I was working in the northern most patrol area. Unusual for me. This patrol area contained million dollar houses (in the 80’s) and areas being ‘Gentrified’ because of the ‘Relatively’ new Metro Subway station.
I was used to working farther down south where the all of the bars and ‘working girls’ were located.
This area had Chinese ‘Tongs’ or gangs, black gangs, prostitutes, Lawyers and politicians. The ‘Beltway’ or US I495 (The 495 for you Californians) was the northern border of the patrol area. Then the City Of Alexandria.

It had already been a stellar night.
It was midnight shift, 2100-0700.
I had only been ‘On the street’ about an hour when I stopped by a local ‘Stop and Rob’ (7/11). To get my first dose of nightly caffeine.
The store appeared empty, and the door was locked.
I took out my ‘tonfa’ (side handle baton), and rapped loudly on the double doors metal frame.
I then waited a couple of minutes.
This store was on a busy neighborhood street.
Not a good thing.
I called dispatch. “Scout…. 220 Adam”
“220 Adam, go!”
“I’m at ——- could you please contact the manager, tell them the door is locked and the store appears empty.” I then provided dispatch with the managers name and phone number from a placard in the window. (No cell phones yet)
Dispatch responded about 3-4 minutes later. The manager was quite a distance away as was the district manager. This was a 24hr store. I was given permission to force the door if I could do so with out major damage.
Whatever…
I took my tonfa, hooked it through the right doors metal handle, and pulled.
Luckily the dumbass didn’t properly secure the left door of the double doors (the stationary one) when he locked it.
With a little creaking, the two doors began bowing out in the middle, where the ‘bolt’ locking the door was located.
The bolt, and the hole into which it was secured, bent and gave way with a satisfying ‘snap!’.
Well, these doors won’t lock anymore…
The glass was still intact though.
“Scout…. 220 Adam.”
“220 Adam go!”
I’m entering the store and conducting a search.”
“10-4 220 Adam”
That would or should cause 210, and 230 Adam to slowly start heading my way.
If the crap hit the oscillating rotator, they would be faster to respond.
I drew my revolver, and entered the store.
I slowly walked the entire common area looking down each aisle.
I then entered the ‘cooler’, nothing.
I went into the ‘back’ storage room, which also appeared empty. There was a single door, in the rear of the storage area.
It was the bathroom, I checked the door, it was locked.
“Scout… 220 Adam”
“220 Adam go!”
“I’ve searched the premises with no success. I am now at the bathroom door, which is locked. I am going to ‘force’ the door.”
“10-4 220 Adam”
With that, I raised my right size 14, and kicked the door.
It burst open forcefully and slammed into the sink.
I found the clerk.
He was on the floor, in front of the commode.
It appeared as if he was sitting on the toilet (fully clothed), and fell forward on his knees, with his head resting on the floor. His pants full of shit.
He had a belt around his left biceps, and a hypodermic still in his arm. The hypo contained a mixture of his blood and whatever substance he was shooting up.
They like to push and pull the plunger to mix the heroin with their blood prior to pushing the plunger all of the way.
It’s a very weird sexual thing.
He was cold, he’d been dead for about an hour.
“Scout… 220 Adam”
“220 Adam go!”
“Please be advised that the clerk has been located and he is deceased. It appears as if he overdosed, start ‘ID’, and ‘The Coroner.”
I would wait around until an employee arrived, ID was finished processing the scene, and the body was removed.

It was now around 0100 hrs.
I was called to assist a rescue squad with a individual thought to be on PCP.
I arrived and observed a fire truck, a crash truck, and a rescue squad (Ambulance).
I hit the lights, exited the cruiser and walked over the “Brightly Lit” scene. Firemen will use any damn excuse to play with their toys…

I stood there and observed a white male in his late 20’s to early 30’s. Stoned to the gills.
The boy had ‘tried’ to knock on the center pane of a nine glass pane door.
He had forgot his keys…
Well, PCP does strange stuff to folks. He put his whole arm through the glass…
That probably wasn’t the bad part.
Taking it back out was the bad part.
Sliced it from his elbow to his wrist.
Badly..
He was bleeding to death, standing there.
He wouldn’t get into the Rescue Squad.
He refused.
The EMT had his (Mr. Sunshine’s) right forearm wrapped in a sheet.
So I was just watching, then a Battalion Chief noticed me. He demanded that I ‘do’ something before ‘Mr Sunshine’ bled to death.
“What do you suggest?
I can shoot him.
I can smack him up side the head and split it wide open.
Although, I can’t make him get in the vehicle unless I arrest him… What has he done?”
That was not the correct answer as I would later find out, not that I was wrong…
I just made him look like an ass.

“Why don’t you let him bleed until he passes out?” I suggested
That statement had the aerodynamics of a cinder block.
I received dirty looks from all present…
I guess that won’t work.

I’m intelligent, I like to think…
I looked around and realized Mr. Sunshine sure as hell didn’t own any of these places. A 1950’s neighborhood whose original owners were in their 60s.

“Hey Bright eyes!!! Over here!!!”
I clapped and snapped my fingers…
“Gary! Gary!” He stammered at me.
“Well Gary, whom do you live with? Whom were you trying to get, to let you in?” I asked (yes, that’s how I speak)
“Mama…” he said
“Holy Crap Gary!!! Do you want Mama to come home and find you dead in a damn puddle of blood here on the street?!?”

Yeah…
I was loud.
I might have yelled a ‘wee’ bit.
That shit didn’t go over well with the Battalion Chief either…
Gary got with the program though.
His stoned ass got in the Squad.
I then followed them to the Hospital.
When they got him into the Emergency room, I thought “All right! Hot fresh coffee and I can sit here and write this abortion up.”
Nope…
“Help!!! Help!!!”
::sigh::
Big man to the rescue.
Gary was being a dumbass.
Surprising huh?
I grabbed Gary, inquired as to where he ‘needed’ to be.
I placed him there as though he were a babe…
OK, it wasn’t that sweet, but I wasn’t TRYING to hurt him.
When I bounced his ass off of the floor, I knocked the air out of him.
I then got him on the gurney, I suggested to the nurse that we get something ‘To Secure’ him for treatment.
The nurse produced leather restraint cuffs, we began securing him so they could work on him.
I pulled down his left sock to apply a ‘restraint cuff’ and a metal 35mm film canister fell free.
Now we know why he wouldn’t get into the Rescue Squad…
Well, what do we have here?
I’m not a chemist, I have never played one on TV, but I know what Angel Dust or Killer Weed (KW) smells like.
I WAS a child of the ‘70s.

I sent it to the lab.
45 days later…
Guess what it was?
PCP, Angel Dust, KW, the boy was ‘dusted’.
I walked over to see the magistrate and obtained a Warrant for Felony possession of a controlled substance.
“Do you need assistance with the service?” The Lt. asked as the Sgt was doing some paper work…
“Who me?!?” I laughed “No Sir, I’m good.”
I was young and still sometimes stupid.🤨
I arrested Gary without incident.
90 days later and his lawyer was trying to get it continued again.
The judge was ready to grant a continuance, but I stood and said “Your honor, that date will not work for me sir, I have VAARNG Summer Camp then.”
“Really?!? What unit?” He asked
“29th ID Sir, I’m a SSgt, and the TOW Plt Sgt.” I responded
“Well what do you know? I was in the 29th Inf Div in WWII! We’ll just try this now.”
For some reason, Judges just loved me.
Well, it didn’t go well for old Gary.
His lawyer made a rookie mistake.
He asked a question he really didn’t know the answer too.
“Officer, were you threatened by my client?”
“Why, no sir, I had no real issues with Gary.”
He ‘Thought’ he’d had just gotten his ‘Perry Mason’ moment.
“Then why did you search him!!!”
He did everything but point his finger at me.
“Why…. No sir! I never searched him!!” I responded
“Well then!! How did you supposedly obtain the substance in question?!?!?”
😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂😂😂
I replied, innocently “Sir, they were trying to save his life, it was a busy night, I had to assist the nurse in securing him for his own safety.
I found the phencyclidine (that’s right, I can say it) as a result of this attempted care.”
BOOOOOOM!!!!!

Gary went to jail…

I’m a libertarian, he didn’t hurt anybody, he was an adult, but, that’s the law, and it was my job.
So I sent his ass to jail…