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Block Robbery Spree.
Friday was starting out fairly slow.
I showed up to our Mini-Station, met up with the squad and had a bite to eat.
The plan for the day? We were going to watch a drug hole. I didn’t bring a change of clothes so I was in my usual raid/jumpout getup. Not the most comfortable or concealable outfit, but its functional and I have all my gadgets on me.
This particular hole was a large apartment complex that had a large grassy field on one side and a train station on the other.
I normally lay down in the brush of the field with Binoculars and watch the back of the hole while another person on the squad sits at the train station and observes the other side. As a team, we’ll call out the buyers and sellers and the other units hidden around the area will snatch them up a few blocks away from the hole as to not alert our sellers until we’re ready to ‘jump’ the hole and grab them.
It was dark outside and I had my radio fairly low, set to the tactical channel my unit works off of. My Cruiser was parked half a block away in someones back yard. After calling out several buyers I started getting bored. Half way through calling out another buyer, my LT cut me off.
“Reference an Armed Robbery that just went out on Main, I see the subject running east bound on 79ST from NW 27AVE!!”
The LT drives an unmarked police car and has the luxury of two police radios. One, with the main channel so he can hear the normal calls for service and the other set to the tactical channel we operate off of.
I cussed to myself quietly as I stood up from my hidden spot in the field, effectively being spotted by the sellers who immediately grabbed their stashes and ran indoors. Burned another good spot.
I ran to my Cruiser and got in, hauling ass the few blocks over I needed to be.
By the time I got there, the bulk of my unit had a perimeter setup.
I knew this block. I’d caught a few people who ran through hidden breaks in fences here near a field between two houses on the south side of the block.
Male, wearing all black with a black firearm. That’s the description I got from the LT after talking to him on the length of the perimeter. K9 was not available and normally would be called out for something like this. Unfortunately, the bad guy had a gun so waiting for the Helicopter wasn’t really feasible. Basically, we had to grab him on our own.
The block we had him contained in had 10 plots of land with 9 houses. 5 plots on the north half of the block, sharing backyards with 9 houses and an empty field on the south. The empty field was in the middle of the row.
Each backyard was heavily entrenched with foliage and no lighting. Not even the street lights worked.
I walked up to one of the guys in my unit that wasn’t on a perimeter point and asked him to come with me and hand search the yards, he agreed and we started the search.
I had my firearm out, mounted light on, which to some may not be a good idea tactically, but in reality, the bad guy is hunkered down somewhere where he can see you and you can’t see him so the light is really a moot point. I need to see, because unlike the bad guy, I’m actually searching for someone who I have no idea where they could be.
My squad mate was behind me by 20 feet or so, just in case the guy had a good angle on me.
I got to a certain part in the fence line just east of the empty field when I heard the metal fence 15-20 feet away from me clank together. I immediately pointed my gun at the noise and saw the subject standing top of the fence, grasping at the top of a nearby shed. I ran towards him, holstering my firearm and as I got up to the fence, I saw him jump from the roof of that shed, over the fence of the backyard east of the house he was at.
Crap.
I followed suit. Rolling as I landed, when I regained my footing I saw him hoping the fence south of us and he started running back through that backyard, west.
The hell was this guy thinking?
I again, followed him, jumping the fence and going west.
I guess this guy was lost because he cleared the west fence of that house and then started north again, jumping on top of the first fence and back onto the roof.
We just made a complete square in these backyards… and this guy was going for lap 2.
My squad mate couldn’t see us in the brush and just kept hearing fences rattle until finally the subject didn’t land so well from that shed on his third jump.
He hit the ground with a thud and my partner grabbed him. I landed and threw my cuffs on the guy.
I had no idea where the gun was, because it sure wasn’t on this fella.
Gah. I got on the tactical channel and advised we had the subject in custody and the Robbery Detective came out to the scene.
He talked to the Victim, did the showup and the Victim positively ID’d this subject as the man that robbed her at gun point.
The Subject even had her property in his pockets still.
I took him down to headquarters for questioning by the detective. Apparently, this guy did a number of armed robberies and was also wanted for homicide. The detectives at headquarters praised my ‘catch’ and its always good to hear from co-workers that you did a good job.
Then I had to transport my subject to the jail hospital, reference injuries he sustained while ‘running from the police’.
I got out a few hours late that night. I was covered in grass stains, my stainless steel gun had dirt packed everywhere, to include the barrel. I cleaned up and my wife made a great dinner.
The next day I showed up at work knowing it was our administrative day. The last day of our work week was mainly spent doing paperwork that we didn’t do the whole week. Reports, worksheets, ect.
I went back out to look for the gun that I didn’t find last night in the dark, while it was day light out. Even in full light, the foliage was just to much to see into. I didn’t find a thing, so I did what any good cop would do after being let down.
I ate at a little hole in the wall restaurant. It reminds me of some South American country. I had my favorite, a chicken steak with red beans, rice and plantains. To top it off, I had some excellent Columbian coffee with the owner. We were talking about things in general, as I eat there pretty much every day of the week or at least stop by for coffee.
A few hours later an Armed Robbery went out over the Main channel, exactly where I got the guy in custody the night prior.
This time, when one of my squad mates got to the scene, the victim was a guy in a car. The victim said a fat guy, at least 300lbs, robbed him in his car at gun point and told him to “drive off and don’t look back”.
The fat guy, standing on the side of the road, robbed someone in a car. Amazing.
I headed for the area and just as I arrived down the street the guy on my squad advised over the tactical channel that he saw the subject and was chasing him east bound into a house. The subject slammed the door on my squad mate as I pulled up.
The squad mate yelled to me, “Dash, he’s inside, lets grab him”.
I popped my trunk, grabbing my Benelli M4 Shotgun and rushed to the door of the house.
As I got to the door, two more guys on my unit showed up and we got into a 4 person ‘stack’ outside of the door.
I had the firepower, so I was lead.
The detective that saw the subject run into the house kicked the door in and moved to the side. He would end up at the rear of the stack.
I rushed in, immediately seeing a guy in the room we entered, which happened to be a kitchen. I ordered the guy to the floor and he dropped like a rock. The second detective in the stack took that guy into custody and the three of us remaining moved on through the house to clear it.
As I breached into the next room, which was the living room, the subject was sitting on the couch watching TV, pretending that we didn’t exist. Amazing.
He was massively fat, wearing exactly what the victim described and his fat body was not only dripping with sweet, but he was panting heavily as if out of breath.
I ordered him to the ground and upon his making eye contact with the opposite side of a 12 Gauge, he threw himself on the floor.
The other two detectives cuffed him and from where I was standing I could see his bedroom, or at least what looked like a bedroom.
The door was open and on the bed was a gun, jacket and a stack of money.
Bingo.
We called out the Robbery Detectives again, who came out and did their thing.
This time I didn’t have to take this guy down, as I only helped with the apprehension.
Apparently, the Fat guy was also lazy. He committed the Robbery 3 houses away so he could walk home and not jump any fences or have to run from the police. Motivated fella.
Two days, Two badguys, Same block.
Needless to say, we’re lucky none of us got hurt.
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