You Are Under Arrest!
Feb 28th 2007
Suzanne EnochWhen Goddesses Fall To Earth
I’ve always liked cop shows. Starsky and Hutch, S.W.A.T., Adam-12, Hill Street Blues, Reno 911! Oh, and COPS. From that show I learned that your odds of not being arrested are better if you’re wearing a shirt and your butt crack doesn’t show.
I even have my own near-miss adventure. A couple of weeks ago, my sister came to my house for dinner as she does every Wednesday. This used to be “Buffy” night, and we still call it that even though we now sit down for an evening of Bones and Ghosthunters.
Anyway, on this particular night neither of those shows was on, so we popped in my DVD of Serenity (yes, I’m a Joss Whedon whore). About halfway through the movie we both realized that the alarm sounds weren’t coming from the Reavers, but were in fact police cars and a helicopter outside. And they weren’t going anywhere.
I went upstairs to look out my back window. About a dozen police cars were parked or roaming the street of the cul-de-sac behind me, and a helicopter with spotlight on hovered overhead. I’ll tell you, when those things shine in your eyes, you know it. Yipes. I ran downstairs and made sure all of my doors and windows were locked, then called my brother-in-law. He’s a sergeant with a neighboring city’s PD, and made a phone call for me.
Apparently three gang members had carjacked a car in Riverside, CA, and driven it fourteen miles to abandon it sixty feet from my house. The police had the car, but not the three guys. I told my brother-in-law to inform the police that the three houses opposite mine were still under construction and had unlocked doors.
Twenty minutes later they’d found two of the guys in two of those houses, and we got to watch the cops (through the windows, in the dark), marching them out amid bristling weapons and growling police dogs. Then the search began for the third guy.
My sister: “Suzie, it’s getting late, and I have to get up at five o’clock.”
Me: “You’re not leaving my house while there’s a carjacker in the neighborhood.”
My sister: “At least pop some popcorn, then.”
Me: “I’m not doing anything that makes a loud popping sound. We’ll have pudding.”
I don’t think she could have left, anyway, since police cars blocked every exit to my neighborhood. People who were just getting home were forced to wait in the nearby Ralph’s parking lot.
They finally found the guy, hiding in somebody’s garage about four houses down. He’d gotten in through an unlocked garage door. That house, by the way, was owned by a cop. My sister got to leave just after midnight, cranky but uncarjacked.
About forty minutes previous to that, though, comes what I thought was the most interesting part of the evening. Somebody knocked at the door, holding up a badge to my peephole. The police wanted to check my backyard. I gave the plainclothes detective my gate key, and he told me to lock my door until he came back to return the key. While my sister and I sat at the kitchen table and looked out my back patio door, we saw the following, all bunched together and at full alert just like in the movies:
First in line, the plainclothes detective with a pistol and my key.
2nd, a uniformed cop with a bullet-proof vest and a pistol.
3rd, a uniformed cop with a bullet-proof vest, a shotgun, and a police dog.
4th, a SWAT cop in full body armor with an M - 16.
Now, this struck me as odd. Even if the detective had a vest on under his jacket, why would he go first? And why would the most-protected, best-armed guy go last? I have no answer. As I said, it just struck me as . . . odd.
I can make up my own scenario to explain this deployment – something involving an inter-agency conspiracy and pet dander allergies – but I suppose they had a logical reason for it. Does anybody have their own close-calls-with-the-law stories? And what are your favorite cop shows of all time?
27 Comments »
27 Responses to “You Are Under Arrest!”
jessie on 28 Feb 2007 at 7:43 am #
I don’t have any close calls with the cops stories, although sometimes they sit in front of my neighbor’s house, which is very curious. My favorite cop show of all time is COPS. Watching it is a family event at my house. It’s the one show that we all like that’s almost always playing on some channel. I also love Reno 911, and I can’t wait for the movie.
Terri/Keira on 28 Feb 2007 at 7:55 am #
We had a very similar think happen here a few years back…our backyard is a flood control plain (i.e. nothing out there but a field) and about 10pm one night we hear something weird, so look out the back door…there are two marked SUVs, an motorcycle and a helicopter (of all thing…we don’t even have our own, so not sure what city it came from). Anyway, about five minutes later a plainclothes comes to the door and tells us that they’re searching for a couple of guys and to not answer the door to anyone not flashing a badge. About 15-20 minutes later the caught the guy hiding in a ditch about 50 feet into the field. Turns out they’d busted a meth house a mile or so away, and this guy had taken off and ended up in our backyard!
When it comes to shows, I’m a Law and Order girl, tho my two faves have got to be the 80’s show Crime Story and Homicide, Life on the Street.
Thanks for the great post!
Terri/Keira
dbrown3400 on 28 Feb 2007 at 8:06 am #
Bruce Willis had HAIR? I’ll work on answers to your questions during the day at work. We do get four big fire trucks with big handsome firemen here at our building quite often because the guy upstairs doesn’t know how to work his microwave and sets off the screeching alarm. Does that count?
Donna
AndreaW on 28 Feb 2007 at 8:26 am #
Holy shrimp, Suzie! Talk about scary… Alas, my life has been boring in comparison to that. Of course, I’m not complaining. LOL! Glad to hear that you’re okay.
My favorite cop show is Law & Order:SVU. Love it.
Susan K on 28 Feb 2007 at 9:07 am #
I don’t have any close calls with cops. Occasionally they will come blaring into my apartment complex. And I watch just like everyone else but I never know what’s going on .
My favorite cop shows are Law & Order: SVU, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, CSI (the one in Vegas cause I like Grissom), and Without A Trace. I also like watching Forensic Files & Cold Cases on Court TV but I try not to watch them too much. They tend to scare me.
DebMarlowe on 28 Feb 2007 at 9:26 am #
Scary stuff, Suzanne! Never had that close an encounter myself. The big talk in our family was when my cousin found out her husband was cheating–with her best friend. She yanked the shower curtain rod off the wall and smacked him in the nose with it…All the old aunties were afraid the family would end up on Jerry Springer. Hee hee
My brother in law is a state trooper, and if you can get him talking, he’s got some stories to tell!
As for shows–my new favorite and possibly the funniest single show ever broadcast on TV–The My Name is Earl episode when they are all on COPS. I was peeing my pants, I was laughing so hard!
Kasey on 28 Feb 2007 at 9:55 am #
This was just a couple of years ago when I was in college. The cops used to frequently stop at our building. I was never sure why, but I think it was the smell of marijuana wafting out of a neighbor’s apartment each time someone walked by. Anyways, one particular night we did not realize the cops were parked in our parking lot below and we had our music playing. Well Baby Got Back came on and my two roommates and I started singing because, well, it is a fun song to sing. We had our windows open and all the sudden someone yells up to us, “We can hear you singing the butt song from down here.” We ran over to the window and sure enough two cops are standing in the parking lot laughing at us. It was rather funny.
I really like the Crime Investigation shows like Criminal Minds or CSI. But the best cops ever are Riggs and Murtaugh from the Lethal Weapon movies.
Julia London on 28 Feb 2007 at 9:55 am #
Suzanne, How exciting! Probably nerve-racking, too, but how exciting to have a front row seat!
I had a police chase through my backyard once. First came the guy, just running as hard as he could, vaulting over patio furniture. Then came the police, huffing and puffing–they were not exactly thin. They ran down into the creek, wrestled the guy, got stung by bees, and then hauled him back up through my yard.
My faithful canines, Hugo and Maude (labs) and I sat there and watched the whole thing. Hugo and Maude did not bark once. Great companions, worthless watchdogs.
Reno 911 makes me howl. That show is so stupid its hilarious. And Deb, I saw the My Name is Earl episode when they were on Cops — that was priceless! Hilarious!
elsiehogarth on 28 Feb 2007 at 10:07 am #
Gee Suzanne, that’s really scary. Are you thinking of adding something like this in one of your books?
My godson-Stephen is an NYPD Rookie Officer and I think, worry and pray for him every day so that he’s kept safe and can return to his family.
I love the old police shows: Kojak, McMillan & Wife, Columbo, S.W.A.T, C.H.I.P.S, Starsky & Hutch, Hart to Hart, and Remington Steele. Now, I watch all the CSI’s(Vegas, Miami & NY) and the Law In Orders(SVU, Criminal Intent, and the original), COPS and America’s Most Wanted.
claudia dain on 28 Feb 2007 at 10:20 am #
Suzanne, I LOL over the pudding/popcorn debate. I’m with you all the way on that! No loud noises during a police “episode.”
Nothing nearly as exciting as ever happened to me, but that may be because I’m slightly oblivious.
Case in point: A few months back my husband and I were in London, taking a romantic moonlit walk through Green Park. This was for research purposes, obviously. Anyway, I was commenting on how safe I felt in London, at night, in the middle of the city.
In the next instant, a few policemen had roped off an area just ahead of us and were talking seriously amongst themselves. Hmmm….
When we came to that spot on our walk, we asked what was going on and a policeman very politely told us that there had been an “incident” but that the woman was fine and they were sealing the area for CSI-type stuff.
Hmmm…
Suzanne Enoch on 28 Feb 2007 at 11:32 am #
Wow! More near misses out there than I expected! And more of us have cop relatives than I thought.
I LOLed at the “Butt song”, Kasey. And shoot, I haven’t seen that episode of “My Name Is Earl”. I’ll have to look for it now. I have seen the “Star Wars” spoof of COPS with the Stormtroopers. That’s pretty funny. *g*
And I can relate about the Green Park incident, Claudia. My same sis and I went to England about four weeks after the Tube bombings. It was weird to see the police standing around everywhere, being really polite and helping tourists with directions — and carrying semi-automatics over their shoulders.
Keep those stories and cop shows coming!
TheNightPoet on 28 Feb 2007 at 12:02 pm #
A few years ago, my parents and brother were at home, while I was at work. I called my mom when I was at work. (I think because I was bored or had a question to ask.) Anyway, she said that they had the police at our house because evidently some woman had called the police station saying she was going to commit suicide. Here’s the twisted part and why the police where at our house….Evidently the police said that when they traced her phone call, they traced it to my private, unlisted phone line that I used only for logging onto my Web TV. (at the time I didn’t have a computer) So I guess the cops were trying to locate the woman and prevent a bad thing from happening. I can’t remember the outcome. By the time I got off work, the police were gone. It was kind of freaky thinking that there was some woman out there wanting to end her life and the police traced her phone call to my phone line.
As for cop shows, I don’t really have a favorite, except I do love Criminal Minds. Thank you Suzanne for putting that picture up of Bruce Willis! I love all the Die Hard movies! I know some people out there aren’t much for the blood in those movies, but I love them for some reason. lol (don’t think I’m crazy for saying that, please. hehe) I’m drawing a blank on other cop movies I like. If I think of anymore, I’ll let all of you know.
Andrea
Kolleen on 28 Feb 2007 at 12:21 pm #
In August of 2001 we moved into a new neighborhood. We were the first people in. Other houses were in the process of being built, but we were it. On September 12, 2001 (when of, course, my husband was out of town and I am a basketcase because of what had happened the day before) there were multiple police cars and fire engines in the fields behind my house lights flashing. There were dozens of officers walking thru the fields with flashlights. I called my brother in law who is a deputy and he made a call for me to see what was going on….it was a training that had been planned before 9-11 and it was the last that they had after that. I was so scared and I am so glad that I had my brother in law. I think that I completely freaked my kids out.
My favorite crime shows are CSI and Law and Order SVU. I don’t get to watch them much, but once I see the first 5 minutes of either show I am hooked for the whole hour.
RachelG on 28 Feb 2007 at 1:58 pm #
I have seven banks within a mile radius of my house. Every summer one of them gets robbed at least once a month. My whole neighborhood goes on lock down. No one comes in or goes out. The cops comb the area in complete swat gear. Very exciting stuff, but I am looking at buying property outside the city.
Oh, and last winter the Baskin Robbins down the street got robbed. Since Baskin Robbins isn’t exactly hopping in the winter, I did wonder what sort of moron robs a BR in January.
Nicole Jordan on 28 Feb 2007 at 2:07 pm #
LOL, Suzanne. I can just picture the scene you discribed.
I don’t have any run-ins with the law to relate, just one with a criminal. The guy who lived in the apartment below a friend of mine had an argument with his girlfriend and shot a shotgun up at the ceiling, which was my friend’s floor. We couldn’t figure out what had caused that strange noise (sounded like a big light bulb bursting) until we noticed plaster dust all over everything and found the huge hole in the carpet. We called the cops and they took the shooter away…. but it’s not as exciting as your story, lol.
And I love most all cop shows! I’m a cop show junkie. Couldn’t pick a fave, although I remember drooling over Starsky and Hutch when I was girl. And NYPD Blue will always have a special place in my heart.
NicoleJ
rumolay on 28 Feb 2007 at 2:26 pm #
Wow! Sounds like you guys had quite the evening! I’m surprised the detective went first too. I thought they only did that on Law and Order to make the stars of the show seem more important in the arrest scene. That and because Jesse Martin is hot.
Glad you and your sister came out of the experience unscathed.
The only similar experience I had was when i was teaching first grade. An armed robber had run onto the school grounds and a helicopter was chasing him. We had to lock all the classroom doors and keep the kids away from the windows (a near impossible feat) until the perp was apprehended. That was more than a little scary. But, fortunately, no one was hurt.
OV_099 on 28 Feb 2007 at 2:33 pm #
I think the only show I watched with many cops running around was TJ Hooker, and yep, it was because the title character was Captain Kirk.
But hey, I still liked it all the same. Although I guess 15 years or whatever it is later I’ll probably sit there watching them and think how ridiculously cheesy they were or something. LOL 
Lois
Sabrina Jeffries on 28 Feb 2007 at 3:43 pm #
Susan K, you and I have almost exactly the same faves, except for CSI, which I just can’t get into for some reason. But I love all the L&O’s, Without a Trace, Cold Case AND Cold Case Files (fiction and non-fiction), Forensic Files, etc. You’d think I was a suspense writer. My hubby and I used to watch Hill Street Blues religiously. Now we watch forensic shows (he doesn’t like the fiction ones, but I love them).
I slept through the only close call I had with cops. My parents were visiting, and the next morning my mom asked if I’d heard the cops show up in the middle of the night next door with a paddy wagon. She watched the whole thing out the window. Turns out our next door neighbor (whom we didn’t know) was harboring a fugitive. I missed it completely.
Yes, I actually do sleep like the dead. Maybe that’s why I like forensic shows!
Suzanne Enoch on 28 Feb 2007 at 5:53 pm #
Andrea, I love the Bruce Willis “Die Hard” movies, too. I remember going to see the first one without having much of an idea what it was about, and it was just so smart and witty, with more action than blood. Did you see that they’re filming a fourth one? “Live Free or Die Hard”. They closed traffic around LAX for a couple of evenings in January for filming.
barbara on 28 Feb 2007 at 7:45 pm #
My sons are in their late 20’s and 2 of their high school friends who are my “almost sons” have become police officers. They have interesting stories to tell - especially the guy who worked downtown Austin for several years! He was on the job when the Bush daughter got arrested for underage drinking, when whatever movie star guy that was played his bongo drums naked, and rode as escort for Lance Armstrong in the local parade. We have an older friend who is a homicide cop and trains cadaver search dogs. He goes to Juarez a lot. My guess is hunting for the bodies of the prostitutes that keep getting murdered there. He doesn’t talk about it.
My closest call was years ago when I took an employee home after work. When we got to her duplex, we had to wait a bit because it was surrounded by SWAT. She was frantic - she had teenagers at home and of course she couldn’t get in and they couldn’t get out! We waited for about 30 minutes, they busted the guy next door and left, and she got to go in to some very frightened girls!
Kasey on 01 Mar 2007 at 12:00 am #
Wasn’t it Matthew McConaughey that says he plays the bongo drums naked? He is really hot, I wouldn’t have minded being on that call.
Karen Rose on 01 Mar 2007 at 12:25 am #
No close calls (I leave that up to my DH). But my favorite cop show is Law & Order. I still mourn Lenny. When I was a teenager … oh I must admit it, even if it now shames me. I watched CHiPS. And I had a GIANT crush on Jon. Blonds always did it for me.
TheNightPoet on 01 Mar 2007 at 1:10 am #
Suzanne, a fourth Die Hard?? I can’t wait! I hadn’t heard that. I’m glad you told me. I’ll have to keep an eye out for that movie when it comes out.
I’m glad there’s someone else out there that loves those movies too. (hehe did I already say that in an earlier post? lol)
Kasey, Matthew McConaughey, the one to be on call?? All I have to say is OH YEAH, BRING THAT MAN TO ME!!! lol He is hot!
Andrea
dbrown3400 on 01 Mar 2007 at 1:44 am #
The only personal experience I’ve had involving a cop is when the transmission blew on my brand new car. I couldn’t get out of reverse. Of course the car had to be towed and the policeman from my 911 call offered to take me home. It was a tiny town where they could do that. I had to ride in the back though, cause the guns were up front. That back seat is TINY. When I said something about how uncomfortable it was, the cop said something like, “Do you think we’re gonna make the bad guys comfortable?” I was kind of embarrassed that I had asked the question.
I enjoy the letter shows on TV today, esp. CSI and CSI:Miami. I liked David Caruso on NYPD Blue and on CSI:Miami where he plays Horatio Caine straight or plays him as a caricature. I laugh when he’s putting everyone on. And I was glad when Dennis Franz finally got his Emmy for NYPD Blue. Hills Street Blues was great and I loved Miami Vice. It was so innovative. Loved the episode where Lt. Castillo dressed down Crockett on Castillo’s first day on the job. One of the best shows on today and probably the least watched is The Wire on HBO created by David Simon who created Homicide, Life on the Street. I could go on but I’ll run out of my “Leave a Reply” space. I have a lot of Private Investigator shows if you ever ask that but zero on comedy and reality, so I guess I’ve used that space here.
Oh, I’m with Kasey on the Lethal Weapon movies. I wore out a Lethal Weapon 3 VHS and was really glad when the DVD came out.
Donna
KMB25 on 01 Mar 2007 at 8:55 pm #
I don’t have a really good cop story…but I’m in on the tv shows! I have become addicted to Law and Order: SVU, and CI (I like the regular one, but it’s not my fav) as well as Without A Trace, and Bones. I never have time to actually watch tv…so I end up either buying the DVDs or downloading them from iTunes!…it’s so sad how addicting tv can be!
~Kim
Daisy W on 05 Mar 2007 at 2:50 pm #
My worst personal experience with cops was several years back when I helped to stop a high speed chase with my car. Yeah, the hard way. Lucky for me the light just turned green. I had just started to move when I heard the siren behind me and before I could even break, a motorcycle slammed into the corner of my rear bumper and went flying over my car. The cop had clocked him at 90 then the guy saw the cop and gunned. They guessed he was doing close to 100 or more when he hit me. I was doing less then 5 MPH, since the car in front of me had just started to move. The wild thing was the guy did at least five full flips through the air, losing his helmet, then he GETS up and takes off running. Jumps a three foot wall and keeps on running. The cop stopped long enough to make sure I was ok, then took off after him. He managed to catch him after the guy dumped a lot of drugs then pretended to be hurt, in hopes they won’t search the area. But within a few minutes the place was crawling with cops, firemen and others secruity personal looking for the drugs. The guy was charged with DUI, Driving while under the influence of an Illegal substance, possesion with the intent to sell, riskless endangement, driving without a licience, driving without insurance, resisting arrest, hit and run and several parole violations. One of the funnest parts of the whole thing was one of the cops that arrived on the scene and was put in charge of traffic control was a friend of mine. After he made sure I was ok, he started laughing so hard he doubled over in the middle of the road. And still to this day, he laughs every time he thinks about how I helped with an arrest. Of course, I don’t since my car was one year and one day old and completely TOTALED. But then it could have been worse, if the light hadn’t changed, and I wasn’t going that whopping 5 MPH, they said, he would have either crushed the roof of my car in on top of me or smashed through the back window both of which I wouldn’t been able to survived at the speed he was going.
Eleanor Mueller on 14 Jun 2007 at 4:20 am #
This one makes sence “One’s first step in wisdom is to kuesstion everything - and one’s last is to come to terms with everything.”