Give Back Accordingly – An Eye For An Eye

[su_dropcap style=”flat”]I[/su_dropcap]T WAS A LATE night shift that I decided to take to help out with vacation schedules and attrition. Most of the guys on my shift were still leery of whether or not I had what it took to do the job on the streets, and I was keenly aware of that. I had already been cut loose and on my own as a single unit for nearly 6 months.

The call came out of a possible prowler at a residence in the nearby neighborhood, where many of the local gangs hung out and as the assigned officer I responded. I pulled onto the street, shut down my headlights and went dark, a safety measure my FTO had taught me while I was in training, also to park a few houses down from the actual location.

The street was quiet and dark, with the exception of the cats that scurried across the streets as I approached. I had asked for a back up, not knowing what I would encounter, and it is never wise to investigate a prowler call alone. My backup arrived and we both approached the residence, my partner taking the back while I took the front.

After several minutes, it was determined that the residence was clear, no signs of a prowler and my partner and I parted ways with little conversation.

I was always taught to lock my vehicle, and never forgot that, however, all the units in the field had a master-key that would open any vehicle should there be an emergency to do so. As I unlocked my unit to go 10-8, to clear the call, I felt something tugging on my pant leg. It was dark so I took my flashlight and lit up the floorboard of my drivers’ side. There on the floorboard were 3-4 large crawdads just reaching out with their claws in all directions.

I would have screamed, (as I mentioned in previous posts), I don’t like snakes, or anything that crawls and this was no exception, but instead, the S-word came out of my mouth, and I quickly exited my unit. In doing so, I looked around and saw no other units visible, but realized in an instant what had just happened. The guys were at it again.

I knew also that they were probably not far, watching with binoculars to see what I was going to do, so I decided to get back in the car and drive somewhere as though nothing was wrong to deal with this issue.

I drove to an empty church parking lot where I knew I was in the clear, and going to the trunk of my unit, I grabbed my helmet bag, took out the helmet. I figured I could scoop these puppies into the bag and then figure out from there what I was going to do. I was really pissed in thinking that I still had not earned the trust of the guys I worked with after all the stuff that they had put me through, but I would handle this with the same determination and confidence. The initiation of the new person on the block continues…

As I sat in the car trying to figure out what I needed to do, one of the guys in the nearby district got me on while channel, the channel where officers could communicate back and forth without interrupting dispatch. “Hey” Smith, where are you!” “Headed into the station as soon as the shift is almost over”, was the response; I ‘ll see you then.

I knew he wanted to see if I had experienced the encounter with the crawdads and I was not going to give him the satisfaction.

As the shift ended and I headed into the station, pulling into the stall along with all the other units coming in one at a time, I waited for a bit, pretending I was writing up some last-minute entries before heading into debriefing. When it looked like everything was quiet and all the units had been accounted for, I got out and took the helmet bag with the crawdads out of the trunk of my unit.

I walked downstairs and some of the guys had made it to the locker room by then, so I quickly opened the door and flung the crawdads out of the bag into the dressing area, not caring where they landed. You wouldn’t believe it, but one of the crawdads had his pinchers open and landed on the back buttocks of one of the guys not quiet dressed and as I quickly entered the women’s locker room, I could hear yelling and a few unfavorable words, letting me know what had just happened. A smile crossed my face.

As I was getting dressed, over the loud-speaker came “Officer Smith! Please report to the Watch Commanders Office.” I knew I was in trouble, but ask me if really cared…….

As I finished dressing and made my way upstairs, a few of the guys were leaving and passing me said’ “ nice touch Smith “. When I walked into the W.C.’s office, the familiar “close the door” was made and the door was closed.

Life is not fair in many ways and when things backfire on us, we are left to our own demise. One thing I learned in this line of work is to take and give back accordingly without too much harm, and hoping that God would forgive me for being a little devilish. However, I believe Scripture will make reference to “What goes around, Comes around”.