Tales from an old copper!

[Ray1936]

What with Corona-whatever and civil unrest and all this other bullshit, just thought it was time to stick in a funny -- yet true -- story from years gone by. When I opened the door of my old police call box, the story came out, and said "Share!"

Back in the mid sixties, there were four police officers working the first precinct at 1300 Beaubien. Scout 1-2 was manned by P.O. Gordie Snow and P.O. John Storm. Scout 1-4 was manned by P.O. Gene Sun and P.O. Bill Shine. Roll call usually brought about guffaws when all four were working, when the Sergeant shouted out "Snow! Storm!" and "Sun! Shine!". Ah, but they were dedicated officers, and the central area was so much better for them. Of the four, only Gordie Snow has passed away. And, likely, looking over the other three.

[Dan Wesson]

The cordless phone is a nice touch.

[Lowell]

That reminds me of the arrest sthat Gil Hill used to like to tell about that he said became the headline, "Hill Who Robbed Hill Arrested by Hill".

[Ray1936]

The cordless phone is a nice touch.

Yeah, and it works, too!

[Jimaz]

I could see a Twilight Zone episode here where the phone rings, you answer it, and there's someone on the other end from the 60s.

[Honky Tonk]

I could see a Twilight Zone episode here where the phone rings, you answer it, and there's someone on the other end from the 60s.

That's actually a very good premise for an episode. A shady cop [[not meaning you, Ray) takes his graft money, retires somewhere, and starts getting calls on his old call box, from people he screwed over, when he was a cop! [[incarcerated, sent to the chair, shot and took their loot, etc.) I get the willys just thinking about it.

[Ray1936]

That's actually a very good premise for an episode. .

Oh, yeah! That would be a goodie! LOL!

[ABetterDetroit]

Does the Old Copper have any funny stories about some dumb robbers?

[Ray1936]

Does the Old Copper have any funny stories about some dumb robbers?

Yeah, but I forget most of them. I remember one time we responded to a Breaking and Entering of a grocery store at McGraw and W. Grand Blvd, next to the firehouse. Quiet night, so four cars with eight officers responded. Back door kicked in. We entered, and easily found the culprit trying to hide on a shelf of groceries. Knocked off the groceries and the bad guy saw eight .38s. "No problem, officer, I gives up!"

What a classic line!

[Jimaz]

I could see a Twilight Zone episode here where the phone rings, you answer it, and there's someone on the other end from the 60s.

I must have been thinking of the Twilight Zone episode "Long Distance Call" starring a young Billy Mumy.

Damn, that was a scary show!

[bust]

Thanks Ray. Please keep 'em coming!

If you doubt your memories are precise I'm sure whatever stories you can spin to connect them together would be well worth our read.

[Meddle]

Hey Ray, did you ever work TMU/TSS? I remember being on the Evergreen bridge over the Jeffries one day and seeing about 15 or 20 units rolling code westbound in the express lanes. Never found out where they were going, but they were following each other close enough that it would have been a helluva mess if the lead car had wrecked.



And what about your ears? Heard quite a few complaints about sitting behind or below 100W speakers in Yelp.

[Ray1936]

No, never worked TMU. They were formed about June of 1965. At that time I had just finished training at the Motorcycle Traffic Bureau, so while the thought of going to TMU crossed my mind, I dismissed it quickly in favor of the bikes. Ended up spending six years there and enjoyed every day.

100W speakers? Our bikes didn't even have radios. Just a portable hanging from the belt that you couldn't hear if moving at all.