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That "Funny Feeling"

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  • That "Funny Feeling"

    So, YEARS ago, when I was a cop, I met a gal in Baltimore MD (I had briefly worked there many years ago, and had gone back to visit a friend, and met this gal).

    When I got back to Texas, we maintained a long distance relationship until I got my first phone bill. (Al Gore had not yet invented the internet)

    In one of our nearly all night phone conversations, she expressed concern about my safety as a police officer, and would frequently mention "a fancy red sports car with a classy lady", sometimes joking that I would "run off with that lady" and sometimes just saying something like "it keeps coming to my mind". When we would hang up, she sometimes added, "watch out for that classy lady in that red sports car".

    SO, one night, on routine patrol, about 3 AM, I found a car driving exactly the speed limit out on the edge of town. (OK, not much going on at 3 AM, so people are usually zipping here or there, and when somebody is going exactly the speed limit, it's almost like they're "not wanting to get caught".)

    Even back then, you couldn't stop a car "just because", but needed some "probable cause". The vehicle's license plate light was out -- sufficient cause to stop and question.

    I pulled close enough to get license plate info, and radio that in, then "popped the lights" to pull the vehicle over. It seemed to take an inordinate amount of time to get the driver's attention, even waving my spotlight over the back window, "take down" lights flashing brightly. Continuing at "exactly the right speed", experience tells you the driver is probably hiding something, or needing some extra time to "clear the air" (marijuana smoke or whatever), but I finally saw brake lights, and the vehicle pulled over under an overpass near some heavy construction equipment.

    I got out of my squad car, walked up to the vehicle, and asked the driver, a young woman, for license and registration. She already had them in her hand, so that only took a few seconds, and she didn't even ask "why did you stop me", which seemed a bit unusual. I bent over to check that she was the only occupant, then walked back to my cruiser to call in the license info.

    As I got just past the rear of her car, I had a "funny feeling", and I suddenly thought about Ruthie's comments about "a red sports car with a classy lady". This was, indeed, a red MGB, occupied by what could arguably be called "a classy lady".

    I stopped. Turned around, put my gun hand on my .357, and began easing up the side of her vehicle, firearm half out of the holster, flashlight in my left hand, her driver's license and insurance card in my teeth.

    As I got to her window, I saw she was bent over, fiddling with something under her seat. I spit out her license and insurance card, and ordered her to put her hands on the steering wheel, and obviously surprised her enough that she instantly did what I demanded. At this moment, another patrol unit was rolling up onto the scene, and, seeing me with gun drawn, he rushed up to where I was standing. I told him "she was reaching under the seat", so he bent down while I was still "covering her" with my weapon, and he pulled out a Dan Wesson .357 magnum revolver from under her seat. He opened the cylinder to find 2 of the 6 .357 hollow points had been fired.

    My partner handcuffed her, I picked up the license and insurance card I had spit out on the ground, and he held her while I radioed in the information.

    Since this was before computers, we had to wait for the dispatcher to keyboard this into our NCIC dumb terminal, wait for a response, so he kept an eye on her while I searched her vehicle. Nothing else found, but she was talking fast, trying to explain her boyfriend had been teaching her how to shoot, and that's why she had the gun, and she just needed to get home because her boyfriend would be worried.

    Next thing you know, my dispatcher calls over the radio..... "737, you 10-97?" That's a code asking me if I'm "alone", ready for radio traffic. In other words, he's about to give me some news that he doesn't want my "subject" to hear, unless he/she is already constrained. I respond "10-53", the "ok" signal that either I am out of earshot of the subject, OR the subject is already in custody.

    Dispatcher continues, "subject was involved in a tavern shooting 0130 this date, shot and killed her ex-boyfriend/barkeeper, wanted for homicide in [an adjacent County], charges pending".

    I still get goosebumps thinking about that. "watch out for a classy lady in a red sports car", Ruthie had said.

    Roger that, and thank God for "funny feelings"!
    The first to state his case seems right until another comes and cross-examines him.

  • #2


    My oldest daughter was just a baby when my "funny feeling" happened. She was very tiny for her age (at the time ) and used a small butterfly shaped pacifier which she NEVER spit out. You could hear the suction from her lips when we pulled it out of her mouth to feed her or whatever we needed her to do. But she literally NEVER spit it out. Well, one morning when she was 7 months old, I was driving my old primer gray Chevy truck. It was in the very beginning stages of my fix 'er up project, so it was in pretty bad shape. But I had to get her to the sitter's house before I headed off to work. Well, we were at a T intersection where I needed to make a left, but the light was red. Just before it turned, Lizzy spit out her pacifier. I knew something was off, so I uncharacteristically disregarded the light to pick up her paci to give it back to her. Well, just as I raise up with it, the light had turned green, and a large camper-backed truck ran the red light and would have hit me right in the driver's door at around 45 MPH. No way would I have made it, and she would probably have been severely injured at the least.

    As you said, thank God for "funny feelings" and the strange ways He gets our attention sometimes.
    That's what
    - She

    Without a clear-cut definition of sin, morality becomes a mere argument over the best way to train animals
    - Manya the Holy Szin (The Quintara Marathon)

    I may not be as old as dirt, but me and dirt are starting to have an awful lot in common
    - Stephen R. Donaldson

    Comment


    • #3
      I emailed my post to a friend who was there at the time -- he told me I left out one critical piece of information....

      The law enforcement agency that entered the offense (the shooting) into LEADS (not NCIC, as I mistakenly stated) had done so only THREE MINUTES prior to me asking for "wants and warrants" on the subject.

      S0, had I NOT stopped and turned around (that "funny feeling"), and instead just walked to my cruiser to radio in the information, I would have received an "all clear" because the "hold" was not yet in the system, and who knows WHAT would have happened next!
      The first to state his case seems right until another comes and cross-examines him.

      Comment


      • #4
        Originally posted by Cow Poke View Post
        I emailed my post to a friend who was there at the time -- he told me I left out one critical piece of information....

        The law enforcement agency that entered the offense (the shooting) into LEADS (not NCIC, as I mistakenly stated) had done so only THREE MINUTES prior to me asking for "wants and warrants" on the subject.

        S0, had I NOT stopped and turned around (that "funny feeling"), and instead just walked to my cruiser to radio in the information, I would have received an "all clear" because the "hold" was not yet in the system, and who knows WHAT would have happened next!
        I bet you quit dating her after that!

        Comment


        • #5
          Wow!

          I have always tried to teach my kids to trust their "gut instinct", as long as it doesn't go against what they KNOW to be God's directives.

          Originally posted by CP
          her driver's license and insurance card in my teeth
          Are you crazy????

          Didn't your mother ever tell you that you shouldn't put other people's stuff in your mouth? You don't know where it's been!



          Securely anchored to the Rock amid every storm of trial, testing or tribulation.

          Comment


          • #6
            Many, many years ago, my grandparents were going to take a winter trip to the BC coast from southern Alberta. Not a good idea in the winter. My mother tried and tried to dissuade them from going, but they were determined.

            The day before they were to have left, my grandmother fell and broke her arm, so the trip was cancelled. The next day, according to their scheduling and timetable, there was a huge avalanche in the mountain pass where they would have been travelling at that very time!

            God does indeed use very strange and different ways to protect us at times. This was not a "funny feeling", except for what my mother felt. And it was too bad about Grandma's broken arm, but they lived to tell the tale!


            Securely anchored to the Rock amid every storm of trial, testing or tribulation.

            Comment


            • #7
              Originally posted by mossrose View Post
              Wow!

              I have always tried to teach my kids to trust their "gut instinct", as long as it doesn't go against what they KNOW to be God's directives.



              Are you crazy????

              Didn't your mother ever tell you that you shouldn't put other people's stuff in your mouth? You don't know where it's been!

              Laughing... yeah, but I needed BOTH HANDS for something ELSE!

              It reminds me, though, when Don Meredith played a cop on "Police Story", he stopped some rich guy who was bragging about how he knows the Mayor, etc.....

              Meredith's partner in the police car was always eating peanut butter crackers - kept the jar of peanut butter in the car, and would spread it on crackers and eat them.

              After Meredith obtained the guy's driver's license, he walked back to the police car, borrowed a knife full of peanut butter from his partner, walked up to the guy he had stopped, spread the peanut butter on the guy's paper license, and ATE it in front of him.

              Later in that segment, the Judge asks Meredith "he actually said you put peanut butter on his license and ATE it!" Meredith looked surprised and said, "NO!!!!! he SAID THAT?!?!?!?!"


              At least I didn't EAT the license!
              The first to state his case seems right until another comes and cross-examines him.

              Comment

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