waited, I kept thinking, "Hurry up, Mike! I gotta pee!"

So he finally wraps it up, and I head to headquarters to pee. Right about the time I pulled in the parking lot, they gave out a Domestic. I was fairly close, but I couldn't do anything but go pee, or I wasn't gonna make it. As I was finishing up, they gave me a Suspicious Vehicle call, and the guy that went to the domestic requested his back-up to step it up. Then he went to full-out chasing the crazy guy. Johnny and Aaron were fairly close, thank goodness. I was fixin' to head that way, when they said they had him cuffed. So I went on to my Suspicious Vehicle call. Cleared that, then went to the guys. Turns out, Corey had to fight the guy, ended up pepper-spraying him - which had no effect. He said the guy picked up a big stick, and he ended up drawing down on him. So he (the suspect) dropped the stick, and Corey re-holstered. But it wasn't over. The guy squared off on him, so he used his ASP. Let's just say, the suspect is gonna be hurting today. When Aaron and Johnny got there, they jumped into the fray, not knowing that Corey had used the pepper-spray. So everyone, but me and the Sarge, was on fire. Fortunately, I keep Aloe gel with Menthol and Lidocaine in my trunk. For the officers, not the perps.

So we left there, and headed to Starbucks. The guys had just enough time for a coffee, I had their new frozen lemonades. (YUM!) Then I got a call of a dog locked in a car with no cracked windows, at the movie theater. I got out there and sure enough, some ASSHOLE had left their collie in the car; no water, no air. Animal Control showed up right after I did. But I wasn't able to open the vehicle. So Johnny came out there, and being the car-guy he is, he was able to open the door. Animal Control took possession of the dog, left the owners a nasty-gram, and I left.

About that time, Mike was done at the jail. He had done some checking and the guy that opened the door and disappeared was wanted for Failure to Appear. His perp also told him that there was a LOT more stolen merchandise at the apartment. So we went back over there. This time, the guy was sitting on the sofa. We placed him under arrest. Then the resident of the apartment showed us everything she knew to be stolen in the apartment. There was a lot more stuff in there that I think was stolen, but she didn't admit to. So she took the ride for Theft by Receiving. I transported her for Mike.

When we got to the jail, it was CRAZY! We knew they'd had several - what we call - Deltas. One of which was Corey's guy that fought with him. Delta means they want to fight. The term comes from the old days, 20-30 years ago, when they wanted to run and we had to chase them. Meaning, they took flight. Now it just means anyone that is either giving you trouble, or that you think might give you trouble.

Plus they were packed! I finally dropped off my prisoner, retrieved Mike's handcuffs, and went back in service.

Now it was after 9pm, and since Morning Watch was on duty, we could finally eat dinner. I got there first, got my food, and everyone had finally arrived and started eating when they put out a Code 7 - Back Up - for the Chief and a detective who were in plain-clothes. They had two suspects on the ground, at gunpoint, and were waiting for the county. But they were outside the City Limits and a LONG way away from us. But we started that way, lights and sirens. Fortunately, the County got there quickly and we were cancelled.

Meanwhile, all day long, we had been dealing with a guy that called and said he had been kidnapped in Decatur. His kidnappers apparently let him keep his cell phone, and he was saying they had moved him here and there. We called in the FBI, but they weren't much help. This went on ALL night long. I didn't have anything to do with that call, yesterday. Today, I'm working Dispatch (as I type this) and the guy just called to say that his kidnappers had dumped him in the woods. This call is so fishy! Anyway, I was able to get the guy to go to a street and flag a vehicle down. So our officers are out with him now. It's gonna be interesting to see how this plays out and what the real story is.

We had a couple of Fight calls at a local apartment complex, so that made twice that I got to run "Code" yesterday. Fun!

Just before time to go home, I was checking the fences near the High School. We've been having problem with gang graffiti on the signs, fences and telephone poles in that area. This has been going on for months, and so far, we have caught one of the gangs. They usually hit in the middle of the night, but the damage isn't discovered until the next day. This is especially infuriating for the brass, as it means Morning Watch isn't keeping an eye out. I pulled down into an office complex in the area and discovered a retaining wall had been "tagged." And it was fairly fresh. I could still smell paint fumes. So they can't say we didn't find that one!

This is Aaron decompressing after last night, just before we went home: