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
Krystal Runs, Milk Cartons, And Staple Guns
The thin line between courage and chaos has never been more evident than in the world of School Resource Officers. In this raw and riveting conversation, veteran officer Dave Lennon pulls back the curtain on his 33-year law enforcement journey, revealing the unexpected path that led him from road patrol to the hallways of Kentucky schools.
"Police work is a dark business and you've got to have a dark sense of humor to survive," Lennon shares, before launching into stories that alternate between hilarious mishaps and heart-stopping danger. From his early days making $5.15 an hour at the Corbin Police Department to finding his true calling as an SRO, Lennon's career spans the evolution of modern policing itself.
The conversation takes unexpected turns as Lennon recounts physical confrontations with suspects under the influence, the challenges of maintaining authority while showing compassion to students, and the unique position SROs occupy in a school community. "When that call comes, there's nobody catching it but you—you're it," he explains, highlighting the immense responsibility these officers carry. His experience coaching sports teams, announcing games on the radio, and serving as a father figure to countless students demonstrates how the role extends far beyond security.
The episode concludes with a poignant discussion of the recent EF4 tornado that devastated Laurel County, claiming 19 lives and destroying over a thousand homes. Through this tragedy, the true character of first responders and community members shines through, revealing the resilience that defines Kentucky's spirit. "We've got that mountain blood in us," Lennon reflects, "and we don't know any other way than to stand up, dust yourself off, put one foot in front of the other and keep going."
Whether you're in law enforcement, education, or simply interested in the human stories behind the badge, this conversation offers rare insight into the complex, challenging, and ultimately rewarding world of those who protect our most precious resource—our children. Listen now to gain a newfound appreciation for the men and women who walk the thin blue line in our schools every day.
Music Welcome back, guys. Got another episode for you. Got a little less time in between this one and the last one, yeah we've gotten lazy yeah we've gotten lazy and tried to get back on track with everything we tried to put one out a week.
Speaker 3:We were doing it, we were on trip and then he got a job. I went on vacation and we just got out of the hangar easy, easy to get out of the room, like anything else you gotta get that rotation, get the hat, that's right so when you get out it's hard to get everything going. But I think this is our 17th if you counted right 17th or 18th?
Speaker 2:Yeah, 17th or 18th.
Speaker 3:I don't know.
Speaker 2:We're not good at math. That's why we're in the profession we're in.
Speaker 3:So today we have a co-worker of mine and we met this year. Well, technically we met back when you was calling some games up here at South Laurel for Whitley County, yeah, but really got to know each other this year. But Dave Lennon's with us today and we have had, so I've laughed at you already this year, just not even knowing some of the stories, but I just you've always got something to say. You've always got a story that you've always got to. You've always got something to say. You always got to get a story that you've, that you've done.
Speaker 4:But you know, this is the thing about being in police work it's a dark business and you got to have a dark sense of humor to, to, to survive, uh, and then, uh, just some of the stuff that you see over over the course of a career. Stuff that you see over the course of a career, you know. And then the things we do to each other. That's the interesting thing.
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Speaker 3:Come on in. We're getting ready to put another mic because our good friend Dan's coming. Let me tell you why he's coming up.
Speaker 4:He's coming up to check on me because I was washing my hands. Now I'm going to leave you with that.
Speaker 3:I don't know why.
Speaker 4:Is he going to leave? No, he's probably going to spread the word on why I had to wash my hands. I'm going to leave it. I've got a story that will be germane to this as far as police work.
Speaker 3:I've got a story that will be germane to this as far as police work. Yeah, dan just walked in. Who's Dave Nard's boss? He got out of Dan's office.
Speaker 4:He's seen the mics out and got out of here quick he's scared or something you know, but you've got to be able to laugh at yourself, because you make mistakes, and when you make a mistake, they're usually pretty public. Yeah, yes, and your boys that you're working with I don't care at what level you're working they're going to throw the saddle on you, ride you like a government. You are absolutely. You better be able to handle it. You better find another profession. I work way less about being shot at and whipped out here on the street than I did doing silly stuff and getting wrote by my own workers. Oh yeah, it's part of it. That's exactly why he was here. He was here to throw the saddle out.
Speaker 3:What happened there? We're not going to go into it. I'll tell you a story.
Speaker 4:I'll tell you a story that's kind of like it, though. Okay, I'll tell you a story. I'll tell you a story that's kind of like it, though. Okay, and you know, I was at Whitley County. I worked for the Whitley County Sheriff's Department for a number of years and I was an SRO, but during the summer I would work the road. I wasn't retired yet, so I needed those months towards my retirement and I would work the road, and I enjoyed working the road. It was kind of a nice balance. You work with kids for nine months of the year and by the time you're sick of the kids you go to the road.
Speaker 2:It takes much less time to get sick of the road.
Speaker 4:About three months you're sick of the road and ready to go back to school. So it was a really good balance that I had. And you know I knew, having worked in the schools, I knew so many of the kids and even the adults that had gone through. You know, I was an SRO at Whitley County for 22 years, so I knew a lot of people in the county and I was down in one community and I saw a kid that I absolutely knew was suspended. He was 19.
Speaker 4:He was an idiot. He was an idiot when he was in school and one time he was in the alternative school and he wouldn't go to class and he was sitting out in the gym and they called me and there was one. These times have changed. There was one SRO to cover all the schools in Whitley County, oh gosh. So they called me and said, hey, one, these times have changed. There was one SRO to cover all the schools in Whitley County. So they called me and said, hey, this kid won't go to class and I said I'll be right there.
Speaker 4:So I walk in the gym and I said come on, let's go to class. He said I'm not going, you can't make me. And I laughed and I said if you think I can't make you, you're severely wrong. I said if you don't think that I won't drag you into class and staple you with a staple gun to the seat, you're wrong again. So we had some back and forth and you know it was kind of like the Wild West, that particular alternative school. So he said I'm not going. I said yeah, you are. So I went over there and grabbed him. He had cowboy boots on. I grabbed his cowboy boot. It came off so I flung it away, grabbed him by his ankle he had nasty.
Speaker 3:Talking about washing your hands, he had some nasty socks on, I drug him across the gym floor.
Speaker 4:Of course it was a nice, smooth gym floor, well waxed, so he slid pretty good you know it was no problem.
Speaker 4:And his classroom classroom was actually in the gym. It was an old, old school and you had like three classrooms off the gym. So I dragged him in the classroom and you should have seen the kids in the classroom when I dragged him in because they were like kind of his little entourage that didn't think that this would happen. And I dragged him in. He's kicking and screaming and going on and I pick him up and throw him in a seat and I said I need the staple gun and everybody kind of looked and they said he said please, mr Leonard, I'll stay in class. I said I knew you would. I said don't take it. I said if he gives you any problem, call me, I'll come on back.
Speaker 4:Now in today's times I would be yeah, you can't do it no more. And you know, I knew his dad, knew his dad well, and I called and told his dad what I did and he said you should have put a knot on his head or two just for good measure. I said no, I don't want to do that, I just want to get in class. From that moment on I had zero problems. Out of him or his entourage yeah, sometimes it gets around.
Speaker 3:Sometimes I need to see him. Oh, that guy, he's legit yeah.
Speaker 4:He can handle it.
Speaker 4:Now you know I'm older and wiser and of course I wouldn't do that. Now. Everybody, everything's, you know, the big eye in the sky never lies and it's always watching, oh yeah. So yeah, it's, but this kid.
Speaker 4:Going back to my original story on this particular young man, I knew he was suspended and I saw him in this community. So I flip-flop on him, I turn around and get behind the car and I call it in, said dispatch, I'll be stopping abc one, two, three on this particular road. You know, I said 10-4, give me time. So I I hit my light, he looks up and sees me and he pulls up. I thought he might run, but I guess he remembered me dragging him across the gym. I knew I wouldn't. Great boy, yeah, that's cool. Yeah, I want to grab a road drag. It wouldn't go nearly as well. So I had eaten at Crystal earlier in the evening, that's when I was still at Crystal in Williamsburg, and let's just say that I couldn't complete the traffic stop. I got out of the car and was like whoop, yeah, dispatch signal at that traffic stop, I can get him later. I said I'll be 10-6. I'm being around to my signal one for just a few, they all do.
Speaker 3:It's easy I'm going to be 10-200. Yeah, 10,200. Yeah.
Speaker 4:But the problem was yeah, we'll just leave it right there. Yeah, you didn't make it. Let's just say I had to wash my hands that day too. Yeah, well.
Speaker 3:I don't know how many pissing stories I've told on myself on this podcast, but let's, I don't know what is it we're up to if we've done 17, I'd say 10.
Speaker 2:At least at least 10 or 14.
Speaker 3:The funniest one I ever had and I'm going to. Did I tell one of them when not, or when we got married?
Speaker 2:That you peeing on yeah.
Speaker 4:No, you.
Speaker 3:I had a dream about testing out my grandma's new toilet and I peed all of my brand new wife in the bed. She made me sleep with her.
Speaker 2:She made me sleep with her, and she's still married to me.
Speaker 4:At least that's the story that they're telling.
Speaker 3:I mean, you know, I slept with a trash bag under my bed. Every time I get up it's like she's a saint. She's a saint, is all I've got to say. So that's my last piece to wrap. Everyone tell, but I confess that to you, just you, oh yeah, nobody, no, nobody, yeah, nobody.
Speaker 4:We'll keep that a secret, just between us so how long have you policed?
Speaker 4:uh, I started august 8th of 1990, I started Of 1990, I started at Corbin PD and I worked there until December 1st of 2001. And I thought I was burnt out on police work and I took a really, really good job in a factory as safety and health coordinator. Sitting behind a desk I would go out and walk the floor and make sure that people were wearing their safety goggles and I was writing all the accident reports and safety things and I was doing the OSHA stuff making really really good money. And I knew 45 minutes into the job that I had made a horrendous tactical error. So I called around and I talked to several agencies. Uh, everybody knew I was miserable you know, down there.
Speaker 4:They, it just wasn't. It just wasn't for me. It'd be great job. Yeah, great.
Speaker 4:People were at the particular factory I was working at and, uh, about the second week of april the sheriff from whitley county called me. He said hey, he said our s. Hey, he said our SRO just quit. He said I know you're looking for a job and would you want to come finish out the years in SRO? And he said you know, then we'll go from there. And I said that'd be great. I said but I'm going to be honest with you up front. I said I got a job as a city police officer in another city and I said I can't start there because the guy's retiring. I'm not starting there until June 1st, so I'll work for you until July 1st. I'll work for you through June. He said that's great, I can always use manpower.
Speaker 4:So I started at the Whitman County Sheriff's Department on March 1st of 2002 and absolutely fell in love with being an SRO. And at the time my kids were going to Corbin and I was working in Whitley and they were really young and everything's fine. As it turned out, both kids ended up transferring down to Whitley County in the middle school and so I had the. It was nice it cut down on logistics to have both my kids in the same school system at the same time and it afforded me a lot of opportunities. And at Whitley County for a while I was the coach to be named later. If they needed somebody to coach something they'd say, well, dave can coach that, call Dave, you know. And so while I was there I coached middle school baseball, middle school softball, freshman football. I was assistant JV coach for a little while, but the big thing, oh, and I was SID. They knew that I took a big cut in pay, leaving the sheriff's department and they made me sports information director for like three or four years, really, yeah, well, longer than that, about six years. And it worked out really good. They were paying me and I was going to games anyway, because I was doing them on the radio, yeah, and I would just take my stats, write a story from it, put it out in the paper, send it to the lexington arrow, whatever, yeah, send it out. And I was getting. They were paying me to do that. So then I got into the coaching thing and that was a lot of fun, uh, and I got to coach both my kids at the middle school level and uh, uh and.
Speaker 4:But my big break came, as far as coaching goes, came in 2010. They decided they wanted to restart the cross-country program. Whitley County had been dormant for a while and I had gone to school with the athletic director since first grade, all the way through, and I was standing out there with the principal superintendent and athletic director and I said they were. They were not happy about having to start restart the cross-country program. The reason they're restarted was title nine, yeah, and they said we gotta now we're gonna have to waste a teaching position on a on a cross-country coach, and that's just. You know, they just weren't happy about it, right? And the athletic director says no, no, he said we don't have to waste the teachers, they can handle it. I'm like what you got voluntold? Yeah, I got voluntold, I was going to do it. And Benji said yeah, dave, you ran in high school, you ran in college.
Speaker 2:You know the sport better than anything else. You coached.
Speaker 4:Yeah. So you know, yeah, this should be easy for you. And I was like, well, okay, what's it pay? And it paid a pretty nice amount. And uh, so I took over the cross-country program and then, two years later, uh, the track coach quit. On february 15th, which was the day that track started, they called me I was at the 18-mile marker northbound and they said, hey, the track coach just resigned. I said I'll take it. They said, well, we haven't offered it. I said I don't care, I'll take it anyway. They said, well, we were calling to tell you that you were getting it. I'm like, okay, got it all worked out. But the funny thing was I had just turned down a softball job that morning and I'd used every excuse in the world that they might've believed maybe to avoid coaching softball, cause I didn't want to coach softball at this point that's it's a different a different, different game.
Speaker 4:Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah and uh, uh. So I took over the track job. So I was track and cross country coach at Whitley County for about 10 years, until 2019, and I got out of it and I kept doing radio. I did radio until 21 and I got out of it. And it's amazing how much time that you have when you're not doing radio coaching two sports, oh yeah, when you don't have 15 jobs, yeah, you know but yeah, I enjoyed my time there at the sheriff's department and then in 22 I was, I had retired in 21 and went back to work.
Speaker 4:Retirement didn't stick, which wasn't my gig for me, and I was like I've got to do something. So I went back to work as an SRO. Well, most of my buddies had retired or moved on or this, that and the other, and I'm like, yeah, I've got to find something else here. And yeah, I've got to find something else here. And I'd heard through the Jungle Telegraph that Laurel County was starting their own police department. I thought, hmm, now I know Doug Bennett. He was superintendent here at the time. Yeah, he's from where he taught. I knew him all the way back to when he was a classroom teacher and a wrestling coach and guess what, I was SID, so I had a pretty good working relationship with him.
Speaker 4:So I call up Dr Bennett and I say, hey, I hear you all are. Yeah, we're looking into it. And I gave him my resume kind of a verbal thing over the phone and I was in the first class to have all three SRO and he said, yeah, come up and put an application in tomorrow. He said, yeah, come up and put an application in tomorrow. He said it's not even official, you should get your application. So I was day one hire with our Laurel County School Police Department. Love it. You couldn't run me off with a mop and a bucket.
Speaker 3:I started real quickly. Before Laurel County had their own police department, I started SRO I guess I'm going to say 2012-13 school year was my first year and I filled in for a quick hot minute for an officer that was hurt or had surgery over here at South Laurel and at the time it was just two of us running all 17, 18 schools, whatever it is, and you didn't get bored and they couldn't trap you. You'd be like, hey, I got to go, you wasn't just stuck at one school. You'd be like, hey, I need to head down to this elementary school and had a ball. But they did. They would. Hey, we need an archery coach. Archery, I never. I was like I shot a lot of pistols and I've shot a lot of rifles. I can teach them natural point of aim and I'm not a bow shooter, you know. Going to Louisville with some state tournament stuff and national stuff, you're like, oh, this is cool.
Speaker 3:And then I was like I wish I could teach them how to do this. I'm the worst coach ever for that. And then I was like I wish I could teach them how to do this. I'm the worst coach ever for that. And then coached sixth grade football and got to coach my son. And there's a fine line between being a coach and being a dad and you've got to be that coach out there. It's just almost getting fist fights with your son, beating him over your knee out there. But it was a lot of fun. We had a good time.
Speaker 4:You know I was very blessed, particularly when I was coaching my son and daughter. Both in that Whitley County had baseball bingo. So we didn't fundraise. We still did because we wanted the kids to take some responsibility in it. But I kind of had a rule with both of my kids. I was the coach until we pulled in the driveway, because you know we're riding home together after games and after practice. I was the coach until we pulled in the driveway. Then I had to be dad and we kind of had a rule. We didn't talk about sports at home, particularly not the dinner table, because my wife would have knocked my teeth out some of the things I said to both my kids out on the diamond.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I've got to have that separation. But you know, being an SRO it's a lot of fun and it gives you an opportunity. You know, being an SRO it's a lot of fun and it gives you an opportunity. You know, so many times these kids only see police in an adversarial light. You know you come to their house in probably the worst time that they can have, yeah, and maybe sometimes in maybe a domestic situation, you're taking mom or dad or both to jail, depending and so you're the bad guy. And when you're an SRO, depending, so you're the bad guy. And when you're an SRO, they see you in a completely different light. And guys at the elementary schools and I'll be honest with you, I was not wired for an elementary school At any point in my entire career I could not have been successful. And I started out at Camp Graham Elementary and I loved it and I averaged about 12 hugs a day, oh yeah.
Speaker 3:And 50 cartons of milk opened. Yeah, I mean, that's what you do at lunch yeah, and and and it was, it was good.
Speaker 4:But uh, at some point they said they came to us dave, your heart charger, you are not cut out for this, because I was doing campground and day treatment at the same time. I was spending half day at one, half day at the other. So they saw I wasn't an elementary guy, you know, and so they moved me up here to the middle school and it's been a great fit for me and, to be honest with you, I didn't think I. I thought I was a high school guy and I really liked the middle school. I think it's a really good fit for me.
Speaker 3:It's a. I think it's a really good fit for me. It's a tough, it's a tough age group, but especially sixth grade, eighth grade, especially when you have some hold back kids or whatever, there's a huge age difference. When these 11 year, 11 year olds coming in here and then some I mean there's kids that probably once they changed the driver driver's license, stuff that probably got their driver's license. Maybe you ever ever did, yeah, this school year.
Speaker 4:Yeah, they were kids driving, not they were doing the permit Permit Driving to school, and their parents would get out and you'd see them switching their parking line Right here at the middle school. That's crazy and that's different.
Speaker 3:That's wild. When you have a sixth grade, come in, you know babies really. And then you know, it's different. It is a different calling the middle school Teachers. Lord, I don't know. I asked my wife. She's a teacher, she's in high school. I was like, would you do middle school? It's a special calling.
Speaker 2:You've got puberty and all that coming in at that Babies up here.
Speaker 4:Still. Here's the thing and this is not on Laurel County, because everybody does it now when I went to school and that was back when we rode dinosaurs to school it was junior high, seventh and eighth grade together. There's such a maturity gap between sixth graders and eighth graders, yes, and not only mentally but physically, and fortunately we've not had a huge problem with that. But the sixth graders I see coming in, and not just coming into my school, but I see sixth graders out in the real world when I go to other schools. Sixth graders are just not ready for the responsibility and the freedom that they get in middle school schools to go. The sixth grader is just not ready for the responsibility and the freedom that they get in middle school. But by the end of the year they've learned and they're better and when they come back they're a totally different animal when they come back as seventh graders, yeah, it's different.
Speaker 3:I think I enjoy. It seems like though the innocence is lost and it's you're like holy cow. It takes about a half year for them to really kind of. You're like oh, this kid's different, but it's a middle schooler. I mean, you got them coming all from. You know they're used to their little tiny elementary school. For the most part we got some big elementary schools, but then all of a sudden they're entering in a from all over the county or different parts of the county, and you know it's a different world. They're pied for the first six weeks.
Speaker 4:Yeah, they are, they don't know what to think, but it's all good. And even then you know there's some cool things. This year we had the big audit came in from Kentucky Center for School Safety and they were interviewing kids. I think I got the best compliment. I mean there were a lot of kids that said, oh, he's chill, he's this, he's that. Nobody said anything really negative, which pleased me greatly, but one kid and I don't know who it was said he's really nice.
Speaker 2:But you can tell if you look at him when nobody's watching you can tell he'd be mean if he had to be, which is good, that's a pretty good compliment, because an SRO it's kind of a special position in the fact that your primary objective here is, to put it crudely is to seek and destroy a threat if something happens. But then you've also got to be able to flip that switch and be, you know, kind of a light and path to these kids too.
Speaker 3:So it's a whole You've got to have both of those animals, jekyll and Hyde kind of in you.
Speaker 4:You have both of those animals, jekyll and Hyde kind of in you. Well, you know, the day one meeting we had, dr Bennett was still superintendent. They came in and they were talking to us and Dr Bennett said listen, and there were eight of us that first day, only eight, day one hires. And we were talking and Dr Bennett said you're here for one reason. We don't care what you do other than this, said you are, you're here to kill the bad guy or die trying. And if you're not ready to do that, you need to find another job right now. And everybody you could you could see everybody in the room say yeah, this is it?
Speaker 4:This is what we want to do and you know, as you become more invested in a school, you end up doing more, and you do things that are way, way outside the scope of the league. Yeah, but that's the way that you build those relationships with those kids.
Speaker 3:You know, I mean, how much basketball did you shoot? How many going into class and learning sitting down? I mean it's. But those kids will remember those times more than we'll ever know. We'll forget the names of these kids a lot of times and we'll see them later and they're like you remember me, I was in I was like, was like, yeah, yeah, how you doing.
Speaker 3:I can't remember their names, but, man, the impact that we have is greater than we ever did working the streets as a road unit, um, and it's so important, I think, that we put our best in there. I think it used to be well, this guy, this guy, let's hide him in the schools or whatever, and luckily that never happened in our around here, because you need to have your best officer. That's what Stuart Walker put me in there a long time ago is that we need somebody that we can trust, that we know can do the job.
Speaker 4:When I took SRO1 I was in the very first SRO1 class and Alex Payne was the commissioner at DOCJT at that point and they removed him for whatever reason. I won't mention politics, but they removed him. And a huge mistake. Mention politics but they removed him. And a huge mistake. But I have a ton of respect for Alex Payne. He knocked me out once I took a ASP training. I trained the trainer, I was an ASP instructor.
Speaker 4:We were doing the red man and I kept dropping my left hand. He said time out, he was in the red man suit. I was going to ask the instructor and we were doing the red man and I kept dropping my left hand. He said time out, he was in the red man suit, I wasn't. He said time out. We had to stay in there for like an hour I mean a minute, it seemed like an hour and he said Lennon. He said if you drop your left hand one more time, I'm going to knock you out. I'm like yeah, you are, and we'd go on. And it wasn't 15 seconds, 20 seconds. Once we started again, he knocked me out. I saw the sun and the moon and the whole constellation and he stood over and told me I told you I was going to knock you out.
Speaker 4:But the thing that he said when we were in that first orientation hour, that first SRO class, he said, guys, he said so many people don't understand the job of an SRO. He said to me this is more important than a good SRT unit. He said you should get the best officers with the best equipment, best training, because they're protecting our most precious resource and that's kids. And for so many years I took a lot of guff from a lot of officers, particularly when I was just solely an SRO at Whitley County, and they would say, oh, you're just an SRO, yeah, and the thing about just an SRO, yeah, and the thing about being an SRO.
Speaker 4:When you're in the school and you know you've got your school, I've got my school, the other 16 guys have their schools when the call comes, whether it's from the principal or whoever. We don't get a call from dispatch very often occasionally, but not very often. But when that call comes you can't. It's not like if you're working the road and you're sitting there eating, taking five, and you're eating and a call comes out and somebody says, well, I'm already finished, I'll go catch a call. There's nobody catching a call, you're it, you're it, you've got to go do it. So I mean I thought Alex Payne understands this job. So I mean I thought Alex Payne understands this job. A lot of people don't, and so, yeah, it's an important job.
Speaker 3:It is A little background for the folks that aren't familiar. Kentucky may be the only one, or were the first ones, to require a certified police officer, an SRO, on every campus. Fortunately this school has two or three schools on it, but they provided. You know we got two officers in this but technically they got away with one, but you couldn't have done it.
Speaker 4:One person could not have, there's 4,000 people on this campus.
Speaker 3:I'd say this is like a giant. What I used to think about when I was here is we've got everything that's out there in the city. It's right here, from restaurants to traffic control, to anything. It's a micro. It's a micro.
Speaker 4:It's a microcosm of the real world.
Speaker 3:Yes, and it happens and everything these kids bring from their home. It's reflected right here and a lot of kids what happens here is the biggest thing that ever happens to them. So the bullying and whatever's going on here is huge in their lives and it carries back to their home sometimes and you have to just really muck through all that stuff to kind of figure out like, is this really important? But to those kids it's extremely important.
Speaker 4:Well, you know and it's funny that I ended up in school one of the guys that before I was ever an officer and I was contemplating becoming an officer, I was working for the Revenue Cabinet for the state of Kentucky, if you can believe that.
Speaker 4:I just lost some respect. Well, you know, I get it, believe me, and I decided I wanted to get in something less dangerous than being a revenuer and, uh, so I decided on police officer, yeah, and I was riding with the trooper and I, you know, I'm like dragging it the name's gonna be changed to protect the innocent or the guilty in this particular and I was. I was riding with his trooper and we were working down in South Whitley and, just like here in Laurel County, there's a place where I-75 runs really, really, really close to 25. And we made a stop for DUI and there were like four juveniles in the car and he has the driver out and he's doing field sobriety. I'm standing at the back of the car kind of watching, you know, with the goings-on, trying to figure it out. Those four kids jump out of the car and hop the guardrail and run down. They're going to hit 25. And I said, hey, they're running. And he said they're juveniles. He said that's like catching an 11-inch bass you throw it back and you catch it next year, you know.
Speaker 4:And then I didn't really get it. I mean, yeah, you know, I get it. But I thought no, we're not. You know, you're the police. We don't let that stuff go on. But as I got older and when I became a police officer, I figured it out. But then where did I end up At school?
Speaker 3:After 11 years I ended up in school dealing with juveniles for the better part of my career. On a weekend night we've got a this is a South Laurel kid called T-Dot. Next thing you know I'm up there at 3 o'clock in the morning talking to juveniles because they road units hated dealing with juveniles. They didn't understand. It's no different, it's just.
Speaker 2:Well, I would say this. I would say that your training as a road unit is not as good as it should be. Diddlying juveniles, oh not even close you just know the bare minimums, you gotta call CDW you can't handcuff them to a bench, not saying that would ever happen, since when?
Speaker 4:just joking. It is a different, a different thing. Win, just joking.
Speaker 3:It is a different thing. And one time it was early in the morning and I just came out we had a case, a sexual assault case, and I go out. They called me in. I'm like, okay, and I just came out of a sexual assault school, you know, in service class, and it's talking about never. You know, you never brandize the victim, you never do they're a victim. So first thing, but juveniles, you always brandize a juvenile.
Speaker 3:So I was like I brandized a victim and boy did our detective. She came upside my head. I was like, yes, ma'am, I'm so sorry. I was like, oh, but you just kind of. It's different, it's confusing sometimes and when you're dealing with juvenile's law, you just kind of get into. This is what I do first. This is what I do.
Speaker 4:And then I was like my gosh I did. I'm so sorry, but you know there are aspects that that definitely you know carry over, but it's uh, you definitely have to change gears. When I was, when I would go from the school that first day. You know i't wear a vest in school. There's my one vest laying up there. I got two. I got one in my car, one in my. Yeah, I got two laying in my bedroom at home and I'm glad we don't have to go to the road anymore, but we you'd have to change gears because when I go to the road, you know you put the vest back on, you're wearing things that you don't. You know I'd put my ass back on my belt and you know you change your mentality of how you even approach people and talk to people. So, yeah, you know it was good. And then I'll never forget this I had a big burglary that I'd worked and I went old school.
Speaker 4:I'd worked a burglary and I knew generally where the bad guy didn't know exactly who it was, knew generally where he was from and what he was doing, and so I just set up. I'd come 10-8 every day and I'd set up and I'd write tickets. I'd wrote check-8 every day and I'd set up and I'd write tickets. I'd wrote check all by myself and I was writing. I was writing tickets like just I had. I mean, it wasn't unusual for me to write 15-20 tickets a day in this little community.
Speaker 4:And somebody finally asked me I wasn't going to tell them until I, you know, because we're not working for a sheriff's department, we're not paperwork driven, working for the city. You're not paperwork driven. Now there are agencies that are, but certainly not the county. They asked me they said why are you picking on us so bad? I said, well, there's a burglary over here, this place, and they stole $35,000. And I said I intend to find the bad guy who did it and I put his ass in jail and I want to get back as much as I can. And they said, well, it was old Roy Joe down there and he lives up on the hills and he's probably got that stuff in his back shed. And I'm like, okay, so aggravated enough to yeah, and that's. And you know, I learned that from that same guy who let the juveniles go and uh, they, yeah.
Speaker 4:So, long story short, I did a little more investigating, ended up getting a search warrant served it, we we recovered about $25,000 of stolen stuff and I had a case going. So it was like August 1st when I served the search warrant. Well, guess what? Old dad goes back to school like August 10th. Guess what? I forgot to take the case to the grand jury. Just slap, for God, Because I was tired of the road. Just slapped, forgot, yeah, you know, because I was man, I was tired of the road, yeah, time to go back. And uh, oh, it was maybe the middle of october and the sheriff calls me down there. Him chief deputy just chewed me up one side and down the other. They said they called me and said you did this and that they're chewing on me. I said you know what? You're right, I didn't. I didn't take it, I forgot all about it.
Speaker 4:It was right then school started. I forgot about it. I got going with cross country and football and radio and school.
Speaker 4:And I said I just forgot about it. I said you're all right. I said you want to give the time off or whatever? I said I've earned it. And you could visibly see their shoulders drop because they were so excited because they were going to get you on my tail end, because they just knew I was going to come in with 40-11 excuses. They weren't used to somebody saying yeah, I did it, I own it and I took the grand jury, got an indictment since, got away for, I think, 11-12 years and it all ends well. But that's one of those things when you're an SRO, you gotta keep up with all that stuff. Yeah, flipping back and forth.
Speaker 3:I did it too, and it was a nice break. You think, oh man, I'm keep sharp here on the road, you know they told me when I first oh man. They told me at first. They were like, you're going to be in the schools for three years. Okay, then the next thing, you know, can you do two more years? Yeah, can you do three more years? I was like, yeah, I can. Yeah, just keep extending that rotation, but you know you got that.
Speaker 3:You thought, well, I'm going to get this break and I'm going to, you know, summer's coming and I'm going to take some vacation and I'm going to, you know, work here and do this. And then you're like man, when does school start back? I mean, I remember thinking that I'm like oh my gosh, I forgot about this, why am I working night shifts? I was a sergeant so I was having to fill whoever's on vacation. I was like I didn't sign up to work third shift on the summers, but that just happened.
Speaker 4:But I learned a lot, I can honestly say when I was in the sheriff's department I either worked first or second shift, with the exception of one night. One night I worked one third shift in 15 years with the sheriff's department, or whatever it was, for 21, 20 years with the sheriff's department I worked one third shift and in that one night I had two DUIs and a murder wow, am I in a murder.
Speaker 4:Yeah, that in and of itself is funny. I mean murder's not funny, no, but the whole situation was hilarious. And gosh, I had gotten a DUI. I come out at 23 and got a DUI at 2315. Oh yeah, I come out of jail and they give me a reckless driving complaint. The UI Take him to jail. So it's about 130-ish 115, and they holler at me on the radio I'm the only unit, 10-8, covering Whitley County. I'm the only unit. It's a big county, yeah, it's a big county.
Speaker 4:And uh, so they said possible shooting down in this little community. I said, okay, I'll be around. I was probably 20 minutes away, as hard as I could pedal Big county, it's probably as big as Laurel, and so I'm flying down 25 towards South End. It was down on South End. I get off on Secondary Road. I get up there.
Speaker 4:The trailer I was going to sat out on a little hill. I could see it from a long way away. There were no lights on. I thought, well, that's odd. So I come sliding in the driveway and on the backside of the hill was a bunch of trailers. And I'm not throwing shade on trailers, that's just the way it was.
Speaker 4:And there's probably 15 people up there and there's a dead body in the driveway, so it had definitely been a shooting, and they're running around saying they're going to do this and they're going to do that and they're going to kill people and they're going to. And I'm like calm down. I said we'll, we'll, we'll work the problem here. Yeah Well, boy's mother's laying or laying on the body and I'm thinking, gosh, she's killing all my evidence. You know, I start I'm really in the police mode at this point not detect, but I'm thinking about evidence, securing the crime scene, getting these people out of my crime scene. I'm by myself. So I heard a dispatch that said get me some backup, which Williamsburg City was already coming to me, so they weren't that far behind.
Speaker 4:You know, I go over and I get mom off the body, give her some water, which was a water bottle I had just bought for her. I got and I hadn't even took a drink yet I'm parched, it's in there, it's. It's like in the middle of july. It's humid and hot. I'm sweating like terrible and I'm dying of thirst. But I give her my water, put her in the back of my cruiser, leave the door open and this guy comes up to me and I'm dying of thirst, but I give her my water, put her in the back of my cruiser, leave the door open and this guy comes up to me and I'm talking to him and he's actually a witness to what went on. So I'm trying to get this information from him about what went on. And this guy comes out of nowhere, from my right-hand side, and knocks this guy out One punch. He thought he was the bad guy, he thought he was the shooter. I'm going to kill you. No, you're not. I throw him in cuffs after a short scuffle and stitches.
Speaker 2:He's cuffed. That's a struggle.
Speaker 4:So I put him in the back of my cruiser on the other side, so I got mom here drinking my water and him on the other side of the cruiser, bleep.
Speaker 4:You know I'm thinking, gosh, this is just, this is out of control. So the guy I said you're going to have to send me in addition to the corner, send me an ambulance, and just had one knocked out and they're like, okay, they have no clue what zoo I'm in, all right, and I've still got all these people running around in addition to all this nonsense going on. Well, this one guy comes up and he has like one soup tooth and he says, hey, buddy, what, what? And he said you know that? He told me a guy's name. He said he's still in the trailer with shotgun. Well, if you've ever had your life passed before your eyes, this was it. You know what I'm thinking. Maybe I should have asked that first.
Speaker 4:That probably would have been a good question to ask, but I had all this other stuff going on, yeah. So I'm thinking what am I going to do? Okay, hey, baby shooter's still in there. I knew that would get everybody away, because he's done killed one. So you know what's two Cheaper by the dozen, and so they scat, which was kind of a good thing. It took us a minute to track them all down when my backup got there. So I go knock on the door of a trailer and I holler his name.
Speaker 4:I said hey, police, come on out, throw that shotgun out here and come on out. He said you'll kill me. I said no, I won't. I said they make me pay for my bullets so I't gonna use one unless you make. And uh, he, he, we have some back and forth. Well, he ends up coming out. I cuff him. Well, I got no place to put him. I got mom in the back seat of my cruiser drinking my water, the other guy sitting in the cuffed, bleating all over my cruiser. So I think, think, where am I going to put him About that time?
Speaker 4:some backup from Williamsburg rolls in and I said, here, put him in the cruiser, this is the bad guy, this is the shooter. And so at that point, ksp rolls in Williamsburg City, the sheriff rolls in. They had called him, told him I had shooting and all this stuff. Everybody said, well, well, what'd you need us for? You got everything together. You just don't know.
Speaker 2:I'm gonna ask it looks.
Speaker 4:It looks like I did yeah, you know, the end looked good and of course the body's still laying there, yeah, you know. And so the machinery takes over and we start doing our thing. Crime scene, yeah. And I get home like at 11 o'clock that next morning stayed out, but you think, well, it can't be any funnier than this, right Shit? Yeah, you know. So I end up taking the guy down to the county jail, and this was before. It was up on the hill where it's at. Well, I can't. Now he's downtown and they're. They had sent me two knox county troopers. So I'm saying I knew them both, had knew them well, still good friends with them to this day. This guy knew this other guy. Another guy comes down there that has to do with more stitches and he comes up and he says I want to go to jail. This trooper says I ain't taking you to jail. He said what do I got to do to go to jail? He said there's nothing you can do that's going to make me take you to jail.
Speaker 4:At this point time in the morning. It was like 5 in the morning. At this point I had 4.30, 5. And he acts like he's going to hit that trooper. Go ahead. The trooper drills, this guy Quack, and I mean that's the sound it made and I thought, well, now that's something completely different and at this point there's no stitches involved. But the guy took about three steps back and fell off the curb of the sidewalk and fell backwards and landed on his head. Well, there's where the stitches come in. Idiot, you know. And guess what he went to jail.
Speaker 4:You know he had to go, he had to go at that point. But you know, yep, and I knew that was funny, but I didn't know it would make him cry and choke you up Allergies. So you know and once again that goes back to policemen having this dark sense of humor only policemen would laugh at everything that I just told everybody else, everybody. I've ever told that story. That wasn't a police. They look at me like you need help.
Speaker 3:We've talked about the. We've had to cut some of our silly you know some stories we've told like our. Some stories we've told Our wives or our parents were like you've got to take that out, what's wrong with y'all? And we were like nothing to it and I'm like we better save that for the Patreon page if we ever do one. But you can't help. We just develop a coping mechanism. We see stuff. We just say it, sometimes Trying to trying because humor and dark humor is sometimes the only way we can get through it. Yeah, because we've seen some major crazy stuff.
Speaker 4:Well, you know, it's talking about crazy stuff and I mean people, things that we think are totally normal, other people, they just don't get it. They just don't see the world like police officers do, and even police officers sometimes don't see it for what it really is. Oh yeah, when I first started, this was my third or fourth day on the job. When I first started, this was my third or fourth day on the job we got a domestic in a trailer park right off 25E there in Corbin and once again, you know, I'm three, four days, three days working. You know, and I'm riding with this officer Guy runs out the back and it's dusky, dark, it's about 830. I started, you know, august 8th, so it's probably August 11th, august 12th. It's dusky, dark, still pretty light out. We're running. He ran out the back of the trailer and he's running down through some trees. Now, the grass was cut because it was nice down in there, you know, and it went down towards Heberlin, supply and Corbin and I'm chasing him through the woods.
Speaker 4:Well, this guy had two things going against him. Number one I was 26 years old, in really good shape, about 185 pounds, benching, about 230, in good shape, running. So I, you know, and I'd run in college, I still had that residual good. I was in good shape. That was the first thing against him. The second thing that went against him he was night blind, oh gosh. And he turned around and looked at me seeing where I was behind him. And he turns around and runs slap dab into a tree. I mean kapow, well, sonny Bono'd it. Yeah, that's cold man, I like it.
Speaker 4:Well, you know, at this point I really didn't know how to cuff anybody. I mean, I hadn't learned diddly-doo, so I get the cuffs on him. I'm dragging him back up the hill. He's bleeding like a stuck pig. He's got a big cut right down the strength of his forehead ends, at the top of the bridge of his nose, top of his nose where he ran into the tree. Well, the guy I was riding with was a little older, a little fatter. Well, the guy I was riding with was a little older, a little fatter, a little lazier. He's like you can't be whipping them like that. You're not injured. You've got to go to court. I said I didn't do it. I said he ran into a tree. He said that'll never stand up. Nobody would believe that he ran into a tree.
Speaker 1:And the guy said no, I ran into a tree tree, he said he's bullied you into saying that. No, I didn't.
Speaker 4:He ran into a tree. You know. He said no, really I ran into a tree. He said he didn't. He said he's been nothing. He said he was completely professional.
Speaker 4:You know and convinced that you did it yeah yeah, but he was just convinced that I had whipped Now on down the line, him and another officer. This was probably I hadn't gone to the academy yet, but I was out on my own. They holler at me and they said come on, we're going to service warrant. And it was on this old cat who just fought the police. Every. It didn't matter what, he just fought the police that. It didn't matter what, he just fought the police. That was just part of him going to jail. It was fighting the police. And I really didn't know that going in. You know, I had, like I said, I'd probably been out two months at this point, been on my own two weeks because we all rode six weeks and then we were out on our own. This is old days, right, own, yeah, this is old days, you know. And uh, so they three cars roll in there and they said here's warrant, go service. Aren't y'all gonna go serve? No, I said this is on you, you're gonna go serve us, okay, not a big deal.
Speaker 4:So it was a two-story apartment building and I go upstairs, knock on door. He answers door. I said hi, t-dot. I said I got this warrant for you. You're going to go to jail with us. He said I'm not going. I said, oh yeah, you are. And he said, no, I'm not. I said, no, you're going, one one way or the other you're going.
Speaker 4:And the fight was on and we fought, all, made about two laps around the apartment, one, one, something down the hall and we both went down the stairs not on our feet and we roll out and the fight's on still, they stood there and watched and I finally get to cuss on him and, you know, got a brand-new uniform on yeah, I mean two weeks old, you know, I've been out two weeks. Destroyed Pockets mean two weeks old, you know I've been out two weeks. Yeah, destroyed Pockets. Torn, the badge hanging. It was terrible. I was madder than fire, but I didn't get it. Then I was mad at them for not helping me number one. And then I get it because they wanted to know I wasn't a cower. Yeah, that I wouldn't run from a fight. They wouldn't let me get my ass whipped, they just wanted to make sure that I was going to, that you had it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they would jump in if it looked like you started losing.
Speaker 3:Yeah, if I had started losing, they wouldn't say that you'd do it, yeah, and win or lose they were going to Right.
Speaker 4:They didn't care whether they won or If you, as a police officer, if you say you've never lost a fight you just started yesterday or a lot, I had a guy.
Speaker 3:I never won my first fight until I became a police officer.
Speaker 4:I haven't lost many dang fights in my life.
Speaker 3:That's awful. I've got to learn how to do this better.
Speaker 4:Yeah, you know, and I think the best police officers kind of walked on the dark side just a little bit before they became police officers and they had been in some fights because they know how to take a punch. Right Now I fought a guy. He was an MMA fighter, he was mad depressive, off his medication and he had another diagnosis and we ended up four of us falling. It took four of us to get him in cuffs and he hit me with the backhand. I had him in chokehold prior to this and nobody had ever escaped one of my chokeholds in all my years as a police officer and he escaped the chokehold first on me. I had met a chokehold before.
Speaker 4:I was like, hey, gum, what happened here? Jeez, I get out of it, you know, but I might not if those other officers hadn't been there. But he, I'm beside him and he has been with a left hand, back hand, right in the right in the face and I'm laying back in the we were fighting in a ditch and I'm laying back in those wet leaves looking up at the pretty clouds, saying, oh, the clouds are so pretty. The bird's twerping, wait, what am I supposed to? Oh, yeah, I'm in the fight.
Speaker 4:So we jumped back in the fight and we get to cuss on him and they're in the front. Well, you know what that means. These can't fight, you know. So we take them off, fights back on, we roll them over and get to cuss. Um well, we call her for backup trooper, who y'all probably know shows up, he's. He's sitting there holding him. He's sitting on. He's got a knee in his back. He's holding him. See, he's sitting up on the roadway because it was on a main road. And that guy says he's laughing. This guy has just whipped four police officers. All four of us went to the hospital. I spent three weeks off work. He kicked me in the knee and it was terrible, but he was laughing. And listen, he, he took. I mean, we hit him with everything we had and he was laughing. He said he taught you. He said you need to teach these guys how to fight. That's with their ass.
Speaker 4:And we're like yeah, you did, but you're going to jail.
Speaker 2:We won, you won the fight, we won the battle.
Speaker 4:You won the battle, we won the war.
Speaker 3:Listen, I've fought some people, especially when they got wild on meth or something. Man, they'd take every one of us and I'm like just let him go we can't win this.
Speaker 2:It got to the point when we would respond to Roger yeah, that I remember the last time that we did. Didn't even have to fight him that time, but nobody had talked about this. But I roll up first. Two cars come in behind me. I come out, I pop Taser already. I look behind me. Everybody else that got out of the car already got their Taser out. Everybody's got the same idea we ain't fighting this guy.
Speaker 3:People just like to fight yeah and so, and, or they're just high. They just don't know a little better. And every time you deal with them they're high.
Speaker 4:We Corbin there for a while was kind of like a revolving door on people's way out to KSP. There was a while it was kind of like a revolving door on people's way out to KSP. There was a trooper I was training. He wasn't a trooper. Then he was a corporate police officer. I tell you his name. I won't say it here Once again to protect the innocent and the guilty.
Speaker 4:I was training him he had two or three cases going on. I was training him and he had two or three cases going on and we had just and they gave us out a call. We were coming off a call and there were two units there. So I said you go on back to the PD and I'll catch that call because it's nothing. And I said it's B is called, I'll take it. And he said okay, I got to catch up on my cases. He had an accident or two, you know how you do trainees. And I said it's B, it's called, I'll take it. And he said okay, I've got to catch up on my cases. He had an accident or two. You know how you do trainees.
Speaker 4:Powerful, this cat's name I don't remember his real name, but we called him Popeye. He was 5'4", 145 pounds and he whipped my ass all over 7th and Kentucky for seven minutes before I got back up and I got. It's the only time I ever cussed on the police radio and I was in the fight and I hollered on the radio. I said get me some Some help.
Speaker 3:Yeah, some help, that's what I said and the funny thing, was is.
Speaker 4:I saw they were. All the units were going north on Maine and I said they hollered at me. I said 403, you need backups. I got this. It's Popeye. He's 5'4", 145 pounds. But once again he was off his meds and I couldn't hurt him In that fight. I broke the orbit around his eye, I broke his right arm, I did something to his pelvis. He spent three days in intensive care. I did all that and it still took three of us to get him in cuffs.
Speaker 4:Wow, and the funny thing, we had a major out with us. Deputy chief. It was on second shift shift and it was cold. It was just starting to snow. You know you've fought so hard or exerted so much energy that you're tasting blood. You know you're just done. You just you've got nothing left. That's where I was and I. He was in the back of my cruiser and I sat down on the cruise and I went. That's where I was and he was in the back of my cruiser and I sat down on the cruiser and I went, ugh, and I started gagging. He had defecated on himself at some point during the fight and I got out of the car and I went up to the major and I said we're going to have to call a record for my cruiser. He said what's the matter? We won't start Because we had junk. Back then when I worked at Corbin, this was an 85 slip top that would do 85 downhill with tailwind and it was junk and I said no, it starts fine. I said Popeye, shit his pants, craft his pants.
Speaker 3:Sorry, we're good, we got it. We got it. What do you call it? We got it worded explicit. Yeah, it's explicit. Okay, so he had just shit his pants. We got it. What do you call it? We got it worded explicit on our thing. Yeah, it was explicit.
Speaker 4:Okay. So he had just shit his pants and I said I can't stand the smell. It's gagging me. I said normally it wouldn't bother me a bit. He said he took a long, deep breath inside and he said I'll drive your cruiser back. So he drove the cruiser back. He did, man. I tell you what I it was. It was terrible because we had holding cells there at the pd and we couldn't sell they still have those?
Speaker 4:yeah, I think they still do. I was sitting in there back then. We killed the forest at corbin when we made an arrest you have to do all this other stuff arrest data sheets and this and that and the other and citation and all this stuff, and I'm sitting there doing my paperwork fixing and we'd call the ambulance for him. I could still smell him. So I'm sitting there trying to type or write up my citation, you know.
Speaker 4:And those guys are walking by me laughing their asses off. You know, oh yeah, but I spent two weeks off work after that fight. I hit him so hard, I jammed up my wrist and I had to, and the funny thing was that that was when I actually thought, you know, this is fun, even though all that, it's different. Yeah.
Speaker 3:You know I was in the Marines and I got beat up a lot, choked out, I mean all kinds of stuff, but it was just more platoons challenging each other.
Speaker 3:They wouldn't let it get to you. Some guys were beasts and they would choke you out and beat you up pretty good, but they weren't going to let you get really hurt. But our business is a little different. I remember I took this guy up to the hospital. He was breaking in over here at the John Deere dealership, stealing stuff or whatever. We caught him and he was a little intoxicated and we were putting him in the car and he cut his eye a little bit. You know how thin that is like. When he was getting in he stumbled Like it was legit. We didn't put him in, you know, hurt him Because we was already 10, 15 glad.
Speaker 3:It was like he was late too and I take him to jail. We're not, we can't take him. He's bleeding. I'm like put a Band-Aid on that. So we get to the hospital and we're having to wait. You know how you have to wait in the ER and this one is at the old one and I'm looking. I'm like I smelled, I was like I think you got marijuana on you, man, and I pulled a little bit out of his pocket and I wasn't going to charge him with it because I've already got him with burglary and some other stuff. So I'm like man, you know who cares, even though you know back in the day if I found a seed, you would go on, but this is one. I was like I've got enough, I've already wrote the citation. Well, that just.
Speaker 3:I think he thought it was okay because he we, they'd taken his cuffs off to treat him and I didn't have him to the bed or nothing like that. Well, he starts trying to wrestle around with me a little bit and one of the nurses came over. It was a male nurse. Well, he grabbed him right by the throat. This guy did my prisoner. He started choking this nurse and I was like what is she? So I grabbed him. I'm like what is she? So I grabbed him. I'm like whoa, stop. So he decides to grab me by the throat.
Speaker 3:I was just like, finally, and I hit him. I mean, he had to. He was going backwards, he was starting the already snore sound. It was really cool. But to me he thought, well, well, that was awesome, let me do it again. As he was falling, I threw this little ugly hook around and broke my hand. Yeah, I was out for six weeks on that. That doc. The doctor was watching it all, dr wilson and he was like he said that first punch was a hell of a shot. He said you're gonna need a, you're gonna need a x-ray on that sacral. I'm like what? I look down and you know that bone's sticking up.
Speaker 3:I start getting getting queasy about to pass out. I'm like you're alright, you're alright. So they went back there and x-rayed it and all that. He's like, yeah, you got a broken hand, but I missed six weeks on that and you know, you got other things Palm Hill or Elbow Strike, you know all this stuff. I'm like, yeah, but I knocked that dude out, slaps out.
Speaker 4:You talk about a bad guy choking a nurse. You ever heard of a nurse choking a bad guy? No, no, I fought this guy. He was on PCP.
Speaker 3:That's a rarity.
Speaker 4:This was old school and you know what's funny. You know, uh, this guy, you'll know him too. Uh, and I'm not going to use his name, oh yeah, I was training him and we got in a fight and I knew that he was a short-timer in corporate PD and of course he was Great officer. I mean, he was really good. He would have made a great roguenew at any agency. Oh yeah, I mean, I understand why he ended up where he ended up, you know. But I get it. But he once again, you know he was doing paperwork or something. I was training him and we'd already been there earlier in the evening. It was no big deal. I was going back the second time. I said, don't worry about it, I'll take care of it. So I get there and this guy tells me I'm going to go in the kitchen and get a knife and cut your heart out and eat it. I'm like, yeah, you are, come on. And of course we fight. And the ambulance crew was already there because he was acting so crazy. They called the ambulance first and two other corp units get there who were worthless as tits on a boar hog. I ain't even lying, I'm talking to this guy and they're standing there going, ooh, ooh, ooh, I'm helping, not jumping in, oh yeah, you know, come on, guys, I ended up getting one of them back later on in life, but they're not helping me. And finally I get him in a chokehold. And it was all good when he was in a chokehold, but the minute I let up, man, the fight was back on. So one of the ambulance guys I keep him in a chokehold. One of the ambulance guys ends up cuffing him, not the police, he takes my cuffs and cuffs him. So we get him to the hospital. That's embarrassing, oh yeah. Oh, it's terrible.
Speaker 4:We get him to the hospital and they put him in four-point restraints and this nurse happened to be married to a trooper Great good trooper and she was a great nurse. And he was in there and he was screaming and yelling and they were going to use activated charcoal, which is fun if you've never seen that. No, I've seen, yeah, it's so much fun to watch. And uh, this, this guy, hit the ceiling, uh, when he, when he got rid of the charcoal. But uh, he was screaming and cussing going on and and he was trying to kick and he got a pinched on her leg or something Made her mad, but he called her a bitch and evidently that was her trigger word and she grabbed him by the throat I mean cut his air off and she said I've had about enough of your shit.
Speaker 4:She said you calm down and she said I'll fix you. And he said she let off. He said you calm down and she said or I will fix you. And he said she let off. He said fix me. And she said send me a garden hose catheter. I have never heard a man scream like that in my entire life. And while we were waiting on her to bring this I don't know what kind of catheter, it was big Just catheter scares me. I think I've got a do not cath card, catherine scares me, yeah, I think I've got a do not cath card.
Speaker 4:You know she says you need a pure sample right and I said yes, ma'am. Whatever you say yeah, whatever you say yes, ma'am, you're charged. And I never, ever, ever, heard a man scream like that, because you know they normally lube it up and use that cream and all that stuff. She said you're tough, you can handle it. I'm like oh my gosh, it was the craziest thing I've ever seen in my life. Deserved, he earned that, I'm telling you it's never fun.
Speaker 3:when you got, I had one up there. I fought all the way in the ER. It was my DUIs how I met. Bring him in the ER. We fought all the way to the hallway. I'm dragging him, we're fighting, I'm calling for backup. Anyway, I get up there, the guy kicks a tray of whatever needles. To this day, one of the nurses is like you saved my life that day. Well, they came in there to cath him too. They pulled his pants down. They started laughing at him. I was like, oh my God, what's worse?
Speaker 4:He's probably trying to hide from that cheap stuff, you know your catheter's coming, Trying to climb up back home stuff.
Speaker 3:You know your Catherine's coming.
Speaker 4:We're back, trying to climb up back home.
Speaker 2:We used to have an unwritten rule on Night Shift. Anyways, if one of us got shot or something, don't let them cut our pants off. It's the last thing we do. We're already shot. We don't need a bunch of. Umt last minutes. I got blood loss.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I just got out of the pool. It's funny, yeah, shrinkage, shrinkage, shrinkage. It's been in the cold, the pool's cold.
Speaker 3:Gosh, he does cool stuff too. I mean, how many ballgames do you think you've called in your life? I mean, you caught a little bit here this year with my brothers, with the Cardinals.
Speaker 4:Yeah, you know, I started in 1987. I was on the radio station down home and we did Williamsburg football and basketball and then we did that in 87, 88, 89, we switched over to Whitley County. We did all their football games and probably half their basketball games. We didn't travel a lot and then after that we would only do boys' and girls' doubleheaders, girls' games, but we would do a lot of boys games. So I would probably do 20 basketball games a year and then later on we started doing all football and then we would do probably 25 boys basketball games and maybe 15 girls basketball games. We did that for a number of years.
Speaker 3:Keep you hopping.
Speaker 4:Yeah, we did that for a number of years. Keep you hopping. Yeah, I was moving all the time. Bless my wife's heart. She put up with that for so many years, not to mention your policing.
Speaker 3:You're also gone to these games. You've got to do what you got to do, man. There ain't no money in policing.
Speaker 4:You know well, there certainly wasn't. Back then, when I started at Corbin PD, I made $5.15 an hour, sure To start, but I wanted so badly to be a police officer, yeah, you know, and to make ends meet you had to work a bushel basket full overtime. Yeah, you know, and that's if they were giving it back to me.
Speaker 3:Yeah, back when I first started in 0-2, 0-3, when we come, we get into the overtime, you got to take it off. Got to take it off, uh-huh, okay, sometimes that day. All right, this guy's getting off at this time, so we need you to take off your overtime in the middle of the shift.
Speaker 4:That's wrong yeah, things are better now but I guess from where I sit, we've got it made pretty good. But you know this week has been tough on first responders period, whether you're firemen or EMS dispatchers, police officers, everybody. It's been really really tough because we've had this tragedy here in Laurel County and I know those guys, aside from being just physically tired, working extended hours, having to, just the mental toll that it takes is just horrendous on these guys and people don't see that because police officers are tough, they've got to be or they couldn't last.
Speaker 3:What is today? Today's the 23rd, so last Friday we're a week out. Yeah, the 23rd, so last Friday we had the tornado EF4 tornado that really just did a from.
Speaker 2:Somerset all the way to Laurel County.
Speaker 3:In Russell County all the way to London, laurel County, into the London city, damaged a thousand homes or something?
Speaker 2:27 fatalities.
Speaker 3:Yeah, 19 right now.
Speaker 1:I think they said and you know I had an aunt that lost everything.
Speaker 3:I've got friends, we have so many coworkers that work for the school system that were affected and it's one of the worst things I've ever seen. And you know, going out just to my aunt's and moving stuff and seeing the. You know I went out that night to find her and just when I was out there that night it was the eeriest. And I've worked some crazy stuff. I've seen some, you know, but that was the most helpless I've ever felt in law enforcement because I was like I don't know, I don't know how to do to fix myself right now to go help somebody. And those folks that went out there and did that with friends and family and coworkers that were injured and killed was beyond anything we could ever expect. That's just true heroes and they've shined this week.
Speaker 3:I'm impressed with how this community has came together, put everything aside and came together yeah because it's been kind of weirdly political anyway, and to see us get past some of that stuff and come back is like this is who really this town, and it's not just law, this kind of I mean the, the you?
Speaker 3:know people from all over all over and the charities that you know like, uh, what's the ones that the, the merc, is it the food, mercy, mercy, kitchen, all my chefs, yeah, mercy. And then the, uh, samaritan's purse, some of these folks that I've got to sit and talk to, well, you know we came out early.
Speaker 4:We didn't come out early, we came out today and then had to go up to Carmichael Community Church and unload a couple of vehicles of donated items. You know, our whole department was there and that came from bell county board of education. Yeah, and give them a shout out and yeah, that you know. Uh, there's in sports and whatever they're, they're rivals, yeah, but when, when it comes nut cutting time, oh, you find out.
Speaker 4:You know people, you know and you know for me, I live in Whitley County, I live in Corbin, and I told my wife that night. I said I said I've got to get ready and go up there. I said we were going out of town the next day and she said she talked me out of it against you know, and she said if you go, you won't come back. And I said okay. So we went and I was going to see Billy Idol in Nashville and I'd wanted to see him forever and I bought the tickets in January. I had a good time but my heart wasn't as much in it as it normally would have been Because I was worried about larp, right, yeah, and uh came back. We came back sunday and uh, when I was going north, leaving town, you know, going to nashville, I went up to 80 and across her parkway, you know, over to bone green when I saw the devastation.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you drive right by it, you know, and file. Yeah, you know, and I was just I was killed.
Speaker 4:And the man said are you crying? And I'm like, no, I'm not crying. But you know, because policemen don't do that, we're not supposed to, I'm not crying, you're crying, but yeah, and that's. And Monday, you know, we were out of school, it didn't work. Sunday, you know, we were out of school, it didn't work, and I got up, me and Jeff Anderson, another one of our officers we got together, we went over into the devastation zone. We worked, not because anybody, because that's what we do, that's what we do as police officers and servant leaders. And this week, you know, we've done stuff. Next week our department's going to relieve London a little bit and help them out, because they're kids. Somebody's stealing a police car.
Speaker 3:Is it yours?
Speaker 4:No, it's not mine. Is it mine?
Speaker 3:No, it's my old charger's. I don't know who it could be my favorite, just you know there is a huge rivalry between, especially, south Laurel and Corbin and you see these Corbin kids up there in some of these places, these football teams and working. You know real close and know each other Because the district tournament games were Monday and Wednesday here and you could just it was more than just a baseball and softball game.
Speaker 4:You know, you're right, and people don't get it until they've been through, get it until they go through it. And you know, we've all been through all kinds of natural disasters floods, ice storms, snow storms, this, that and the other but nothing compares to what I've seen. No, but listen, hats off to all first responders, firemen, the unsung heroes, dispatchers Absolutely yeah, all first responders, firemen, dispatch, the unsung heroes, dispatchers absolutely yeah, you know, and I've worked with some wonderful dispatchers, of course, les leatherman, who was a dispatcher, and one of the best. Everyone sit behind the mic, you know, and, uh, we're all missing. Yeah, uh, it's just, uh, it's tragic. But and you know, we were working I looked around, saw these people and I'm thinking how can we come back?
Speaker 4:How can anybody come back from this? How can we come back from this as an individual, these people who lost everything house I was working at, the wind blew so hard, it tore the carpet off the floor. Yeah, the house is gone, but it tore the carpet off the floor too. And how did he come back from that? But how did he come back from his community lost 19 people and some wonderful people, man, you know, uh, but that's the great thing about where we live in kentucky. We've got that mountain blood in us and we don't know any other way than to stand up, dust yourself off, put one foot in front of the other and keep going, and that's where we'll be. We'll still come back from this. Yeah, I looked at.
Speaker 3:December of 21 is when Mayfield got wiped out, western Kentucky. I was looking at their what it looks like now before you know, and I know you know they hit the heart of downtown there. It takes time, it takes, it takes togetherness and that's all and just love and patience. And we just got to get get through this shock of funerals and they're already starting to happen. I know it's been just tough. We got a lot of grieving to go before the rebuild stuff even happens as friends and family are devastated right now. So, yeah, we'll, uh, we'll end it right there. I know it's not on the most positive note, but well, no.
Speaker 4:I think it is positive. We all agree that we're going to come back.
Speaker 2:We're going to come back stronger and better yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, this time is been. Time has been tough, but you see what we really really are capable of as a community, and just not London Laurel County, but the extended community, our neighbors, like in Corbin and Whitley and Rock, you see, all your surrounding counties, not to mention they're coming from everywhere across the United States. It's been pretty neat. We'll conclude it and we'll just keep praying for our community and lift us up and make sure that we're okay because there's going to be some tough times ahead.
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 3:Thanks again, dave, appreciate you, brother.
Speaker 4:We'll do it again. I've got a bunch more good stories. Oh yeah, We'll have some more sitting here.
Speaker 2:Enjoy. Thank you All right, catch you on the next one.