Jest Out of Jurisdiction
Law Enforcement / First Responder stories and experiences with a focus on comedic blunders, events, and the lighter side of stressful jobs. Stories are firsthand accounts told by the hosts Flash and T-Dot with accompanying guest interviews.
Jest Out of Jurisdiction
Ground hogs, Gators, and Bears. Oh My!
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This episode features Patrick Nunley, a veteran first responder, as he recounts wild stories from his career, including unexpected encounters with wildlife and high-speed chases. The discussion highlights the unpredictability of police work, the camaraderie formed in the academy, and the challenges faced in adapting to a new location through laughter and shared experiences.
Blue lights from the dead of the night, lying low to run a dim street light Laughing through the written reports. Truth stranger than the wildest courts, tales from the force gone astray, caught up in the games they play. High speed chases gone awry. Serious turns into pie in the sky, just out of jurisdictionisdiction.
Speaker 2We've got TDOT with us here again. We've got our special guest, Mr Patrick Nunley.
Speaker 3All the way from the Sunshine State. Yep, he's smart. He got out of here Right into the winter.
Speaker 2He got out of here, yeah.
Speaker 3Two inches of snow today.
Speaker 2He's already complaining about how cold it is. Yeah, we chose a good time to come back.
Speaker 3It was like 14 degrees today. It was, it was brutal, brutal day it was, it was brutal.
Speaker 2But Patrick, we've known him for a long time. He's been a first responder for quite a while, starting with dispatch and then police officer. He's now policing in a different state than when he started and me and Patrick actually went to the academy together, us and another officer. We were all hired at the same time. So we've got a few of those stories coming up, um, and uh, we'll see what all he's got, uh got for us that he's got into adventures down in the sunny florida yeah, I've known patrick a lot longer than this, though I knew him when he was a baby.
Speaker 3Oh yeah, so I've got to see him grow up and become quite the idiot. Quite the village dunce, you've made it, you've arrived. If you've made it to this podcast, yeah now.
Speaker 4I'm going nationwide, nationwide. I'm taking it on tour.
Speaker 2I will add, just in Patrick fashion, he was late today.
Speaker 3Well, he put his cool. That's never happened before in his tour.
Speaker 4I've always been known for being prompt.
Speaker 3Yes, He'll be here in a minute, we're good. So Patrick and I, I mean, I remember the day he started dispatch. What year was that? 2005. 2005. October of 2005. I was a seasoned officer of three years at the time. Yeah, a lot under your belt. So I gave him the nickname of the FNG, which he still has, and I don't understand how he kept that. He was the most senior guy up there and he was still the FNG and it's just some things just stick with you.
Speaker 4We're still trying to figure out what it stood for. We can guess. Use your imagination.
Speaker 1FNG guy.
Speaker 3So we got him in. I don't know how he came all the way from Florida to be with us, just us. I can't believe we got him here.
Speaker 2No other reason.
Speaker 3His parents.
Speaker 2His parents, his family, just us.
Speaker 3I can't believe we got him here. It's quite shocking. So, patrick, we can talk about academy, we can talk about dispatching. I think you even was like rescue or firefighter or something dumb. I wasn't really good at that. That's scary.
Speaker 4Yeah, I was not good at that. I just kind of showed up and then quite the Irish goodbye.
Speaker 3So that counts as our first firefighter on the show.
Speaker 2Yeah, and our last. No, I don't know, we might have another, we'll have a few.
Speaker 3But I remember thinking, patrick, why in the world do you want to get into policing? When both of y'all went to the academy I probably asked both of y'all like probably you mostly, because you were like making good money doing smart things you were supervising at the dispatch center, probably making more money. Um, and I don't know if I said on y'all's hiring board back then or I know I trained you guys because I think the first, the first big deal man you got into was at, uh, taco Bell, was that you and I, yes, yes, I remember that.
Speaker 4So we're minding our own business, really Were we getting food or were we on a call? No, it was a wreck. Okay, it was a simple little wreck. Yes, a woman in a minivan was in the drive-thru and was getting ready to come around to the menu board there we go and had bumped into the car in front of her. So they called in the little minor accident.
Speaker 3This is like. By the time I got you, it was probably week six or something, no I had you toward the end. Yeah, I was kind of always the chick guy Because I was not a good trainer. I was like, yeah, this guy dude, because I don't want to do the paperwork.
Speaker 4Yes, but yeah, she had bumped that other woman in the rear end and obviously they called in for an accident report and we showed up and that woman was acting and the one who was in the van in the back was acting belligerent.
Police Encounters Gone Wild
Speaker 3Yeah, she just kind of Like just foolish, but I don't think we took her to jail, or did we? No, we did. Okay, yeah, she had it coming. Well, eventually, we gave her, yeah, we gave her a lot of grace.
Speaker 4We gave her a wide berth, yeah.
Speaker 2Was she doped up or was?
Speaker 4it just mean.
Speaker 3No, and I don't remember what to do.
Speaker 4We feel sobriety or tried. I think we just took a break. I think we tried or something. And she I don't remember what got her started or what set her off, because they were standing out in the parking lot away from their vehicles when we got there and then she kept trying to go back to her van and I remember when we got her we went back and she had like a little revolver.
Speaker 3I think she was going to go try to get. She was mad at us. Oh, she was, She'd lost her Crazier than a tie-dye.
Speaker 4And then her son comes on. So, as we were taking her, and finally we just like she crossed that threshold and we decided well, you're going to jail.
Speaker 3She crossed that threshold and we decided well, you're going to jail, Right? Yeah, she had really pushed.
Speaker 4Oh, she kept poking the bear and poking the bear. Whatever it was, it was a. I don't even know if there was paint transfer on this wreck.
Speaker 2What else are you supposed to do if you can't Nothing?
Speaker 4Yeah, so she kept on and we were there for a minute and we got her finally stuffed at the back of the. She was no little woman in the back of the cruiser, but she was. I would guess she was probably nurse she had to be she probably 60s. But yeah, as we did that, then her son just randomly appears. I'm walking across from the, from the Walmart yeah, the Shopping.
Speaker 3Center parking lot. You get everything wrong.
Speaker 1He just comes up out of the blue.
Speaker 4I remember he started you said he was sitting there and he was kind of cool with us. He wasn't like belligerent or anything, no, he was pretty cool Then at this point and you said how did it go? You said what's her deal? Is she just crazy or what? And that guy looked at it and he said I don't know a little bit what about you guys? And you said, yeah, I might be.
Speaker 4I am crazy yeah and then right after that he made some threats. Yeah, we got to see in a bunch of like people was sharing on Facebook like that evening, yeah, or maybe the next day we went off shift and but he got on social media and was blasting us, making like he was going to kill us. Yeah, he made a bunch of like targets and said, yeah, london PD's now got a target on their back.
Speaker 4So I filed for a warrant for terrorist threat and we went out there. And we went out there and picked him up.
Speaker 3We went way out somewhere and there was a strange. Yeah, I remember.
Speaker 4We walked up to the porch, she was already out of jail.
Speaker 3She answered the door for us. We were like where's he at?
Speaker 1And she was cool as could be then.
Speaker 4And she's like, yeah, he's in there and she was cool as could be. Then, yeah, and he looked down because he had like three marijuana plants growing on the front porch and he said something's wrong with your mater plants here.
Speaker 3That's a little strange looking mater plants bud, so we ended up taking it like we had.
Speaker 4All this stemmed from a stupid little minor that we probably wouldn't have even done a crash report no, I don't even think we would have done nothing.
Speaker 3Maybe an incident?
Speaker 1report.
Speaker 3Maybe at best, Maybe just swap info.
Speaker 4She got arrested for whatever we charged her with, he got it for terroristic threatening.
Speaker 3On us.
Speaker 1And then a cultivating.
Speaker 3That's awesome. It went way out of control for something. And then the guy was. He was a man.
Speaker 4We got to the bookend and he was like man, I'll wash your cars for you.
Speaker 3Like he was I took him up on it because my car was pretty dirty, but that's how a car can go from just zero to 100. Oh, snowballs, and it's insanity.
Speaker 2I'm seeing a pattern, though, oh, it snowballs and it's insanity. I'm seeing a pattern, though, when you're out on training with T-Dot. He has a tendency to take you out on something simple, and it turned into a goat roping.
Speaker 3Was you two on the? He's a shit magnet.
Speaker 2Yeah, do you remember going out on that welfare check? He was an SRO still yet.
Speaker 3Yeah.
Speaker 2And I went out with you Because that's summertime.
Speaker 3That's the only reason I trained like that.
Speaker 2Yeah. I caught summer, so I went out with you on that. We go, it's just a simple welfare check. And you told me on the way in said this kid's supposed to be selling dope at the high school, selling marijuana, or whatever. I was like okay, so we don't go in, we're just sitting there talking. Well, the kid gets up, d-dot's talking to the parents. The kid gets up and runs back to the back bedroom.
Speaker 4It was a welfare check on that kid.
Speaker 2Yeah, like he'd made some kind of post or something on Facebook.
Speaker 3Oh, this is when I came in. You hadn't been on long, had you?
Speaker 2No.
Speaker 3And I came out on the evening because I had a missing girl. Yeah, and it ends up over at this guy's house.
Speaker 2Okay, is that what it was?
Speaker 3We're just tracking down where it was Right. Well, yeah, go ahead, because that's crazy.
Speaker 2So I go out there with him and he's like this will be simple, we'll just go talk to him.
Speaker 3Just try to find the girl, yeah just try and find information.
Speaker 2And we get there and we're talking to him. They're sitting in the living room one of the kids is and then he runs into the back bedroom. I'm like, well, that's odd. So I go follow him along my way down the hallway on this. Here comes this little 13 year old holding a nine millimeter.
Speaker 3Oh, he just run out so I draw down on him yeah I'm like gun you know, yeah, I couldn't get back there to gun.
Speaker 2You know all that.
Speaker 3I tripped over that woman's auction hose that's cause I was tied up in that auction hose from that old lady. I couldn't get past her. That ain't the first time I got stood on the auction so.
Speaker 2I've got him disarmed and all that T-Dot comes around the corner and he said did you say something about a gun?
Speaker 3I must have been losing my hearing at that point I was like I've got it. Oh, we found dope all over that place, it was five pounds.
Speaker 2He had a five-pound bag of marijuana.
Speaker 3And this was a 14, 15?, oh yeah.
Speaker 1And then there was some 18-year-old kid there 18.
Speaker 4Well, I won't say names, but I wonder if it's the same kid that I've? It was, yes.
Speaker 2It's the same group.
Speaker 4Yeah, yeah, always had them. Yep, yeah, versace stuff.
Speaker 3Yeah.
Speaker 4We caught him a few times, yeah.
Speaker 3He was, if he wasn't so dumb. Yeah, thankfully criminals are.
Speaker 4Oh, the last time I arrested him, I said, man, you need to get a new hobby. The last time I arrested him, I said, man, you need to get a new hobby. You suck at this.
Speaker 3You're the worst drug dealer, either your big Versace bags and stuff you're carrying on that smell like weed.
Speaker 1I can find you. That escalated quickly.
Speaker 3Oh my gosh, I remember, was you two on the groundhog? Was that you? Yes, was that both of you? On the rabid groundhog? Was that you? Yes, was that both of you?
Speaker 2all the rabid groundhog? Yes.
Speaker 3Oh my gosh. So I'm training these guys. Well, it's still.
Speaker 2I think I was with you Assumed rabid. It was rabid, patrick was with you and then I was with Danny, maybe. Yeah, yeah, that sounds about right.
Speaker 3Or Ashley or somebody like that.
Speaker 2Well, yeah, ashley, or.
Speaker 3Ashley or somebody like that. Well, yeah, ashley. So we were, I come out there and we was this. I mean, it was foaming at the mouth, dude.
Speaker 2And, like I said, 85% of everything we say is 100% true on this podcast.
Speaker 3I've never seen an animal act like this before, but it was daytime and it was coming at us and it was gnarling at us, zombie groundhog yeah.
Speaker 2So I'm like I pull out a I'm like we've got to dispatch this thing. You never pass up an opportunity for target practice, so I pull.
Speaker 3I'm like wait a second, I've got rookies with me, I'm not going to shoot this thing and show how bad of a shot I am.
Speaker 2We'll let them so you shoot everybody.
Speaker 3How bad of a shot, shoot, everybody, shoot that thing. It's coming at us. It was coming at us pretty hard.
Speaker 4Well, it would come up and then go back, but it was inching closer.
Speaker 3It was working up its nerve to bite you. I think they get on line and fire and miss you, blew gravel in its face and it kind of shook it off and looked at you like still say I hit it, it just first shot two shot patrick, patrick, patrick's call signs are plenty, we got, we got, pat, pat, we got pat ass.
Speaker 3Yeah, I can't say anything, though, because when we get gary on here, he'll tell you a story about the deer that I won't listen, we buddy that worked for CVE who lived over in Hazard and he's like I've heard you don't need to bring your livestock over to London. I said if they get loose they are gone. We got too many big roads and interstate going through it was tough. So PETA's going to cancel us.
Speaker 2But we're going to be okay. It wouldn't be the first time that PETA has and that.
Speaker 3I'm going to let. That's another story for me and my rookie stuff, but I was reported on one time on a dragon incident, so it's crazy Some crazy stuff Back in the day, when you used to get raccooned and possumed. Yeah, people were rough on rookies all the time. I mean, y'all never had to paint a building, y'all never had to do anything. I don't think, oh yeah.
Speaker 2We redid the whole process.
Speaker 3We did paint and then we had to do drywall?
Speaker 4Y'all are kidding. We're not who they need to call for drywall.
Speaker 3No, we're not good at it so back when we went to the academy, if there was a break like Christmas or Thanksgiving, the police department wouldn't put you on the road, they would make you do stuff around the police department.
Speaker 2Chief manual labor. Sometimes they would put you on the road. I remember it was me, you and Bert. We were in Chief's car.
Speaker 3Y'all get sat on the corner.
Speaker 4This is the craziest thing we had to go up to get uniforms. Yeah, we rode with him to get uniforms in Lexington.
Speaker 2So we get a, they get a Signal, 9 call. Well, chief was so worried about I don't blame him.
Speaker 3Look at you too well, true, burt.
Speaker 2Maybe I took him I don't know lawsuit or you know, just whatever it was that he was so afraid of that and that's. We were in the academy. I mean we were. You're wanting police, yes, but I mean so I don't know he didn't want us to ride with him running signal.
Speaker 3I don't blame you. I've not heard anything bad yet.
Speaker 2Right on the side of the highway. He's just like all right get out, we're standing on the side of 192.
Speaker 4We weren't released, but he turned us into hitchhikers, that's class.
Speaker 2That's coming right. I was like we just get fired, Did you?
Speaker 3have to get an Uber back, or was this before Ubers? I?
Speaker 2was like I'm not surprised we got fired, but I didn't expect it to happen this fast.
Speaker 3Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2It happens.
Speaker 3You know it happens. I think back to my. Maybe the greatest policing that we ever had was the COVID years and I don't know if I've said that before. We, when the streets were empty and you've played enough cornhole and listened to enough podcasts and watched enough TV or whatever, get out and patrol. We had just got Taser recertified, yes, just had got him back, yes, and somehow there was a lapse. Something happened. We get him back the day. We get him back. We was a lapse, something happened. We get them back the day. We get them back. We get a call. It's me and Pat and was everybody on the shift and Joey. Joey was with us, joey. And we go in to a store and A cell phone store like one of them cheap cell phone stores the guy had he was Barricaded, barricaded himself in. He was on the special K or something like that. He was high and barricaded himself in and we're masked up. I mean eyes, everything, terrible. It was the horrible. That was the worst thing about it. Couldn't see nothing because your glasses were fogged.
Speaker 3Yeah, we was wearing all the Couldn't breathe, all the PPE I can't remember what it's called now. So we're in there. He's back in the back room in the bathroom and I'm like we got to go get him and I start hearing more people come. So I'm like we got to go now we're trying to communicate with all this stuff on. Well, pat and Joey had their backers still in. They were grounded, yeah, in those masks. At the time those masks were hard to come by.
Speaker 1Yeah, the N95s, yeah, the 95s were really hard to get to.
Speaker 2Yeah most of us just wore the Gators.
Speaker 3We just didn't want to spit in the floor. I didn't have one.
Speaker 4I didn't have the Gator.
Speaker 3So it was just After we rushed the hallway we actually got. We had to tase the guy.
Speaker 4We get him back out resting, which that was the day we got them back. Yeah, and what was funny is, we sat through the class and I said I ain't ever tasted nobody yet yeah.
Speaker 1Like I always would forget about my taste and you got Anytime something happened?
Speaker 3Yeah, nothing on my belt ever registers, I just go hands up so they bust through and it was a narrow place and I'm like somebody was lethal, somebody was.
Speaker 4He was non-lethal and it just so happened. He didn't really. He just barricaded, popped, he was back in the bathroom and we got back and he was crazy yeah he was crazy looking.
Resuming Police Duty After Illness
Speaker 2I know exactly who you're talking about. Yes, you do, I'll specify. Yes, you do.
Speaker 4In a minute and he was standing over the toilet and there was like a little like a third of a water bottle that had spilled out and like a third of a water bottle that had spilled out and he's like I'm standing in water. You can't tell I'm standing in water by the time he got to that second T in water or said water the second time I popped him and he, like a sack of taters right on the freaking toilet.
Speaker 3Well, we come back out of there Drowned, yeah. And they were like can you get us a new mask? I'm like I don't think so. We're supposed to like wash them things and recycle them. And they show me there's brown tobacco stains in them. They've just been spitting in their mouths. It was all over, just dribbling down their chest. Joey's like.
Speaker 3I need one too. So me and Joey ended up taking him to the hospital and we had to sit there for like 12 hours or something crazy, because you know it was just insanity and I swore right then I was like I'm not taking another person to jail in COVID. Because, the jails wouldn't take them. It was wild. It was just a wild. It was a crazy time to be the police. It really was. It was a big shift right there.
Speaker 4It was, I mean Well, because you go from you go, go, go and we're always trying to get into stuff or do whatever, and then it's just like a flip of the switch they don't want you to do nothing yeah, yeah, just absolutely threw anchors out, not just pump the brakes.
Speaker 3I mean they they's like yes, you're done I know you're done.
Speaker 4If you can handle it by phone, handle it by phone.
Speaker 2If not, yeah, limit your deer and night shift, I mean, if you didn't have, I mean, being proactive was really all you had to get through the night. So what we did and I don't know if we ever told anybody about this, but we in our conference room we took the projector, took it in there, we set it up and watched movies in there.
Speaker 3Yeah, we watched them here at Station, at station two.
Speaker 2Yeah, our podcast we didn't know about station two, yet station two came along quickly as, as you know, it was just, it was it was an interesting time.
Speaker 3It was best to be out of sight, out of mind. Patrol be seen, of course, but even with that, if people saw you, you're like, oh gosh, they're going to give us the COVID. And then I finally did you finally blessed us all with it.
Speaker 4I shut down the police department. Patient zero.
Speaker 3And it was funny because I'd sit you and Joey down on a standoff, down on a murderoff, down in yes, down in a murder suspect, yeah, and we had a our sheriff, the old sheriff had died, so there's a big, huge funeral thing going on. We were so short-handed. There was deputies down there and I was running the city. Uh, I was like I was like providing, so I was sitting in dispatch trying to, because we were radio silence for them down there, so I would be dispatching our guys on the telephone trying to check on the guys on the scene. And I was like, good grief, well, I'm sitting in there in the most, you know. But it didn't feel bad and I was like okay, and I gave everybody COVID, everybody, the dispatch 28 days later. So Well, you went and got tested, yeah.
Speaker 4It was on Christmas Eve. Yeah, yes, whatever the reason was, you went and got tested. And then, because I lost my smell.
Speaker 3I just had a shot. I took the vaccine. I'm one of them. I took the vaccine and I was like. I called the other guys that had got. I said did you all lose your smell with, uh, with the vaccine job? They were like no.
Speaker 2I was like oh no, they shot you up. I was just a lot.
Speaker 3Yeah, it was a lot of those and so there I am, I'm sick, and and we had a pretty good. Was you sick on this one too?
Speaker 4no, no, we had a pretty good group on like a. Well, it's like every day we was adding one or two in.
Speaker 2I didn't get COVID there until right before I left the PD. Wow.
Speaker 4Well, when he texted us because he said I tested positive, now you all got to go get tested and I was initially the only one that day that had it and I felt fine, I didn't feel nothing, I hadn't noticed that I lost any senses or anything. And then, like as soon as I went and got tested and they came back in and hell, it was like they was coming in and telling me I was dead.
Speaker 3But you got COVID, yeah, and then they didn't say anything else about what I did. Good luck.
Speaker 1Yeah see you.
Speaker 4But then I got home that night and it was like my battery drained I don't know if it was a mental thing or what and then I lost my taste.
Speaker 3Yeah, it was just a weird time, weird. So we come back. We come back from our. You know, it was 10 days off at the time.
Speaker 4We came back on the 10th day.
Speaker 3Yeah, we came back the same day, didn't we? Yes, Because the way it worked out, Because we were diagnosed the same day. So fun times when we come back. And I was absolutely. It felt like the flu kind of, but I was just drained.
Speaker 4That was my thing, like I never at any point felt sick or bad, I just had zero energy. Yeah, not like.
Speaker 3So what happened on our first day back?
Speaker 4Well, that first morning it wasn't even daylight yet and we got the domestic at the town. I can't remember where they was at, but townhouses with the second floor. Yeah, joey got there first and was upstairs fighting with the guy in the bedroom and me and you got there. I want to say about the same time I think.
Speaker 3I stayed downstairs. I'll be honest you might have. I don't think I can make it up the steps.
Speaker 4Well, I went up the steps.
Speaker 3Or I just sat outside.
Speaker 4You guys are good, yeah, well, I swear to you, by the time I got to the top of them steps, I was like if this guy's fighting, he's shot sometimes rank has privilege, and it did on that day and, thank god, joey had it squared away and he was compliant by the time I got to the top of the stairs, because it was it's like I got there and I was like y'all got any walkers, old crutches or anything.
Speaker 3It was, uh, it was, so we got.
Speaker 4We cleared that call yeah, it had gotten daylight, and then maybe maybe 30 minutes and it was cold too. It was cold, which wasn't, it was in January. Yeah, uh, and it maybe 30, 30 minutes later. It just had gotten daylight. And then on the other end of town, somebody called in and said I think there's people breaking into cars and we get them calls all the freaking time and it's usually normally bs or if it is something.
Speaker 4it is something that has already happened and passed and gone and you're just trying to clean up the mess and see if you've got any footage or anything to develop a suspect. And I got there first and you were shortly behind me. Yeah, I was following you and, sure enough, three guys standing right next to this car window busted out everywhere.
Speaker 3Basically with crowbars in their hand.
Speaker 4I mean, it was that obvious they were doing it and then admitted straight up yeah, yeah, you caught us, we were pregnant. And that never, has still, yet, never, ever happened to me. It's just the day that I had no desire to do anything and, sure enough, I'm standing there for a brief minute. Before you got there with the witch, I mean, even once you got there, it didn't matter If they wanted to come push us over, like a little sapling.
Speaker 3We're leaving, we're going to escape right now, okay.
Speaker 2All right.
Speaker 3I can't do nothing with you Leave me your names.
Speaker 1Call me back when you're done. Call me, let me know you made it safe.
Speaker 2Yeah, somebody else will come hunting for you.
Speaker 3I remember thinking I can't function. If I had to fight right now, I would seriously have to go with deadly force because there's no way I could have fought with him.
Speaker 4It took everything I had in me to open my car door and get out of the car.
Speaker 3Yes, so the whole sickness side of it was not like crushing, it was the after. It was like oh, come back to work.
Speaker 2The recovery yeah.
Speaker 3And then coming back to work was like maybe it was that I didn't want to come back to work. I liked those 10 days, but I seriously was drained to work. I'd like those 10 days, but I seriously was drained and and it took a couple couple, two, two, three, four days to get back in like, oh, here we go. So we've, we've done some, we've had some fun, though it's been a me and patrick worked by ourselves, basically, for we had we had people out on maternity leave, we had people in academy academy that were supposed to come to our shift. Our shift was short, oh yeah, and it was just three of us, you know.
Speaker 2I remember those days because at shift change Patrick would just be like I've answered everything.
Speaker 3Yeah, I was like Patrick's answered everything, I got two.
Speaker 2We would come in complaining or something like that Shut up. And he'd be like it's just me out here. I tried.
Speaker 3I did try.
Speaker 4Well, and you had all that admin stuff that you claimed you had to do.
Speaker 3Yeah, I was like I got to order cars, yeah they really want me on these budget meetings.
Speaker 2He said T-Dot would start off in the same direction as the call and then something would happen.
Speaker 3I told you guys I'd work everything under the sun except for wreck with injuries. I will not work those. I don't know why.
Speaker 2I would show up. That never bothered me.
Speaker 4If I'm going to work a wreck, it might as well be a good one, yeah.
Speaker 3I'm good. It's not that I couldn't. I ain't wishing no fatalities or anything.
Speaker 4No, if I'm going to work, a wreck Because you've got to put the same amount of effort into a 45 as you do a 46.
Speaker 3Oh, I know it's something about getting that dang Deposition, Because I had to go sit on some depositions later out of county. Didn't understand. I was like I skipped a couple I didn't understand. It was like basically a subpoena. I was like, oh, I worked at 46 once the woman was fine.
Speaker 2I mean, they took her to the hospital, but she was, you know, no complaints, let her out of the hospital. Two weeks later she dies. Don't know if it's related to the wreck or not, but because it was in that window they ruled it back as a 46. Had to go back and do a reconstruction. I mean it was a mess. Those afterthought.
Speaker 3Reconstructions are tough. I don't know it wasn't that I didn't mind. I didn't mind, it was my flex. Basically I was like, hey, you guys are doing those, I'll work cases, I'll work job lifters, I'll take people to jail. I didn't care, but that was my only like. You popped that collar brass, I popped that collar brass, but that was it. I'd do everything else. I didn't care a bit. So let's hear some Academy stories. I know you guys had some.
Speaker 2Yeah, we had a few things. I don't know if you remember this or not.
Speaker 4You've got to jog my memory. Okay, once it gets going, I can get rolling.
Speaker 2So before we went to the Academy, we all got pool cars and I think we pulled numbers out of our hats. And that's who? Got cars, I mean it was like we had three, and it was like two 09s and an 11 or something.
Speaker 1I don't know, that's how we got cars. Well, those are fancy.
Speaker 2But they were supposed to be cleaned out when we got them. I mean, we, you know, went in and detailed them and stuff. But we got up there and we're I think Derek was chief, yeah, derek was chief at that point in time and then we got up there and we've been at the academy a couple of days I think it might be the second week or something and we're going to eat. So, you know, the day's over, we're going out to eat, we're all riding around in my car, in my cruiser, and something keeps rolling around in the floorboard. I remember this, yeah, and they're like what is?
Speaker 1it and I was like well, I just caught a glimpse of it.
Speaker 2It rolled up here. It kind of looks like it's round like a battery. Well, it rolls back there and they're like oh, we got it, it was one of them little metal screw lid containers. It had like four grams of man. I said oh my gosh, I was like yeah, we called Eric and he's like no, we called Doug. Oh, was it Doug? Yeah, we called.
Speaker 3Doug Smart.
Speaker 4Doug came up and met us at the county line. Really. He's like yeah, I'll take care of that boy. Yeah, I wonder where that went. Who knows how long it had been in there.
Speaker 2Who knows how long Doug had been outside the county line. Yeah, who knows how long Doug had been outside the county line.
Police Academy Training and Cold Weather
Speaker 3Yeah, oh yeah, I've got stories on Doug outside, but I'll wait until Doug's back before I tell stories on Doug. Oh yeah, let's see you guys had.
Speaker 2There was so much that we I mean Our academy.
Speaker 3my academy was 16 weeks. How long was yours? 23. 23, so you all had to go, yeah.
Speaker 2And we had Christmas break in between. Did we get off for Thanksgiving too?
Speaker 3I feel like there was like two weeks that we weren't at the academy that just prolonged our. Yeah, there's a week at Thanksgiving and there's two weeks of Christmas, Something like that, yeah.
Speaker 2Because we were there when it was.
Speaker 3That's your painting time. We were there when it was balls cold.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 4And Patrick painting time. We were there when it was balls cold. Yeah, and patrick loves the cold. Yeah, what happened in the cold? So they have us. We went up to the boones bow range, the long gun range, and it's on the river, the one right on the river, yeah, yeah, and we had to be there at we were there all night.
Speaker 4No, it was in the morning it was in the morning, but we had to be there. We had to report to the range, at like it was like five in the morning. It was in the morning. We went in the morning, yeah, but we had to be there. We had to report to the range, at like it was like 5 in the morning.
Speaker 3Yeah, because we was going to be doing that all day long Was y'all like doing shotgun, rifle, pistol range, kind of like three guns up Just shotgun and rifle for that one.
Speaker 4Yeah, transition which?
Speaker 3I mean the coldest place on earth, but you don't have the breeze, you don't have the air off of the.
Speaker 2Oh, you got that.
Speaker 3It's open. Yeah, I've seen snow blow in there.
Speaker 2Oh yeah, we had too.
Speaker 3It did while we were there. The indoor range was snow.
Speaker 4It was cold Loading mags when you can't shoot your thumbs Miserable, but for this day it was just rifle and shotgun. And right there on the river, wind blowing off the river, and that is one thing I'll say. That we got issued whenever we started was like Eight different jackets yes, like PD jackets, and Patrick wore them all that day. Every single one of them had on, like one of them, balaclava things, with them bogging over it because it was cold. So you started sweating. Oh, I think it was.
Speaker 2It was in the teens, I think. Yeah, I mean it was yeah, and with the wind chill it's probably like six laying standing up, laying prone up, prone up. So you're getting sweaty on top, kind of like slow burpees.
Speaker 4We were almost doing slow control burpees with a rifle.
Speaker 2Well, you know how that stationary qual is.
Speaker 3I know.
Speaker 2Two standing, two kneeling, two from prone.
Speaker 4And they were running us through the drills. Luckily we hadn't got to the qual yet and they were running us through the drills and I, just like I noticed after however many we did, like I started my vision was kind of blurring and drawn in and I was like whew, I'm getting lightheaded, and like just up and down and up and down, and I was like God it's. And then one time I went to stand back up and like just up and down and up and down. I was like god it's. And then one time I went to stand back up and I just had to drop back down to a knee because I was about to pass out. I had like eight jackets on and all this like I was I was layered.
Speaker 2He had layered up so much it wouldn't.
Speaker 1It had compacted and it wouldn't hold the heat in yeah.
Speaker 4It was just letting it sweat and we had to wear our vests and all. I mean it was just. And then we walked in. They was like well, let's take a break. And we went into that concrete block building which is almost the same as a nice Yeti cooler.
Speaker 1No relief.
Speaker 4They said they had a heater in there.
Speaker 1but I've yet to see it.
Speaker 4I think it was two incense candles or something. And, yeah, I took off that bargain and the face shield thing and started pouring the sweat which instantly, like just plummeted my body temperature. So then I got real woozy. I was sitting in a chair and Bert was standing behind me like trying to like help prop me up and he's like man, just lay back and I, like my head was just like dead weight. He flung straight back. Pow, right in the side of his pistol there was a gun belt, so I got a concussion too.
Speaker 3Did you have to go out on the ambulance?
Speaker 4They called an ambulance and I had to get in. I can't remember whose truck I got in. It was an F-150 truck. They put me in the back, it was probably.
Speaker 2Hurt's truck or one of the instructors, I can't remember. No, it was one of us.
Speaker 4It was one of us, I think't remember. No, it was one of us. It was one of us, I think. Uh, I think it's my roommates, because he was driving his sheriff's F-150 and I can't remember who he drove. I have no idea who else was in there and I was like. I just remember I was like god, I'm going into shock or something here, like extremities, was like completely the guy couldn't see.
Speaker 3Well, I remember getting a like Derek told us the chief told us like Patrick's in the hospital with like hypothermia yeah, he's froze to death, frostbite, I don't know what all you had.
Speaker 2And I'll say this and this will kind of set him up for another story if he wants to tell it just on where his mind frame is during serious situations.
Speaker 1So he's on the ambulance. You know they're getting on the ambulance. What?
Speaker 2happened the only thing he said. So they issued us like four shirts. You got four shirts in the academy.
Speaker 3Oh, academy shirts, academy shirts.
Speaker 2Yeah, I've still got one or two, one for each day yeah, or you had to do laundry, or whatever you know yeah.
Speaker 3Four days on those five days a week. Well, your PTDT I got you. I know what you're saying.
Speaker 2PTDT days and then so he's got that on, they've got him down to it and he's just like don't cut my shirt off.
Speaker 4I don't want an extra laundry day, just not the shirt. He's circling the drain and don't calf me. Yeah, yeah, leave that alone too.
Speaker 3Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2It's too cold for that.
Speaker 3Yeah, that had never been unsuccessful. Yeah, that never hit that, that had been unsuccessful.
Speaker 4Oh my gosh, I'd still be up there.
Speaker 3So you've transitioned from. Well, let's go into that. You're out of the cabin. We talked about some COVID stuff. You've moved on to the Sunshine State and you're at the sheriff's office down on the East Coast. I guess you can. They don't care what county you're in or whatever. Whatever, we can leave that up to you if you want to tell where you're at we'll leave it.
Speaker 2We'll leave it anonymous.
Speaker 3You never know, some agencies are but he's somewhere on the east coast of florida. And what? What brought you? How did all that? You just hated me that bad and you left me. Yeah, I said, I said that guy.
Speaker 2All those times of having to answer calls by himself. Yeah, I get it.
Speaker 4He won't work. A wreck, look, I will not work. He's a black cloud. And then he ditches us man.
Speaker 3I probably did get you all in. It followed me. I was a magnet for just crazy, crazy stuff and I apologize.
Speaker 2It was fun. I mean, we had fun.
Speaker 3But it was something and it shows I didn't care to get into things.
Speaker 4Oh, no Like let's do this. I don't think there was ever a question on that.
Speaker 3It's like what have I done? So you moved down and working down there. You've been down there a couple years now.
Wild Encounters With Gators and Bears
Speaker 4Coming up on three, between two and a half and three. Tell us something fun that's happened to you down there. Well, I know, right in training I was still on FTO. I was about halfway through my FTO and we got a call of a gator next to some apartment complex. Well, it is Florida it is. But you know, I don't guess you really prepare for that mentally, spiritually.
Speaker 3So my father-in-law lives down on the West Coast in Bradenton and I've yet to see a gator down there. I've never seen a gator on that.
Speaker 2Well, you know what they say, you know how to tell if there's gators in the water, just assume it. You reach down and you touch it. If the water's wet, there's gators.
Speaker 3Yeah, that's a good indication, but I've just not seen one over there in Manatee County. I'm sure they're over there I just stay towards the Listen.
Speaker 4I'm just rest easy in the fact that any time I see water, there's a gator, there's something in it that I don't want to be that close to.
Speaker 2Turtle man, he's not.
Speaker 4Man, florida's crazy, oh yeah. So we roll up because it's right outside of like a big apartment complex or like a condo complex and the neighbors called it in because it was in a big canal, like right at the entrance, and the guy's with us he's like all right, well, let's get out, we've got to go take care of this. Well, you know, being from up here, like stuff like that we kind of handle, like we'll take care of it. You've got a deer been hit by a car or whatever. Yeah, we'll handle that. Yeah, you put it out of its misery. I was like so is it like a shotgun thing or what he said? No, we've got to go catch it. I was like we hell, I've been trained on this.
Speaker 3Yeah, I said we don't really have gators in.
Speaker 2Kentucky. No, he says, I am not a man who doesn't know his limitations. And gator is right there. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4And I mean you get out and you see this thing is down in this canal. I mean what I could see of it sticking out of the water, I was like, but it's in a canal.
Speaker 3Why is that a problem, aren't they? Just because the proximity of where it was, to this residential area. I got you how big how big is this gator?
Speaker 4so when we, when it was all said and done, it measured out at 8 foot 11 inches yeah, that's bigger than I would want to.
Speaker 2yeah, yeah, that's eight foot bigger than I would want to.
Speaker 3Yeah, yeah, that's eight foot bigger than I would want to do I don't think I've. I don't like them.
Speaker 2I think I could take a baby gator.
Speaker 4Well they're supposed to be. They're quicker, like they can whip their head around. You guys couldn't take that I could take it.
Speaker 1You all couldn't take on that groundhog.
Speaker 4Yeah, but it was that groundhog. You all couldn't take on that groundhog. Yeah, but it was that groundhog.
Speaker 2He'd been working out. I mean, you saw him, you saw his traps it was the Arnold Schwarzenegger of groundhog.
Speaker 3It was the one off Caddyshack, it was it.
Speaker 4He was messing with me. But yeah, so we met this trapper there and he rigs up this little. I mean, after I saw it in action, it was pretty efficient. When he was putting it together I was like that ain't gonna work, like it was like a thin little stick, but it was long and he electrical taped like this tiny rope to it. I was like a little snare, like a yeah kind of I I was like this is dumb, like I don't want to be anywhere near any of this. I want to sit in the truck, yeah. And he gets up and he gets it around his head and it starts doing that death roll and stuff and I'm like, well, good luck, I'll be three miles over here.
Speaker 4How bad did you? How close were you to quitting and coming back? Well, it depended on how close I had to get to it. And then, once he finally got it, I had to help drag it up out of the canal bank, because it was probably 12 foot below us below the road, and he climbs on the back of it and tapes around its mouth and stuff, but he has me holding the rope. Well, I still have no idea what gators do. I was like so I'm holding this rope that's attached to a gator that's looking at me. Did they charge me or like what happens here?
Speaker 4Luckily it didn't, and I don't know how fast they are.
Speaker 2I think they're pretty fast. It took three of us to get it loaded up in the bed of his pickup.
Speaker 4I got put on the tail end and I was like I think this thing's going to thrash me or whip me. It's.
Speaker 3Godzilla man. That's something I've never dealt with.
Speaker 4I've dealt with bears. I just had to catch another one the other day. So you're a pro now no God, no, like Turtle man, this was like a little, probably two or three footer, and it was in these people's front yard and we call fwc florida fish of my life, and he shows up and it was.
Speaker 4They had a driveway that you know went across a drainage ditch and it had a pipe going under the driveway and he said, like a culvert yeah, and it and it tucked up in under that and and he said I can see he got down and he's face up right to the end of that culvert looking at us Nope.
Speaker 3I think it latched Too close for me yeah, or breathe fire.
Speaker 4He said I can see it.
Speaker 3I'm not sure if they can.
Speaker 4He said you stand on the other end, I'm going to if it comes out.
Speaker 3I'm going to blow in its butt Like chicken fighting. We're going to get him riled up. He's going to come right at you Now. I've chased bear. I called a foot chase. I don't think you all were working yet, you probably were dispatching. But the bear that almost got in walmart, yeah uh, it came back towards town and and it was right behind the police department and I get right behind it and it's. You know, I got a little trot going and I'm calling it like I'm in a car chase. I'm like we're on. We're on first street, heading towards the pd. I'll return on Jackson Street. I mean I'm calling this out and I started seeing everybody run out of the PD, like it's on. So then we're getting a foot chase of it and I look at Alan, what was the plan?
Speaker 4That's what I asked I said well, if we catch it.
Speaker 3And me and Alan, we both stopped.
Speaker 1He said well, if we catch it. And me and Alan, we both stopped. He said you're right, what?
Speaker 3if we catch this Danny keeps running. He treed it. That's good. He treed this bear. And then we called Kentucky Fish Mall off. They you know they stink. They tranquilized it and we hauled it off. But we put it on a gurney and that was the stinkiest thing I've ever seen. But I was like man holding this boar bear or whatever they call them, and I'm like I was chasing you why? I mean, it was probably 200, 300 pounds. I was like you're big, that's crazy. You got teeth and paws and I don't think I could take you. I would try I try.
Speaker 3I've watched that at the chicken festival back in the day I used to fight. I used to fight them little black bears up there, but I don't think I could have taken it.
Speaker 2I think you just get the prison mentality. You just lay down and just let it happen, just hope it's over quickly, just take this one.
Speaker 3What a way to die Gators and bears. I did, but that's part of law enforcement is we deal. I remember dealing with snakes. Snakes were common. I did, but it's we've. That's part of law enforcement is we deal. I remember dealing with like snakes. Snakes were common.
Speaker 3My biggest fear is probably snakes I can handle. Spiders I can handle Nope, I cannot handle. And they, back at the old Jerry's restaurant that used to be in town, loved that place and as that was closing down, they called and it was like, oh, there's some snakes underneath the jukebox up here, whatever it was. I walked in there and it was copperheads. I said you'd better burn this place to the ground or call somebody else, or I'm going to start shooting Clear this building. Now this is a hazmat scene, but it was that they scared me. Snakes scared me and I remember we used to open and close the gates at the cemetery and I was sitting there. I was halfway. I used to go in close one side, pull up on the other side, take a little siesta in an inclined position. I think we've all done that. Come back out close that gate.
Speaker 3Well, as I was closing that other gate, a dang snake crawls between my leg. Well, I pull up my baton and I just start wailing, just smacking the ground. And at this time of day people were starting to move and there was somebody across the road and they stopped and looked and I was like don't mind me, I'm just trying to keep the dead in. I can't believe it came out of my mouth. When I said it I was like oh no, I was like it's a snake, it's a snake.
Speaker 3Oh okay, but it's just, I don't know what happens to me. Sometimes I get so scared. I've been scared a lot.
High-Speed Pursuit and Hostage Rescue
Speaker 4This job, yeah, have you been shot at lately Not lately, not that I can remember, lately, no. So we had the one right after I got off of training, still didn't really know my way around. We had a bolo for a kidnapping suspect who still had the victims with him. Oh no, and everybody else that worked down there was familiar with the guy. They were all going to stage up at his house, house which was a long way away from where I was and I was kind of zoned up near the interstate. So I start driving around gas stations and motel parking lots out there to look for the car just to see if he pulled in somewhere else instead of going to his house.
Speaker 4I pull in the first gas station parking lot, circle the lot and I'm coming back out to the highway. Sure enough, right in front of me Passes by and I get on the radio. I'm like you know, I've got this car right here. Tag matches up and everything, same car. And we I can't remember if we had pictures of it put in our CAD, of the car from like our traffic cameras and so the sergeant gets on there and he's like, well, just stay behind it. You know we're getting on the interstate going northbound. He's like, stay behind it. He said we're trying to get to you, but you know we're a while away, don't lose it. Yeah, a while away, don't lose it. Yeah. And he wasn't really. He wasn't driving erratically at that point, but you could tell he was trying to Allude.
Speaker 3Yeah, he knew you was back there too, yeah 100%.
Speaker 4He was doing a lot of lane changing and stuff, trying to keep a car or two in between me and him, and luckily traffic wasn't very heavy. So eventually they were just like go ahead and line it up, let's see what happens. Like we're coming, but we just are not close. This won't be a pursuit.
Speaker 3Yeah.
Speaker 4Yeah, well, as soon as I turned my blue lights on that's when he guns it and I think we got up to 100. Fastest I think we got to was about 122, 124-ish, and it was a while before anybody could get caught up to me. I mean they were doing everything they could. I mean they were giving it hell trying to get caught up to us and we had other guys waiting at the next exit in my county to get on and luckily they could get behind me pretty quick. But then as we continue into the next county, we're in the center lane and thank God there was no other cars around at that point. I see some muzzle flashes coming out of the driver window and some rounds skipping off the pavement at my car. I was like hmm, that's weird Shots fired.
Speaker 4Yeah, something's going on. He's throwing M80s out.
Speaker 3Sir, your car's ablaze. Yeah, something's not right. It's just cigarettes. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4So, and he had dark, tinted windows and I knew that there was supposed to be victims still with him, so I couldn't really do anything in the way of returning fire or anything like that. I didn't want to pit him because I mean at those speeds who knows what would have happened, but so I called that out on the radio. Long story short, it turns into an extended pursuit that segues into a standoff at the car. That segues into a hostage race because he pushed one of the women that he'd shot out so we had to go up and get her. After he bailed out and took the other one around the neck, hold the gun to her head and then it turned into a basically a manhunt, hostage rescue and long night that happened.
Speaker 4I was on night shift, it was still daylight when it started and I left the scene where we finally got. All the vehicles got stopped. I think I got home at like six, 30 or seven the next morning, Jeez. But after it was all said and done, that was the first thing I told my surgeon. I was like cause we're tobacco free agency? I was like I had a dip in the whole time. It's on my body camera. He said I don't give a shit.
Speaker 3He said did you just see all this. Basic Patrick, I'm worried, I'm fired from tobacco.
Speaker 4I've just been shot at. Yeah, he said. Did you just see everything that took place? I just wanted to let you know.
Speaker 3Just, just just.
Speaker 2Patrick's sitting there taking rounds and he's going. Ah, I got a spit bottle in my hand.
Speaker 3How do I get the spitter?
Speaker 2How do I hide this? Oh, my gosh Must be chasing.
Speaker 3I'm more worried about getting in trouble for you.
Speaker 2It's the strangest charge we've ever seen on a citation. Somehow the perp got that spit bottle in his car. Yeah, literally.
Speaker 3Why does this have your DNA?
Speaker 4Oh yeah, oh he shot at us, because God he shot at us on the interstate, shot at us again once we got off. We kept trying to move in for a pit and he shot a few more times then. Then, after he bailed out of the car, he shot over our heads a few times. Geez, oh yeah, shot in the woods. We, we, shot over our heads a few times. Geez, oh yeah, shot in the woods. Like we got into a big development. Not a very good shooter.
Speaker 4Was it but it was pitch black I mean, I had my watch on, you know and it lights up and something goes, and that thing lit up and I was like, oh my God, I was like trying to, freaking, throw that thing out in the woods. Oh, that's scary. I've learned my lesson.
Speaker 2Start calling it out this way. Wait for it.
Speaker 3It's funny how it's tactical-looking cool watches that shine up like a cigarette lighter.
Speaker 4Well, when sitting in here you wouldn't even notice that it lights up. But if you're out in the pitch black, I mean oh, I know it's like a beacon, oh, like a cherry on a cigarette Looks like a freaking spotlight.
Speaker 3Oh it's crazy. It's scary. You think about them things Afterwards. You're like oh this is not the most tactical thing I can do, I mean, there's a laundry list of things that you think about back and be like how did I not die?
Speaker 2You know?
Speaker 3Have you got to work any cool hurricanes I have. You can move down there and you've got 50 of them all. Well, I mean which Not on you. You've not had a direct hit where you live, have you?
Speaker 4We had a direct hit, but the hurricane wasn't bad, but the tornado was bad. Oh, y'all had them on, which I didn't know was a thing. I thought you got either hurricanes or tornadoes.
Speaker 3You're used to that up here.
Speaker 4Yeah, that's what I said, and I even told my boss, I didn't know, you got both. I thought I left tornadoes back on that one.
Speaker 3which one was that?
Speaker 4The last one, the big one, it was Helene, and then I can't remember the next one, yeah, whatever.
Speaker 3The one that came. It's like the.
Speaker 4Gulfside got pounded yeah it came in right in Sarasota, yeah, and then it went straight up yeah. I went down there. Did you all have to go assist? Those other agencies we were getting ready to, but we didn't activate because our county got hit.
Speaker 3Okay, so they didn't activate. Yeah, y'all was on that side. I was getting whipped with tornadoes big tornadoes, like stuff you get out in.
Speaker 1Kansas or something.
Speaker 3They was getting wiped out. Yeah, now, helene, you went up, helene went up to the Panhandle.
Speaker 4Yeah, that one, that's a good, I mean like it's, I like doing that stuff.
Disaster Response and Community Support
Speaker 3Yeah, I'll tell you. Yeah, I wish I'd like to go down to North Carolina right now. I don't know how they're doing it down there in this. Nothing. It's this cold. You know those mountains are yeah. Well, and we may have to all take a trip and help.
Speaker 4You can just tell like that's one of the perks of this. I mean it's not the reason, I mean it is, but it isn't. Like I don't do it for the recognition, but I do it because those people are so genuinely glad that you showed up to help them.
Speaker 3Yeah, and when we went to the floods over here in Eastern Kentucky, I was amazed by the amount of just gratitude. As we're walking around streets that are empty, people just open up windows. You all need anything. Oh, thank you for being here and I'm just like and we I mean that was. I put that down as one of the greatest things that I got to do in my career and even though he was only there like two days, he didn't really even do anything.
Speaker 4I mean, we were just there to be there, I mean, I think even just being there like the show of support and you're there if they need something. Because a lot of times and I mean I know everybody's good-hearted and everybody wants to help, but a lot of times you get such an influx of resources there that people are kind of tripping over themselves and looking for something to do, because everybody wants to help.
Speaker 3I thought that we would go there and like be on these big rescue squad type. Honestly, they were like can you keep the looting down for us?
Speaker 2and I was going to say that's what on our tour over there it was. That's what it ended up being is like at night. They said these guys are dressing up as the red cross yeah and just, and they're stealing everything. Yeah, these people own, he said so if you see somebody out at night, he said that's what you're looking out for. He said make sure the pharmacies and all that are staying. You know people are staying out of it, but that he said if y'all want to answer calls, answer calls.
Speaker 3So we did a couple Just because of boredom, yeah, and you felt like you helped yeah.
Speaker 4Well, like even when we went out there because you know we didn't have any kind of CAD system, mapping system, anything they gave us some little TPS years to put in the cars, but it didn't help me.
Speaker 3Who, it didn't help me because I didn't.
Speaker 4Yeah, well, I didn't. It still doesn't help. It would have been helpful if I knew the roads that I was on, but I mean even then, so when I could show up to a call and find it, I would help.
Speaker 3But yeah, I mean it's. It seems like you're all down there. They're set up a little different to help each other. I guess, oh yeah, which I mean different to help each other, like oh yeah, which, I mean they've been put through the ringers, I think they've got it down to a size, yeah, and here.
Speaker 4Yeah, we get stuff here. We get some nothing, but not like that where it's been.
Speaker 3It's a lot fewer and far yeah and so getting to you know, getting all the resources together and and and our in kentucky is different, because we, you know, you have major tornadoes like what has that been two or three years ago? You had.
Speaker 2The one was the one that hit Carnaby Square and the one that hit. East Bernstead Two different ones, but those were years.
Speaker 3that was like 2001 to 2012, or something like that. That's the only two that I remember that were, but I'm talking about even the Western Kentucky. In December that hit, wiped all that out, I mean, but that we don't have those like Oklahoma, and then we definitely don't have. We may have the hurricanes come up and give us some rain, yeah, but not like what you guys get down there.
Speaker 4Well, I mean regardless of where it's at, you're never going to have a shortage of people volunteering. No, no, especially in this profession Like everybody's chomping at the bit.
Speaker 3Absolutely Wanting to go help and do something and a lot of good hard people, and then sometimes you feel like you're just stepping. You're like, well, they're set up over here to cook but nobody was coming to eat because they'd already been fed, so they're basically cooking for the responders that are there. You're like, oh my gosh, you go over there. Some of this stuff and the best food you know, these chefs come in, oh yeah it's amazing, there's some, some of the greatest people in the world that show up to these.
Speaker 4So when I went to the helene response there was, uh, four or five women that showed up the last day. We were there as we were getting ready to de-mob and go back home, and they showed up coming because we'd been there for eight days seven or eight days and you know they had.
Speaker 4luckily we had got set up at a pretty good spot that we had like shower trailers and, yeah, you know, bathroom stalls and stuff like that. But then the last day we were there there was four or five women that came I think one woman said she used to live in that area and they'd been hit by a couple hurricanes and she said she was from that area but didn't live there anymore. I mean, none of these women currently lived there and they showed up and just set up in a tent to give us all haircuts.
Speaker 3Because we'd been there for eight days.
Speaker 4That's awesome, and just out of the kindness of their heart, they were like, hey, y'all came and helped.
Speaker 2That's awesome and that's something you wouldn't even think about.
Speaker 3No, that's the kind of stuff Like who thinks that I need a?
Speaker 4haircut when you're in the middle of that, yeah, like they just showed up. And they're like, hey, they were all you know. And yeah, they just shut up. And they're like, hey, we want to help, and that just shows every disaster has to have that.
Speaker 3I mean those necessities and those things that you have, simple stuff like laundry and shower units, toilets, housing security, all that kind of stuff has to, you know, just to provide.
Speaker 4When we mobilized, when we went over there, we were told, like we had a briefing there, like hey, you know, bring some dude wipes or something, we might not have running water for a few days.
Speaker 3And so we went prepared for the worst and then, luckily, just the wheels got turning and we had, I mean, and the donations are crazy, yes, and the donations are crazy, yes, like when we went over out eastern Kentucky on the floods, the amount of donated vehicles and police cars.
Speaker 2Well, did you get to go over there to the high school in Weisberg? And see that so the football field is where they were using to stage all the supplies. I mean it was from end zone to end zone.
Speaker 3It was just pallets. It was amazing and people come from all over.
Speaker 4Oregon, were you all staying over there.
Speaker 3I stayed in Wattsburg at the fire department, but we were setting up shop more over in a little.
Speaker 2They had us.
Speaker 4Y'all wasn't like driving back and forth each night. No, no.
Speaker 2They set us up cots in the, uh, their city council room.
Speaker 3Yeah, so we we, uh, we, we went upstairs glasgow had that, they, they, they found moonshine, so they worked night shift.
Speaker 2We, we saw them we didn't, we saw them twice, we didn't get it. I was like oh now, that night we ended up. We ended up staying late and then coming home early that morning rather than sleeping, going in early. So we pulled like a 16, 18-hour shift and then drove home.
Speaker 1Yeah, what.
Speaker 2And then on the way home we was driving that.
Speaker 3At that time I think I just become like the interim chief and I was kind of like they asked for help and I sent and I went. But I remember thinking in the 19 and a half years I've been policing at that point 20 years that's the first time I felt like I made a difference.
Speaker 3And it's not that we didn't, because every time we got on the road I made a difference in something. And it's not that we didn't, because every time we got on the road, every time we responded to something, we were doing good, we were doing the Lord's work, but something about that changed it. It's like, man, I want to do more of this and I should, and I need to. All of us need to be able to be like I'm retired, I should be able to grab gear and go and help somewhere.
Speaker 1And I want to.
Speaker 3And I've got the support. My wife she's like, yeah, I'll go too. So one day, one day I'll just start going. And we did. We flew down to help out in the last hurricane down there and it got wiped out some of the areas that we go to a lot. So we did some work. It's just something about being a team. Also it's the guys that you've policed with for all these years and then you go do something like that and it's like a quick little deployment. You've trained, you've done all this stuff for all this time and then you go and actually feel like you're doing something and you never want something like that to happen.
Speaker 1No.
Speaker 2But if it does and you get the opportunity to do it, I highly recommend going and doing it.
Speaker 3I agree, I agree, anything else, we've probably been forever.
Speaker 2Yeah, about an hour and five minutes. Hey, that's awesome we're right there at the mark Y'all just gotta jog my memory.
Speaker 4That's why I was sitting here thinking I know from the academy.
Speaker 2I mean as much stupid stuff as we did. There was a lot which there's a lot of stories we probably can't or shouldn't tell from the academy too.
Speaker 4I'm just always like I think you're getting old. Well, I know that, but I mean I swear ever since I've been doing this kind of stuff like I guess it's a blessing more than anything when I go home I can't tell you what I've done that day.
Speaker 2Now, if somebody, brings it up then I can tell you every detail. That's how it usually works.
Speaker 4If I just get my memory jogged, that's how it?
Speaker 3usually works, one of my favorite, just like and I probably told you guys like, write it down or you'll forget it Journal, it do something. Young guys need to do that Because it's the fun stuff that you remember.
Speaker 3But you forget because we go call to call, to call, and everything just becomes a blur as you get older, as you got family things, as you got different things going on outside of it, and you get no, I don't remember things you know, I remember the bad stuff that you see, but some of the fun stuff is starting to elude me and I that's that's part of doing this podcast is to is to make sure that people's story is out there so that we always have it we.
Speaker 2I mean, we obviously want our listeners to be able to listen to it, but we're going to forget these things too, and stuff that we don't want to forget.
Speaker 3So here's what we do. We'll end it tonight and we'll definitely have you back on, because eventually you're going to come back to us or, even better, we go down there.
Speaker 2I like that idea better. We'll go visit him on home turf, the weather's better.
Speaker 3Yes, we'll do it in wintertime, yeah, but thank you. Thanks, patrick, for continuing doing a good job down in Florida and be safe. You're always welcome back here. Not that I can do anything about it, but come home more. But we sure love you and we're glad you sat down with us tonight.
Speaker 4Well, and it's good to get back up here and see everybody and talk to everybody that you know. I went for close to 20 years seeing and talking to every single day. Yeah, it's tough, yeah.
Speaker 3It's good to be back. Good to have you back. Yeah, yep, all right.
Speaker 2Catch us next time, see you.
Speaker 3Yep, all right, catch us next time, see you.
Speaker 1See you, I see the big shine. I see the big shine.