CZ93X62
Official forum enigma
My first two duty stations--Indio from 3/78-3/82 and Banning (3/82-3/87) had some HUGE beat areas. Indio's old "40" beat took up almost 1/3 of its station area, all snake ranch but still a big chunk of desert. On weekday graveyard shifts about 0330-0345 hours, if the calls were slow (normal sitch) the 40 car would do what we called the Chiriaco Loop--from Indio, east on I-10 to Chiriaco Summit (32 miles). The next leg was west toward the Salton Sea/Mecca on Box Canyon Road to SR 111 (old U.S. 60 route), another 28 miles. The last leg was back to Indio, another 22 miles. So, that put 82 miles on the odometer, and all sorts of fun could be had during this sojourn--lots of recovered/abandoned stolen cars, an occasional rollin' stolen, and (once in a while) us or CHP would stumble across a load car full of wacky terbaccy/cocaine/methamphetamine enroute to market from Mexicali. And such lovely people, too. A significant percentage of these contacts resulted in pursuits, and given the drivers and vehicles involved even our Mopars and GMs could keep up without much fuss and bother, and with almost zero traffic at Zero Dark Thirty the pursuits got authorized. If the pursued party was a sporting sort, he or she got onto I-10 at Chiriaco, and NOBODY outran those CHP 5.0 Mustangs. NOBODY. LE had an admirable win/loss record.
But the most significant arrest I made running that route didn't involve a vehicle. Nope, it was a male hitch-hiker thumbing at Dillon Road @ I-10 E/B onramp. He saw my Holstein (I was stopped across the Road at the E/B off-ramp), lowered his thumb, and tried to act casual and look around. At 2:15 A.M. I swoop over, and he just kinda stood there; I half-expected a foot pursuit, but nope. He popped a KY driver's license, and I had Dispatch run him by DL #. He was cool-breeze casual, but he hinked me up a little. Something wasn't quite right.
Maybe 30 seconds later, the dispatcher said "Clear for 10-35?"
Imagine my surprise. "Go ahead"
"10-32 Frank, 187 x 2 State of Kentucky, NCIC hit." OK, that was sufficiently interesting--double homicide.
"Start Charles 49 my way." I then pointed The Loud Persuader in his direction, and he said "You got me." He was cooperative, my beat partner was there in under a minute, and we got him collared without incident. On the way into jail, he said he was hitch-hiking back to KY to turn himself in, eight months of looking over his shoulder in the San Fernando Valley had been exhausting. The U.S. Marshals had been door-knocking the relatives he was staying with, yadda yadda. Don't pass "GO", don't collect $200.
But the most significant arrest I made running that route didn't involve a vehicle. Nope, it was a male hitch-hiker thumbing at Dillon Road @ I-10 E/B onramp. He saw my Holstein (I was stopped across the Road at the E/B off-ramp), lowered his thumb, and tried to act casual and look around. At 2:15 A.M. I swoop over, and he just kinda stood there; I half-expected a foot pursuit, but nope. He popped a KY driver's license, and I had Dispatch run him by DL #. He was cool-breeze casual, but he hinked me up a little. Something wasn't quite right.
Maybe 30 seconds later, the dispatcher said "Clear for 10-35?"
Imagine my surprise. "Go ahead"
"10-32 Frank, 187 x 2 State of Kentucky, NCIC hit." OK, that was sufficiently interesting--double homicide.
"Start Charles 49 my way." I then pointed The Loud Persuader in his direction, and he said "You got me." He was cooperative, my beat partner was there in under a minute, and we got him collared without incident. On the way into jail, he said he was hitch-hiking back to KY to turn himself in, eight months of looking over his shoulder in the San Fernando Valley had been exhausting. The U.S. Marshals had been door-knocking the relatives he was staying with, yadda yadda. Don't pass "GO", don't collect $200.
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