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
Blue Lights on the Bayou
Chris Mann shares pulse-pounding stories that reveal the split-second decisions officers face daily. He recounts the night he came within a hair's breadth of shooting an innocent man during a miscommunicated call, describing how "I pulled that trigger all the way back to the second click" before the subject dropped his weapon. The weight of that near-tragedy didn't hit him until he was driving away, realizing how close he'd come to taking an innocent life.
Music All right guys.
Speaker 2:Welcome back to another episode. We've got a first for us today, so hopefully everything goes according to plan. We're doing a remote interview today over the phone, so hopefully we have no technical difficulties and no gremlins in the system. You know you can't feed them after dark, Can't get them wet.
Speaker 3:This will be a fun one. I'm looking forward to this Doug's with us again, so he.
Speaker 2:We're just going to bring Doug on full time. I think he's full time. He put him on payroll.
Speaker 3:None of us make any money so it's easy to do, so we're excited, doug tell us how you all met so that way we can before we introduce Chris.
Speaker 4:Well, when I got hired as the CSO, up at the courthouse in London, they send you to training for 40 hours. It's at FLETC, which is the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, down in what's the name of that town, somewhere Savannah, georgia. It's in that area, somewhere.
Speaker 4:Yeah, glanco Georgia, what Gl, yeah Georgia, what Glencoe Georgia, glencoe or Glencoe, yeah but anyway, I got down there and just happened to you know, making, you know, introducing ourselves and got to talking to Chris. He'd stand out in the parking lot in the evenings and I would, too, Talk about things. Kind of reminded me of the King of the Hill kind of guy. Yep Just standing out in the parking lot talking.
Speaker 4:Yep, but that's how I got to know Chris, and he's just a great guy. We've done a lot of things together while we was down there, but I'll let Chris take it from there. Great guy and uh. We've done a lot of things together while we was down there and uh, but I'll let chris take it from there so, so we've got our guest tonight.
Speaker 2:He's coming all the way from baton rouge, louisiana. It's christopher man. Chris, how you doing, uh, doing good, how you, we're all right, we're here, we're kicking. That's all we asked for.
Speaker 4:Above ground.
Speaker 3:brother, Tell us about how you got into the military. Tell us what all you did there.
Speaker 2:Looking at his background here, he's been serving the community or serving the country since Genesis. Yeah, I've been serving the country since Genesis. Yeah.
Speaker 5:Well, I come from Old Dale, louisiana. That's my hometown, born and raised, and I graduated from Old Dale High School in May of 75. And shortly after that, 12 days later, I went active duty in the United States Air Force as a law enforcement specialist.
Speaker 2:So what made you choose the Air Force?
Speaker 5:Well, I just I found it where I wanted to be. He was smart.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he was smarter than everybody else.
Speaker 5:I didn't really want to see a lot of action like the Marines or anything like that, you know. Oh, I know.
Speaker 3:I get it, you're a smarter person than the bullet sponges my father, uh.
Speaker 5:He retired out of the army as a lieutenant colonel and uh my oldest brother. He was in the army as military police. Uh, my, my daddy was a infantry. He was in the World War two or when he would Jima yeah, I guess the kind of the only one.
Speaker 5:I got two brothers. One of them said my oldest one went in the Army and my middle-aged brother he didn't go into service, he chose to lead back. But, like I said, I went out to duty June the 12th of 75. And actually June the 13th of 75. And I did my basic training law enforcement training and combat training at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, texas. And when I finished up there with training I was assigned to Eglin Air Force Base, fort Walton Beach, florida, to Eglin Air Force Base Fort Walton Beach, florida. I served over there from 1975 to 1978. And after that I was supposed to go to Hickam Air Force Base, hawaii, and I ended up in Kumsan. Korea.
Speaker 5:You got the short end of the stick on that one, didn't you? 747 took a wrong turn somewhere, it kept going.
Speaker 5:Everybody that had been there for like three years or more all of a sudden started getting orders to my not to leave to the Greenland and place. If you didn't want to be necessarily so, I went down to personnel and I put in a oversee preference and I guess it was about a month after that they sent me orders to Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii, but it was a two-year tour and I only had a year left in service. So they told me if I wanted it I would have to extend the year. So I extended that year to accept the tour and two weeks after I extended they canceled my orders, that's the way they do it, that they cancel my orders.
Speaker 5:that's why they do it. So a uh mccarnell told me that uh, a married couple had bought me out of the assignment, uh, and he told me to wait about two weeks before I bought my stuff back. I had already sold everything, getting ready to go to hawaii, and, uh, he told me to wait about two weeks because they might reinstate my orders. So I waited two weeks and nothing happened. I didn't hear nothing. So I went out and bought probably twice the stuff I had before it was stereo equipment and what have you and two days later I get orders to Kunsan Korea. So I got to thinking you know, that assignment was a 12 month assignment and I was going to take a 30 day leave, so that would only leave me with 11 months left in service. My colonel told me that my extension was canceled as soon as that Hickam assignment was canceled. So I said, well, I ain't got nothing now, probably because they'll probably keep these orders too when they realize I only got 11 months left in service versus a 12-month tour.
Speaker 5:And so time went on and I packed my bags and I went to Kunzang Korea. And when I got over there I walked into personnel and I said what's the deal here? I said y'all going to give me an early out and separate me out for the wife. And uh, sergeant looked at me. He said what do you mean early out? I said this is a 12 month tour. I only got 11 months left in service. He said no, sir, you got a year and 11 months.
Speaker 2:Surprise they kept getting you.
Speaker 5:I said no, surprised they kept getting you. I said no, I said I got 11 months left. He said yeah, but you extended the year. I said yeah, that was to go to Hawaii, where's the palm trees at? I said no. I said seriously. I said my colonel told me that my extension was canceled when that Hickam Air Force Base assignment was canceled. He said sorry, charlie, don't work like that. And he said once you extend, you got 30 days to cancel the extension yourself or you, you in for the duration of the extension. Uh, so yeah, he said well, you, probably. You probably can get out of it. Uh, considering the circumstances, he said, but you know, go through a lot of red tape doing it. He said so basically your choices are you can stay over here for a year and 11 months and we'll separate you and you're free to fly home, or you can Stay over here for 12 months and go back to the states for 11 months. And so I left. I left Kunsan Korea so fast. I left in a helicopter.
Speaker 1:Laughter, laughter, laughter. I left Kunsan Korea so fast, I left in a helicopter.
Speaker 5:That was probably one of the absolute worst places I've ever been. It's nasty and filthy and it's a war zone. Now, the capital of Korea, seoul, is really nice, but as far as Kunsan, when I did my 12 months over there, the Freedom Bird what we call the freedom bird was a 747. It flew out of osun, korea, uh, which is, I guess, about a two-hour helicopter ride, and one of my buddies was a, a warrant officer, a helicopter pilot, and he was flying the osun.
Speaker 5:The same day I out processed and I said hold up, I'm gonna get my double bag and I'm coming with you. And the freedom bird didn't leave till like three days later and he said uh, he had told me that. He said the freedom bird don't leave till three more days. I said that's all right, I'll be out of here, I'll be in Osa, that's how I left Korea.
Speaker 5:I flew with him to Osa and stayed in guest housing over there until that 747 took us home. And then from there I come back to my hometown in old nail and my middle-aged brother he was the instrument technician over in Beaumont, texas at the time and he had called me on a Wednesday and asked me if I wanted to go to work with him and his boss wanted to hire me. And so well, I had called him that Wednesday. He had told me that before I got out of service and I called him that Wednesday. I said check with your boss again and see if he wants to still hire me. I said I'll come down there this weekend and start to work Monday morning. So he called me back and he said yeah, he still wants to hire you. And I said all right, and I said tell him I'll be there Monday morning.
Speaker 5:Well, thursday morning the chief of police in my hometown. He called me and told me that he had lost three city officers to the state police and said he was short on people and he needed somebody he could put on the road right now. And now I hadn't even been by the police station or put in an application or anything else at that point he said I know you just got out of the military police. You've been in there for five years. And he said I need somebody I can put on the road right now. And I said well, I don't know, chief. I said I got a guaranteed job starting Monday morning. He said where's that at? I said in Beaumont, texas. I'll be working with my brother.
Speaker 5:And he said what do you know about IT man? He said you've been in law enforcement for the last five years. He said won't you come on and come to work with us? I said well, I don't know, steve, I'm going to have to think about that, I said if I was to tell you, yes. I said when I start. When would I start? He said tonight at 10 o'clock.
Speaker 2:That's quick, yeah. Short notice for you.
Speaker 5:Well, that's pretty quick, sir. I said man.
Speaker 5:I said I don't have a uniform or anything else. He said oh, don't worry about no uniform, son. He said put on some blue jeans and I'll have a uniform shirt for you when you get here. And so I went on with the hometown police and kind of in the blood then you know being in the military police for five years. And so I was thinking, uh, old dale city police for two years, from uh 1980 to 82, actually 83 and then I got a uh and I had a friend of mine that he had started out with oakdale too and he was working with a Lafayette Sheriff's Office in Lafayette, louisiana.
Speaker 5:So one day he took a mental patient to Pineville, louisiana, from Lafayette and he'd come through Oakdale, going back to Lafayette, and he taught me into going to Lafayette. So I went to Lafayette Sheriff's Office in 83 and Pro Division and I stayed down there until 93. We had some assignments during them. 10 years I've been in a couple of hostage situations and barricaded suspects and stuff like that. I guess the worst night we ever had that I can remember was though we was working the week and it started off a Friday night.
Speaker 5:It was a friday, the 13th of full moon and a payday weekie, oh no that's the worst combination and uh, we started off from the house running cold that night, that friday night, on emergency calls and we ended the show Saturday morning still running cold and day shift come on running cold to relieve us Saturday morning. We had six actual shootings that night let me back up here.
Speaker 3:This is what county this is Lafayette.
Speaker 5:Oh gosh, let me back up here this.
Speaker 3:What county uh, this uh well, it's Lafayette, parish, parish, yeah, they come, and that what's the big city there is that like well, the, the the biggest city there is would be Lafayette.
Speaker 2:Okay, yeah what was what? Was the population back then, is it?
Speaker 5:uh, I don't really know. Uh, what was the population back then? I don't really know. I would say maybe 50,000, a little bit bigger it's not as big as Baton Rouge, but it's getting that way now but it was probably 50,000, 75,000, somewhere around there, I guess, at the time. But we was rocking and rolling for the much-none-stop. Like, I say, that Friday night we had six actual shootings there for a minute. We had a shooting call on hold that we didn't have nobody to respond to it.
Speaker 5:Uh, so that saturday morning when I got off, I, I had, uh, and I guess I was down on like six reports and, um, so I, I, I worked on my reports for a little while before I went to bed that Saturday morning and went to sleep, woke up, did it again Saturday night. Saturday night was the same thing all over his Friday night and Sunday morning. Come along, I was down about five reports from Saturday night. Now I'm down to like 11 reports. And so again Saturday morning I worked on some of my reports for a couple of hours before I went to sleep. That Saturday morning, sunday morning, and I said, well, this is Sunday. I said it'll be quiet tonight. I said it'll be quiet tonight. I said I'll finish all this at work tonight.
Speaker 2:Dangerous word right there quiet.
Speaker 5:I went to bed and I guess it was about 12, 12, 30 noon. Somebody was banging on my door. Somebody was banging on my door and I opened up the door and the guy was hollering. I lived in a trailer park at the time. The guy was hollering you the sheriff, you the sheriff. I said, well, I'm not the sheriff but I work for him. I said what you got? He said we got a black guy holding two females hostage at gunpoint over here and I said, yeah, that's about right. We got a black guy holding two females hostage at gunpoint over here and I said, yeah, that's about right. I said hold on a minute. I said I'll be with you in just a minute. So I uh put my bulletproof vest on and uh put my sheriff's office jacket on and I called the office and uh, music dispatcher. Pretty well, that was uh dispatching. I told him what I had. I didn't know it at the time because I hadn't turned my radio on at this point, but they had a rescue operation in progress when I called and I told the radio operator what I had told them. I had a situation to give me some backup, so I jumped in.
Speaker 5:My unit called 10-8 en route and I was following the complainant to where the suspect's house was and he pulls up and stopped. I pulled up and stopped behind him. I got out of my car and it was trailers on both sides of the road. I said okay. I said where's this guy live at? I said where's this guy at, man? And he pointed to the trailer right in front of my car. He said he's right there. I said well, thanks for the warning buddy.
Speaker 5:We went in his trailer, which was across the street, and the hostage taker called the complainant on the phone and he said you tell the sheriff's office that. I said get out of here right now, I'll start killing people. And I said, well, this is not good. And it was two, uh, mother and daughter that was inside the trailer as hostage and um, so I, I told the uh, I had my portable radio with me. I told the, I had my portable radio with me. I told the day shift lieutenant what this guy said that he was going to start killing people. So what we did is I gave my they had command post set up going in the park and I gave that guy my sheriff's office guy, gave him the keys to my unit and I told him to go take it up to the command post at the entrance to the trailer and turn it over to one of the deputies. Turn the car over to one of the deputies out there and so that's what he did to turn the car over to one of the deputies out there.
Speaker 5:So that's what he did. It took us six and a half hours. The hostage negotiator finally talked the guy out, but it took us six and a half hours to do that. That's a long time to talk to anybody. Yep, that it is, but it ended up well. I mean, one of the hostages got out the back door of the trailer, the daughter did, and then the hostage negotiator talked him into letting the mother go. So it come out without anybody getting hurt or killed, so that was a good thing.
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Speaker 2:So definitely something you might want to check out. Uh, services include individual marriage and family counseling. Let's be honest as first responders, our marriages, our families, sometimes take a second, second seat or a back seat to to the job. So I can't imagine that we any of us would ever need marriage counseling or anything to fix the problems at home. Hopefully you don't. But if you do, they're good at what they do so they can help you out there. Um, family counseling mat, substance abuse counseling, parenting classes, supervised visitation and medication management, all delivered in a supportive, client-centered environment. They are located at 148 commercial drive in london, kentucky, and ascend wellness is here to help you rise. If you are interested in visiting or contacting them, you can find them at ascendwellnessorg or call 606-260-8532.
Speaker 5:Yes, sir, Absolutely he is. That's how that Sunday night started.
Speaker 3:Then you went on shift.
Speaker 5:Wasn't going to be quiet. I stayed with Lafayette for 10 years and then I come down to East Baton Rouge Sheriff's Office. Well, I stayed actually with Sheriff's's office until 85 and then I took a sergeant position with bruce or city police and I stayed with them until 93. And then I come up with that east baton rouge parish uh sheriff's office. They was paying a little bit better so I joined them. Uh stayed in the uniform patrol for the first five years. Uh, second five years I did uh in traffic. We uh. I've seen some excitement also with east baton rouge when I was in uniform patrol.
Speaker 5:Uh, when I was in uniform patrol uh, one one of them comes to mind, my mind back in lafayette. When I was with lafayette uh, they called me out a roll call one night on a call and uh, the fuel pumps was outside and right outside the building where we do roll call at. So I was training the deputy uh guy by the name of glenn I don't remember his last name, but that was his first night full time in the unit and they called us out of roll called the uh, the subdivision down there in lafayette called orangewood, orange Orangewood subdivision. It was just a routine speak to deputy call. So I filled my car up before I left the building with where the roll call was and we took off and, heading for Orangewood Subdivision, glenn started telling me about it.
Speaker 5:He rode quite a few hours with the Reserve Division. He started telling me about the different calls he had been on and this and that. I said well, that's good, at least it's not like your very first night in the unit, you know. And uh, you've been on different calls and what have you. Well, by the time I said that, they called me back and said uh, disregard that previous call. Said we need you en route. It was the same subdivision we need you en en route to such and such Orangewood Boulevard.
Speaker 5:That we got a rape in progress and your victim is 11 years old. I said okay, en route, glenn said well, this ought to be an arrest and he said I've never been on one of these before. I said yeah, it might be. We took off lots of sirens and when I got within hearing distance of Orangewoodwood subdivision I cut my siren off and when I got within visual distance of it I shut my lights off and, uh, turn into the subdivision. It was like in the 800 block. I probably could still take you to the house to this day. Uh, still take you to the house to this day. It was in the 800 block and, like I say, I had all my lights off. We had brake keel switches and everything and had brake keel lights on and I got down to about the 700 block when I turned off.
Speaker 5:Orangewood is off of Johnson Street, so when I turned off of Johnson Street on Orangewood Boulevard, I've seen headlights turn behind me, a vehicle coming in behind me, and I got down to about 700 block and stopped. It was a pickup truck, stopped behind me and a female jumped out of the passenger side and said that's, that's. Uh. My sister in the house said her name's rachel. Call her by her name and I said okay. I said, is she in? Is anybody else in the house by uh, besides her? She said no, she's the only one in the house. I said, all right. I said y'all just stay right here behind my car until, uh, until we get everything straightened out. So we uh, me and glenn approached the the house. Uh, we had backup coming, but backup was about, uh, I don't know, probably about 20 miles away.
Speaker 2:Now in that area was it, was it sectored? Off in the parish. Did you have sectors that you were responsible for, or was it just kind of first come, first serve?
Speaker 5:No, we had different sectors. We had I don't remember exactly I think like 8th sector. It was divided up between North Lafayette, south Lafayette and Central Lafayette. I guess you would describe this as Central Lafayette. Johnson Street is kind of the dividing line between north and south, and so we go up to the house and it's a. It's a open carport. It had a car underneath the carport and the engine was warm, the hood was warm. So we walk around the house first to make sure it wasn't no forced entry or anything like that. Come back under the carport, the door was on the left hand side and on the right hand side they had a kitchen window, uh and the, uh, the, the curtains was open where you could see inside the house. So I was standing to the left of the door in case somebody shot through the door or something. And glenn was standing to my left.
Speaker 5:Now I was, I was used to being by myself. Uh, that glenn was. He was the first, one of the first deputies I trained. So I was looking through this window and I was knocking on the door at the same time. And I knocked on the door and I hollered, rachel, and I didn't get no response and I knocked on the door the second time and I hollered Rachel again and I didn't get no response. And I knocked on the door the third time and hollered sheriff's office and uh, about that time I seen this guy with a 12-gauge shotgun walking towards this window from inside the house. Well, the first thing hit my mind ain't nobody supposed to be in there but her.
Speaker 5:So I jumped across the hood of the car that was under the carport and glenn, glenn, seen the shotgun about the same time I did, and he hollered gun. Well, when he hollered gun, I was on the other side of the car and uh, so he jumped the hood behind me and this guy, I come to the door and he opened up the door and he started coming down with that shotgun. And I was behind the hood of that car. I had a we was carrying 357 and magnum, then old six shooter, and, uh, when he started coming down with that shotgun, I started pulling the trigger by it. I learned that him, the sheriff's office, dropped the gun and he couldn't see nothing but my head. I mean, I had my body behind the wheel. Well, and he started coming down and kept coming down and I'll pull that trigger if you, if y'all familiar with that with the old six shooters smith and wesson, when you start pulling that trigger back, it's got two clicks on it before it fires. And I pull that trigger all the way back to the second click. And I mean at that point, if you breathe on that trigger it's going to go off. And when I got to that point, when I got to that second click, luckily he threw that gun down, so I eased the hammer back down.
Speaker 5:He was trying to tell me something, something, but I wasn't giving him enough time to tell me I was interested in him dropping that shotgun. Uh, but what he was? He was trying to tell me that he was the, the racial's brother, and uh, so what it was. What it ended up being is the girl was home by herself and somebody called over there and asked if Christine was there. Christine was the older sister that was in the truck and she said, no, she's not here. And he said, well, I'm going to come over and help you and hung up the phone. She's not here and he said, well, I'm going to come over and help you and hung up the phone. So she called her mother and the mother called the brother and the brother called the daddy and by the time it got to the sheriff department it was a rape in progress so through the telephone game information got the brother shot gets more dramatic as it goes on.
Speaker 4:I've noticed so through the telephone game information gets sent. It gets more dramatic as it goes on.
Speaker 2:I've noticed that that happens quite frequently between the public and dispatch. By the time it actually gets to the officer, the information may or may not be accurate or bigger than what it is.
Speaker 5:So it turned out it was a brother. He kept him at gunpoint and showed him and brought him in. He had his wallet in his dressing drawer in his bedroom. I said you better make sure that's the only thing you pull out, Because it's only going to be the last thing you pull out.
Speaker 1:That was a close call. There. There's a butt-puckering moment for both of you.
Speaker 5:You know all that. I'll tell you. What all that bothered me is when I got in my car and started driving away from the scene. That's when it really got to me. That's when it really got to me Realizing how close I come to killing somebody innocent. But yeah, that's part of the job. Luckily it didn't end like that. We started driving away and I started shaking a little bit and Ben said man, I thought you was fixing to shoot that guy. And I said well, I thought you probably shot him. He said no, dude, I was waiting on you to shoot him.
Speaker 3:Well, thanks man.
Speaker 2:I was waiting on me to shoot man. Yeah, that's. That's never something you want to. You want to hear with your backup.
Speaker 5:I was waiting on you how long you can stay with it I told him, you know, I told him don't, don't wait on me. I said if you think you're justified in shooting, shoot yeah.
Speaker 3:It's a good lesson, did he stick?
Speaker 5:with it.
Speaker 3:Did he stay with policing?
Speaker 5:Yeah, yeah, he stayed with it as far as I know. Like I said, I left it had been a good while, I guess a year or so after that, and went to Baton Rouge and but as far as I know, he, he, he stayed with it. Um, east Baton Rouge, uh, I've seen some action down here. Uh, there again, I've been in a couple of barricaded uh, barricaded gunman situations, a couple of hostage situations, dedicated government situations, couple of hostage situations with uniformed patrol. Like I say, I stayed with them for five years to start with and for traffic five years after that now doing military, police and then civilian police was it?
Speaker 2:was it an odd? Transition to go from police and military to police and civilians.
Speaker 5:Well, not really. I mean, back then you had law enforcement, then you had security police. I was in the law enforcement side, security police. All they did was, uh, guarded the? Uh runways. Uh, basically, um, they guarded the runways uh for the, for the fighter jets and stuff like that. Uh, if you had an installation that had nuclear weapons, they guarded that. Basically, we was base police, which is just like city police. You're responding to traffic accidents, domestic disturbances, burglars, everything you see with the city police.
Speaker 2:So it's all the same calls for service, just on a different kind of campus.
Speaker 5:Right right, you own a federal property, a military installation, versus the city or county or whatever. But it's the same type of calls you would get in city, police or county. You know I never really had any. I've never really been involved military police, I've never really been involved in standoffs and stuff like that. That rarely happens on a military installation. It does happen now. Back then it didn't.
Speaker 3:You get your fair share of domestics and fights at the E-clubs and stuff like that.
Speaker 5:Not that I was ever involved, but still and stuff like that Not that I was ever involved, but still we used a non-commissioned officers club, NCO club and officers clubs on the base and every now and then you'll have fights like that at the bar, you know, and have to respond to that. The only I guess the only serious thing that I got into really was uh in in korea we had uh I was base police but we had a division uh called town patrol and uh they patrolled uh the town, uh for for military personnel mainly, and they had our office downtown in uh in the village and they had uh our guys uh air force law enforcement and they had uh uh 82nd airborne military police army together down there. All of them guys with 82nd airborne I believe was Black Belts and Karate.
Speaker 5:They had a total of seven of them combined Air Force Police, a total of seven of them, uh, combined air air force police and the military police. And one night they called for base police backup. So I, I knew, when they called for base police back backup, I knew they would. They uh, it wasn't a fun time, we loved them. We loaded a pickup truck full of uh, uh military police and uh law enforcement uh side and responded down there and why they didn't shoot this guy, I don't know. They should have uh, but when I pulled up down there it was several officers laying on the ground, uh, he had, and one guy standing there and I got out of my truck with that M16. And when I started getting out of my truck he got down in the karate stance and I'm looking at seven on the ground, hurt. And when he got down to that karate stance I had him at gunpoint with that M16. I said, partner, I'll cut you in half. Laughter, laughter, laughter. That's how we arrested him. But how that started?
Speaker 5:It was one of our sergeants that was walking by himself. He had went to get him a pack of cigarettes at the store and he was walking back to the office and he run into this dude. He was a military guy, but he was a karate expert guy. And uh, but he was karate expert and this guy was drunk and causing a disturbance in the streets. Uh, so normally it would be one air force and one 82nd airborne walking together. But uh, he was by himself because, like I say, he was just going to get a pack of cigarettes and come back. And uh, so he runs into this guy and he tells him look, partner. He said won't you, won't you do me a favor and get on the bus and go back to base? They had a bus that run in between the base and town back and forth. And he said won't you give me a, do me a favor? And uh, get on the bus and go back to base. Said you too drunk to be out here on the street. And he said elf, you. And uh, the sergeant said, look man. He said I'm not actually. No, no problem. He said just get on the bus and go back to base.
Speaker 5:And dude told him again elf, you and sergeant reached for his nightstick and before he could pull it out, that guy kicked him off a roundhouse. He almost killed him. He was in critical condition. They had to motivate him back to the state. Wow, yeah, he put him. Uh, he, he was in critical condition. They had a matter of a matter of back to the state. But uh, he laid all seven of them out there. I guarantee you I would have shot him I ain't getting knocked out.
Speaker 2:That's called wisdom, right there yeah.
Speaker 5:I've seen in this two or three police officers laying on the ground. Your days are numbered. I'm not fighting you, that's for sure.
Speaker 2:I've seen what can happen. I'm not taking that chance, wow.
Speaker 5:East Baton Rouge. Like I said, we had some action down here too Several hostage negotiations, barricaded women. I was in one shooting one night. That was a pretty bad night. It was a state trooper that clocked this car speeding and this happened about, I guess, probably 50, 60 miles out of Baton Rouge, down below a place called Covington. And he clocks this car speed keep in mind, this is before the mobile data tournaments and computers in the cars and what have you. So this trooper clocks his car speed and he pulls up behind him and runs the plate for restoration stolen and the plate comes back to a brown pony at Bonneville and he sees a blue Honda Accord. So he said well, something ain't right here, you know. So he turns on his lights and when he turns on his lights, the the passenger leans out the window and starts shooting, shooting at him and the driver puts it to the floor and takes off and uh, they come, they. They come down interstate 55 to i-12. And uh, when they, when they got to i-12, a state state trooper had the entrance ramp blocked off and he hit his car in the front end and knocked him out of the road and kept going.
Speaker 5:They got on I-12 coming into Baton Rouge. Of course we didn't know all of this had happened. But they got on I-12 coming into baton rouge and uh, uh, I tried to trailer driver and call that trooper on the on the cb. He said look buddy. He said I'm out here on i-12, probably about two, three miles ahead of y'all. He said y'all, y'all, y'all need any help stopping this old boy, you just let me know. And that trooper says when you see us coming, stop him. He said I don't care how you stop him, stop him. And that trooper said they were doing 125 miles an hour in the left lane and that, and they seen that tractor trailer in the right lane and right before that that the violator got to him. That tractor trailer pulled in front of him, uh, in that left lane, and he said that guy slammed on the brakes and slowed down about 85 miles an hour and he jumped off in the median and passed that tractor trailer in the median and come up and never look back.
Speaker 5:Well, they come down. They come down the baton rouge. And coming into baton rouge you got, uh, the the amy river bridge, uh, it's a two lane each way, two lane east, two lane west. A state trooper had that bridge blocked off and he did the same thing to him. He hit him in the front end and kept coming and um, so I had come out of a place called Forest Park and, uh, not too far, they called uh Baton Rouge for for assistance and um, so I I got on I-12 and I was sitting under the the Millerville overpass, which is the next exit down, and well, two exits down actually and I seen him.
Speaker 5:I was underneath the overpass and I seen him. I was underneath the overpass and I seen him coming in my rearview mirror and I guess the guy saw the reflective signs of my car and he turned off onto Millerville. So he goes down Millerville. Of course we can't turn around because it's a retaining wall in between the east and westbound lane.
Speaker 5:So I took off to the next exit down, which is sherwood farce, and um, that guy had went down millerville to uh old hammond highway, which old hammond highway parallels i-12, and he almost hit one of our traffic units head on at the intersection of Old Hammond and Millerville. So we get down to Sherwood Forest and we take a right heading towards them, get to Old Hammond and we turn right heading towards them and me and a state trooper had passed me when I was on I-12. And we got down on Old Hammond and highway. We set up a roadblock. Uh, I had my car on the right right lane and he had his on the left lane and we down below our cars with, uh, with our guns. He had a shotgun and I had a. We was carrying a 10 millimeter smith and weston at the time and that's they started to stop somebody
Speaker 5:they started coming at us and started shooting out the window and we, I fired twice at the driver and, uh, that trooper, he unloaded with that 12 gauge double op buck. Uh, he fired four rounds at the car with that double op buck and we, uh, we knew he wasn't going to stop. Uh, he, he tried to go around the driver's side of the trooper's car first of all, but it was about a six foot ditch there. And when he seen the ditch, he headed for the opening in between my car and that trooper's car, which, uh, we didn't, we didn't leave him enough room to get by us. Uh, and he hit the driver's side of my unit and took the whole driver's side off. I didn't know it at the time because we had jumped off the highway. And when he come through us and the units come through, I started running for my unit. I wasn't jumping in and enjoying the pursuit. I got to the driver's side and there wasn't no driver's side.
Speaker 2:They charge him with theft of a vehicle. That way too.
Speaker 5:Theft of a driver's side, it was just all glass and metal. That trooper come over to me and he said I didn't know who the trooper was at the time. He said that son of a bitch tried to kill us. And.
Speaker 5:I said, yeah, tell me, tell me. And so he got out, he went into his unit and put his shotgun up and he called his lieutenant. The lieutenant, which is they were from another troop, they weren't even from the baton rouge troop. Uh, he called his lieutenant and he said hey, lou. He said you know that pursuit we had going on. I couldn't hear what the lieutenant was saying. I all I could hear was the trooper and uh, he said man. He said we got a hell of a deal down here in Baton Rouge. He said me and this deputy. He said I don't know who this deputy is. He said we never met each other, but he said I guarantee you we'll never forget each other. We had a roadblock set up and he said that's what we're going to come through and try to kill both of us. He said uh. He shook his head. He said yeah, yeah. He said both of them shot at him when he come through. And he said they still came and they got about.
Speaker 5:Uh, I guess another, maybe five miles and the car was so tore up that he finally had to stop. But it ended up being the driver was a 20-year-old Los Angeles Crips street gang member and the passenger was a 17-year-old wannabe. He wasn't actually a game member, but he was in the initiation phase of becoming one. But the real reason they was running was they had robbed a store in Ascension Parish, which is probably about 20 miles out of Baton Rouge, and they shot the clerk. We didn't know all this when the pursuit was going on. We found out all that afterwards. That's the real reason that thing was running. They probably won't see sunlight again. They they were charged with uh several counts of uh attempted first degree murder of police and uh attempted murder of that that cashier and uh arm robbery and a bunch of bunch of charges.
Speaker 2:Wow and no seatbelt and no seatbelt. Yeah, no seatbelt Was there a lot of gang activity in that area at that time.
Speaker 5:Not really. It was unusual for somebody to be down here from LA. We had one black session down in baton rouge when that was back when uh, the crips and the bloods was real big uh game fighting in la. And, like I said, we got a black session down here in baton rouge and they, they was wanting to beat the crips and the Bloods also, they called themselves the Crips and the Bloods. They would fight amongst one another, kill one another, shoot one another and stuff like that. It did happen. But that was our own clientele. There wasn't nobody from LA. You know, like I said, that was kind of unusual for that to happen. I guess it was just out of joy riding trying to make that dude part of the game.
Speaker 4:I guess he passed his initiation phase with that little ordeal.
Speaker 3:He's a blood member or a crypt member in prison, though.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I don't think they'll be out for quite some time, if they get out at all. They luckily didn't lose their lives. The two rounds that I fired one round went through the hood of the car, went through the firewall into the car, and the other round went through the windshield and went through the driver's headrest. Wow, so the driver was low riding.
Speaker 3:He saw that hand cannon shot gun.
Speaker 5:He got low so that 10 millimeter was so powerful. Actually it was, uh, it was breaking parts inside the gun.
Speaker 5:That's why we quit using it and uh, but uh, yeah, that's what that 10 millimeter works, uh and um, like I said, they, they, they was very lucky, they survived that. Um, but uh, uh, yeah, we had uh, I wasn't working, but we I'm sure y'all heard about it up there in 2016. We had an ambush on law enforcement. We lost two city police officers and three sheriff's deputies. I remember that, I remember, yeah, police officers and three sheriff's deputies. I remember that, I remember.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that was real close to the time when the Dallas those guys in Dallas got ambushed too, wasn't it All during that time frame?
Speaker 5:That was Alex Sterling deal. The police had killed Alex Sterling and that's, that's that's what caused all that. Uh, this guy that uh initiated this ambush on law enforcement down here in baton rouge. He was from missouri and he drove all the way from missouri to to carry that out. Wow, but all of them guys got killed down there. I worked with every one of them. Wow, that was a bad deal. We had another officer just died today city police motor officer. He passed away today. A black guy intentionally run over him on his motorcycle and, uh, that happened a couple of weeks ago and he had been in intensive care ever since. Uh, they amputated both of his legs trying to save him and lost his life today on it.
Speaker 4:Was he retired? Was he still the police?
Speaker 5:No, he was active. He was on his way home from a shift on his motorcycle, wow, on his motorcycle, wow, and this guy, like this guy, intentionally, intentionally hit him. Uh. He admitted, uh, hatred for law enforcement, yeah, that that it is uh, but um, it's been quite a ride, uh. Like I said, I stayed with VBR East Baton Rouge Parish uniformed patrol. Five years traffic, five years Traffic. We didn't really see that much action. We saw a lot of fatality accidents. I was on the fatality team Anytime anybody got killed.
Speaker 2:We had to go out and reconstruct it.
Speaker 5:Reconstruction had to go out and reconstruct it and all that good stuff. After that I went on with State Police Department of Public Safety and I spent six and a half years with them. I retired with Department of Public Safety.
Speaker 3:I guess you were with them when Hurricane Katrina happened. Then huh.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I was in Lafayette. Probably well, we had in 16, it wasn't a hurricane, but it was a real bad rainstorm that flooded Baton Rouge hurricane, but it was a real bad rainstorm that flooded Baton Rouge. It flooded Baton Rouge. It didn't flood where my house is, but probably 90% of Baton Rouge flooded and that was in 2016. Uh, I've, I've been through a hurricane. Uh, hurricane, andrew in the hour. Yeah, andrew, I was in lafayette when that happened and I was in a, a one-ton high-rise water vehicle vehicle in case the water come up we was 10-8
Speaker 5:for 30 hours. That was the one that went through, like Miami, then up right, yeah, yeah, it hit. It hit New Iberia pretty hard. I knew I'd be. I guess it's about 10, 15 miles south of Lafayette and, like I said, that was the longest I've probably been 10-8. I was 10-8 for 30 hours straight. Wow, that is a long shift, a long, long shift.
Speaker 5:And, uh, we got winds up to, uh, I guess we got winds in the life of the uh, about 130 miles an hour, wow, uh, yeah, and I was patrolling until trees and power lines and stuff like that started falling and uh, when that happened, I found me a big cement parking lot and, uh, I went out and sat in the middle of that parking lot and I guess we had been 10-8 for probably 20 hours then and I had, I had my arm on my armrest and I had my head, uh, I had, you know, I I was resting my head on my hand and half asleep, and a gust of wind hit that truck and knocked my arm off that armrest. I looked up and my whole truck was rocking and I was. I got my second wind when that happened.
Speaker 2:Gosh, now was there looting and things like that. Afterwards, no, not here.
Speaker 5:That happened a lot in New Orleans, but down here we didn't have too much of that. New Orleans flooded during Katrina and Gestalt and it was a lot of looting going on down there. I mean, the police was fighting a losing battle down there and some of the police even turned on the dark side and, yeah, they started looting themselves. I guess, they were well-joined.
Speaker 4:Can't beat them, join them.
Speaker 2:Turned into pirates.
Speaker 5:But yeah, that was a bad time for New Orleans. We didn't have that much loot here in. Here in Baton Rouge it uh, and I mean everything was pretty much peaceful, uh, except for the flooding, you know. Um, no, that was, that was about it. Um, but uh, all in all, I guess it's been a good ride. I I've never had to fatally kill anybody or, uh, you know anything like that. So, um, yeah, I, I wouldn't go back on the street now, nothing in the world. They couldn't, they couldn't pay me enough to be be back on the street yeah, they don't pay us enough either.
Speaker 5:It's just no respect for law enforcement. No more, it's a whole different world.
Speaker 4:I agree with that.
Speaker 5:Yeah, yeah, it's been quite a ride. It sounds like it.
Speaker 3:You've had a good long career. Now you're still doing some work with them.
Speaker 4:You're in a similar position, but don't have to deal so much with the public.
Speaker 5:Right, yeah, I've been to too many law enforcement funeral. Uh, I hope I don't have to go to another one we've been through two and I hope that's.
Speaker 3:That's two more than I wanted to go through, so I hope we don't go through anymore.
Speaker 5:Yeah, yeah it no, it, uh, it it happens uh, especially down here. You know, uh, one year uh I don't remember exactly what it was, it was several years ago we had a deputy sheriff killed Kanjabaho Parish, and they was escorting the body from the church to the cemetery. And they come into a real bad storm on their way to the cemetery, I remember that, and a tree fell across. One of them units and it was two deputies in there. He killed one of them. That one was in critical condition. They had to medically retire. But I mean, there you go again. That was escort one alone. You know what a crazy way to go.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I remember that. Yeah, that's just freak accident right there.
Speaker 5:Yeah, that it is, it sure is. But. I'm like I said, I've seen my share. I've seen more than I wanted to see.
Speaker 4:Yeah, we all have, that's for sure. You come through unscathed. Looks like other than probably the mental stuff of it, but physically you're doing good. That's a good thing.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I've never seriously been injured or anything like that, never been shot, thank God. Like I said, it's been a ride.
Speaker 4:You never did pull no pranks on nobody.
Speaker 5:Our own officers. We used to. I mean we used to. I'm sure y'all remember the Baby Moon hug caps and stuff like that the police had back when we was driving Dodge Deppamats and Plymouth Grand Jets.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I remember that that was in the early 80s.
Speaker 5:Yeah, we used to put rocks inside the hubcaps we do that to our shift lieutenant and uh, you know, we we'd uh jacked one time we jacked up the back end of his car where the tires were just touching the ground it wasn't really touching, you know and we went in and told him we had a real bad call and he was kind of like you know, and he run out there.
Speaker 5:He was parked in the Sallyport this was in Lafayette he run out there and jumped in that Diplomat and cranked it up and put it in drive and got on the accelerator and it was just sitting there, stuff like that, you know. Um, we had uh, this was in the military we had one guy that was bad about leaving, leaving the keys in his unit. When we get to the scene he'd leave the keys in the unit running an unlock and we had a. We was on a burglar alarm one day, one night and he pulled up there and left his unit running and left it unlocked and we got in and drove around to the back of the building and he come out and got his car. That's happened numerous times here.
Speaker 4:I was going to say, that must be a pretty common prank among officers. We've done that to. Richie a lot.
Speaker 5:We started wondering where his car was. I don't know. Partner, you better call the lieutenant and tell him somebody's car.
Speaker 3:That's funny, yeah, buddy.
Speaker 5:Yeah, we've heard things like that, you know, not on the general public, mainly amongst us, oh that's where, that's the best, that's the memories. You got to let the public along.
Speaker 3:They're sensitive.
Speaker 4:They are sensitive.
Speaker 5:But yeah, I mean I enjoyed it, it's been a nice time.
Speaker 2:Would you go back and do it all over again?
Speaker 5:Negative, negative, negative.
Speaker 4:Even if times were different than what they are now.
Speaker 5:Yeah, like I said, I lost a lot of good friends along the way.
Speaker 4:Yes.
Speaker 5:And the way things are right now with the world, I wouldn't do it. I wouldn't do it, no more.
Speaker 3:You'd have went on to Texas, went into IT. Yeah.
Speaker 5:I've known what I knew. Now that dang chief.
Speaker 3:Listen this has been a fun podcast. Now we want to come down there. We got to come down and visit you.
Speaker 5:Y'all are welcome anytime. Man Pack your bags and come home.
Speaker 3:I'm down, I'm down.
Speaker 2:We got to find us a good hole in the wall where we can get some good yeah, some craw, get some good crawfish.
Speaker 3:I tell you Louisiana is the only southern state I've not been to, so I have to go. I've got to check that one off my list. That's it. Other than that I've been to everything except, you know, minus, like Montana and stuff I still got to get to, but I've, of all the southern states, that's the only one. Really I was close and I should have went. I was just trying to get home too quick.
Speaker 5:I drove cross country for a year and got the trailer. We was running about 600-500 miles a week, jeez. We'd stay out for five weeks straight and come in for one week and back out for five, another five weeks, but the first four months I had been in all 48 states. Wow, the first four months. So that I mean that was good. My trucking career didn't work out real well either.
Speaker 3:You never did make it to Hawaii then.
Speaker 5:I found out real quick. Truck driving wasn't my career. The I found out real quick truck driving wasn't my career. The first guy I started running with him and I was good to go. This was in 03, 04, between 03 and 04. He liked NASCAR and he liked law enforcement and I love NASCAR and so he was interested in hearing some of my law enforcement stories and you know. So we got along great and we I think it was in February we was going to Los Angeles and we had a load to deliver in Los Angeles and then, after we delivered that load, we was going to Daytona Beach, florida, and he was in good with the dispatcher. So the dispatcher hooked us up with a load out of Daytona Beach, so we was going to go watch the Daytona 500. And after the race we was going to go and pick up that load.
Speaker 5:Well, we was on our way to LA and I was driving coming through Nevada and the owner he was sleeping in the sleeper and during the night I hit something in the interstate. I don't know if it was a piece of steel or what it was, but when I hit it I felt the tire hit it. After that the steering wheel would shake. It'd shake for five seconds and then it'd drive straight a mile and then it would shimmy again. I woke him up and he pretty well knew the United States pretty good. I woke him up, a guy by the name of Ricky. I woke him up, I said Ricky. I said I'm sorry to wake you up, man. I said but there's something wrong with this truck. I said the steering wheel is shimmying. And he looked up, see where we are, wheel shimmy. And uh, he looked up, see where we are. He said well, when you get down, uh, uh, mile post 140. He says uh, pull over. He says we'll check it out. He said they got a truck stop there. We'll, we'll check and we'll check the truck out. I said all right. So we pulled that truck stop. Then we checked the entire front end of that truck uh, tire rise, the, the tires, everything. And we couldn't find nothing wrong with it. So we refilled. We had, uh, 250 gallon tanks, one on the side. We refilled the tanks and got back on the interstate, took off and he got back in the sleeper to go to sleep and we was kind of running, running behind time a little bit. Uh, he said. Uh, he said if it starts shimmying again when you get down a mile post 120, it's another truck. Stop down there. He said, pull over and we'll have a mechanic check it. I said okay, he said if it doesn't shimmy, he said between now and 120, just keep rolling. I said all right.
Speaker 5:So we got back on the interstate, I took off and between 140 and 120, it never shimmied. I said well, I'll keep rolling. So I kept on rolling and I got down to the 105, 15 miles further and I had the cruise control set at 75. That's what the speed limit was. And I pulled out in the left lane and I passed the car and as I was coming back into my lane, that driver's side of the steering tire blew out. And uh, when it blew out, I got on the brakes and that when I hit the brakes that that truck started swerving from from lane to lane all over the interstate. So I got off the, I got off the brakes and about that time he was up in the cab with me, the when that tire blew up.
Speaker 5:The explosion woke him up, so he got in the front cab and he knew exactly what happened. He said you blew. He said you blew a steer tire. He said, uh, you stay off the brakes and let the let the truck coast to a stop. And I said, okay. He said, as soon as you can get on the side of the, pop the air brakes. I said, all right. So I guess it took probably a mile and a half and I got it on the side of the interstate, popped the air brakes, we jumped out of it and what happened was that driver's side tire. Uh, the spark from the rim caught that tire on fire and when that center belt come off of that tire it wrapped around the driver's side frame rails where the fuel filters was mounted and it caught the fuel filters on fire and we hit it with a fire steamer. We got the fire steamer and we opened and opened up with that fire steamer and that the fire steamer didn't phase it when when that fire steamer didn't phase it.
Speaker 5:I threw that fire steamer in the median and I took off running for the back of the truck, had my cell phone calling 9-1-1 and, uh, ricky was trying to get back in the truck. Pretty much everything we owned was inside that truck. He was trying to get back inside that truck. I told Ricky. I said don't worry about that shit, man, that shit can be replaced. This truck's looking. Good that that shit can be replaced. This truck's looking.
Speaker 5:We opened up the driver's door to get in and when he did, flames was coming through the floorboard and so he run around on the passenger side that, on the passenger side of that sleeper. It had an escape hatch on it and he opened up that escape hatch and we had a both of our overnight bags sitting right there by that door. He opened up that escape hatch and grabbed our overnight bags and threw them out and he took off running for the back of the trailer where I was and no sooner than he got to the back of that trailer, the driver's side tank blew, oh. And no sooner than he got to the back of that trailer, the driver's side tank blew, oh, and I guess it was about probably 30 seconds after that the passenger side tank blew, so that was right at 300 gallons of diesel, and so that ended my driving career with him.
Speaker 2:I would imagine so.
Speaker 5:He had another truck on the road that had a team on it, but you know he wasn't going to pull them off the road. You know his wife had just had a baby and she used to drive with him and when she had the, the baby, she quit driving. And that's when I started driving with him. But after that happened she didn't want him back on the road. Um, so that, like I say, that ended my career with him and then I started driving with another company out of Memphis, tennessee, swift.
Speaker 2:Y'all probably know him. Yeah, we're familiar with Swift.
Speaker 5:Well, I went to Memphis to meet my driver and I got up there and met him and he was a black dude and he had a load that was delivering in Memphis. And then we was going to Arkansas and get a load, but he wanted to go on home time After that Arkansas load. He was going to goansas and get a load, uh, but he was. He wanted to go on home time after that arkansas load. He was gonna go on home time so he didn't want to go to arkansas, uh to to pick that load up. He wanted to deliver that load in memphis and go home. So he said let's go go walk to the dispatcher and see if we can get somebody to take that load in Arkansas. He said man, I don't want to go to Arkansas, I want to go home. I said all right.
Speaker 5:So we're walking across to the dispatcher and he says look, dude. He said after a long, hard day at work, he said I'd like to have a nice cold beer, you know. I said, yeah, man, I don't see nothing wrong with that, you know. And he said all right, we walk a little bit further. And he says look dude. He says, oh, he said I got this little chick in the truck, you know, and I said yeah, and I said OK, he said oh, you see, see her, but she's not really there. And I'm kind of scratching my head now, you know, and I'm going okay, and he said, uh, you hear her, but he doesn't say anything. And I'm going what the hell is going on here? This dude got an imaginary girlfriend or what and uh.
Speaker 5:So I said yeah, man, that's cool, you know. So we go to the dispatch and uh, they said no, we ain't got nobody else to take that load in Arkansas. Y'all going to have to go get it. He said all right, so we walked back. It was right at noontime. Then he said let's go get some lunch. The load that we were supposed to deliver in Memphis. It had like a three-hour window that it didn't deliver until three hours later. So he said let's go get some lunch. I said all right. So we got in the truck and he's got this lock lizard in the truck. That's what we call them, lock lizards.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's what we call them too.
Speaker 5:That's what we call them too. We go to Popeye and we get some chicken and we eat lunch and he's got one of these mini refrigerators in the sleeper and he climbs back in that sleeper and he opens it up and that refrigerator was so crammed full of beer that it all fell out in the cat in in the sleeper. And he picked, he picks up a beer and they, uh, he opens it. He said you want a beer? I said nah, dude. I said I'm good. And uh, he said, well, I want one. I said all right. So he starts drinking and uh, he, he's driving at that time, you know. He said let's go to this place in that this that this load delivers to is he, they'll take it early. And I said okay, so we go to the tournament. And uh, they tell us no, sorry, charlie, you're gonna have to wait till you turn. You have to park in staging and I will call you on the radio when we're ready for you. And uh, so we park in in the staging and uh, he, uh, he grabs another beer. He grabs another beer. He said you want a beer? I said no. I said I'll be honest with you, I don't drink. He said well, I do. And he drunk like. I guess he drunk like three or four beers while we were sitting there at the staging area and I said, man, this guy's got to drive to argue, so you know. I said this ain't good.
Speaker 5:And uh, so we finally delivered our load and we take off for arkansas and uh, he gives me a set of earphones. He said you might want to put these on so you can get some sleep. I was going to drive back from arkansas and he said, uh, you might want to put this on, put these earphones on, the earplugs on in so you can get some sleep. He said I like my music a little loud. And I said, all right, so I get back to sleep and put my ear. And I want to tell you, the walls of the freight line are wobbling. I'm hearing boom, boom, boom. And I said, man, I got to listen to this shit all the way to Argonauts. The dude is deadly and I'm praying now, please, god, just let us make it so we get to Arkansas, we pick up that load and we're headed back. Now I'm driving. I said we all right now and we still on a two-lane highway. Coming from that tournament, we hadn't uh got to the interstate yet and we're coming up on one of the uh stopping robs. So he, yeah, him and his father get out and use the bathroom. So I put on one side of the highway and let him out.
Speaker 5:It was one o'clock in the morning so I called my wife and I said this dude was from hattiesburg, mississippi, uh, and, like I said, he was going on home time. So I told my wife, I said, get your ass to hattiesburg, mississippi, to pick me up. I said I'm getting off of this truck and, uh, total, total circumstances, you know. So, while that dude was going on home time, you know, I well, let me back up a minute. I I was planning on dude, you know, uh, I was planning on dude, you know, uh, and I'm thinking to myself what can I do here, you know, and because, yeah, yeah, I mean, y'all know alcohol is not allowed on in commercial vehicles, right, right.
Speaker 5:So I said, well, I'll tell you what I'll do.
Speaker 5:I said when I get on the interstate I'm gonna put this on to the floor. And I ain't stopping for wave stations. And he's stopping and I want a trooper to stop me, right, I said, because if a trooper stops me. I'm gonna tell him you better check this ice chases and check this dude here, because he's dwi to the mic, you know. So they come out, I get on the interstate and I take off and I'm running probably 900 miles an hour.
Speaker 5:You won't believe this, but every wait station between arkansas and memphis was closed. I said, yeah, that's just my luck. And here I am doing 90, 100 miles an hour and I never got stopped. So when we got back to his hometown in Hattiesburg, that dude dropped that trailer off in the parking lot and so we we were running bobtail then. So we go to one of the stopping robs. He refilled and refills that refrigerator. He had our refrigerator full of beers, refrigerator full of beer. He had to stop at the refrigerator. Since you're going on home time, I'm gonna go ahead and go home too, and see you in a couple of days my wife come pick me up and that was it.
Speaker 5:That was the end of my truck driver. With him I wrote a seven page statement to the safety director of Swift Transportation and I said I'm telling you, with 30 years experience, you better get this dude off the road because he's going to kill somebody.
Speaker 2:That might be why. Swift has so many accidents.
Speaker 5:You better get this guy off the road. I'm telling you, with 30 years law enforcement experience, this guy's going to kill somebody. You know, and I had another friend of mine that he was a third-party CDL examiner for one of the truck driving academies here and I had known him about five years and I asked him if he wanted to run cross-country with me and he said yeah. He said yeah, I'll run cross-country with you, cross country with me. He said yeah. He said I, yeah, I run cross country with you. So him and I started running cross country together. I thought I knew him, uh, and we take off and you know, running cross country together, and I find out that he's on all kind of uh narcotics for for narcotics for depression and anxiety, and at one point his medical certificate had been had been suspended, you know, for being on narcotics. And we out there on the west coast in the mountains, I've said I'm saying man, what the hell am I doing out here on these mountains? What are you?
Speaker 5:doing oh my gosh you've had some terrible luck trucking wasn't for you he's driving one day, you know, and uh we out on the west coast, and uh, his phone rings and he picks it up and it's his girlfriend. Uh, his girlfriend is telling him that he she's cheating on him and this and that, and then I'm going, oh god what's going on for Cliff, you know.
Speaker 3:so we are.
Speaker 5:I'm driving at this point and it's nighttime and we're coming into Seattle Washington and it's no one like all get out. I mean it's no one. So hard you couldn't, so hard you couldn't hardly see the front end of your truck. And I'm doing 20, 25 miles an hour on the interstate with the emergency flashers on and everybody was in the right lane on the interstate because the left lane was piled up probably about four or five feet deep in snow. It was a blizzard. They were plowing the interstate but it was snowing so heavy that it was covering it right back up. I'm going along in that right lane and a crosswind hit that truck from the passenger side and it blew that truck into that snowbank in that left lane like it was a tinker toy. I got that truck back in that right lane and as soon as I got it back in that right lane if it had been anybody in that left lane on the side of me I'd have smushed them like a pancake. I got back in that right lane and I had my mind made up right. Then I said if I ever get my ass back to Louisiana, that's where I'll be. So we get out of Seattle.
Speaker 5:It took me all night to drive through Seattle. We get out of Seattle and the snow lets up. It's still snowing, but it's very light and I had run out of hours, so it wasn't my co-driver's time to drive. So we pulled over on the side of the interstate. We change drivers and catch that log up and we take off.
Speaker 5:He takes off driving and I'm climbing the sleeper and I hadn't even got to sleep yet, I I had been in there maybe 30 minutes and, uh, he starts hollering at me chris, chris. So I jumped up in the cab. I said what's the matter, man, he said. Man, he said roses getting bad. Man. He said this weather's getting bad. I just come through a damn blizzard, you know, and it's barely snowing. And he said this weather's getting bad man. He said I don't want you back here in that sleeper in case we slide off of one of these mountains. And I said man, pull this truck over. I said I'm driving back. I said you talking about sliding your ass off of one of these mountains, pull your ass over, I'm driving back. And that was my last journey driving a truck I don't blame you.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh yeah that that was.
Speaker 5:that was quite an experience. But yeah, I've seen a lot of places I probably wouldn't have saw, Like I had been driving through all the states, you know. I guess we were lucky to get out of that one where that truck burned up. Oh yeah, they claim, when a steer tire blows out you end up generally turning it over when a steer tire blows out.
Speaker 5:So I'm glad that didn't happen and we all got that all right. But he uh, that trip there, uh, when my dad's car popped now he uh we was gonna deliver that load to la and he was gonna buy a brand new truck uh going to daytona, and that that truck had 1 million 39 000 miles on it. When they caught that truck had 1,039,000 miles on it when it caught, jesus gosh, 1,039,000 miles, gosh.
Speaker 4:It had been around the country then several times sounds like Better believe it.
Speaker 5:Did you ever make it to Hawaii? No, never, never. It was three days before Now I had a trip. I had a. It was a trip going up there to Korea, because I flew. I flew from my hometown. Well, the nearest airport to Oakdale is in Alexandria. So I flew out of Alexandria to Dallas-Fort Worth. Then I flew out of Dallas-Fort Worth to Seattle Washington and we were supposed to fly out of North where on the Northwest Airlines at 740 out of Seattle.
Speaker 5:Well, the journey started in Dallas. When we got to Dallas, the, I flew Delta from from Alexandrialexandria to dallas and I was flying brent off airlines from dallas to seattle. Brent, I don't believe this in business anymore, but uh, if I recall right, the plane was supposed to leave like uh two o'clock that evening, going to seattle, and I got there about 12 o'clock noon and it was a switch from delta to branniff. I said, well, I got a couple hours, I'll stop and get me a hamburger, you know, get something to eat. Uh, before I go to the brann of tournament, and got off at the delta turtle mall and they had the signs up there. I never forget the flight. It was a brand of flight 188 and delta had their signs up there uh, brand of flight 188. Scheduled departure was two o'clock, 15 minute delay. Departure is at uh 2 15 and I said, well, that's a little bit better, you know. So I got to the uh delta, to the uh brunoff tournament, and they got their signs out there and this and their board is flashing flat 188. And it's flashing now board, board.
Speaker 5:I said what I took off running for the gate and I got to the gate just in time to watch my plane back up. I said I asked the gate agent. I said what's the deal here? I said that plane's not supposed to leave for another hour, you know. And uh, they said yeah, we know. Said uh, brenner changed their flight time on us this morning that we didn't have time to notify anybody. And uh, that's real good, you know. And uh, when you go talk to the people at the at the delta.
Speaker 5:So I went back to the Delta Tournament and they said, yeah, we've been having time enough to notify anybody. And I said, well, how are y'all going to get me to Seattle? And they looked through their stuff and they said sorry, we can't get you to Seattle until tomorrow. And I said, well, I'll tell you what you can do. I said you can call that colonel at McCord Air Force Base and tell him I can't be there. I said I got a mandatory protocol that I got to meet today. And they said, well, hold on a minute. And so they looked again and they said, well, the only way we can get you there today is we can fly you from here to los angeles and then from los angeles to seattle.
Speaker 5:I said, well, book me on the flight. I've got to be there today, you know. Uh, uncle sam, don't take it, don't take no for an answer. They was nice about it, they. They flew us first class. They flew me to first class to Los Angeles and then to Seattle. Well, like I said, when we got to Seattle, we were supposed to fly northwest 747 to Korea. We get to Seattle and northwest is on strike. We get to Seattle and Northwest is on strike.
Speaker 5:They load us all up on a military bus and took us to the McCartan Air Force Base and we flew to Korea on a C-141 cargo transport plane.
Speaker 3:Were you sitting in cargo seats on the side looking at each other?
Speaker 5:Yes, it wasn't no seats on there, it's just cargo nets. Oh yeah.
Speaker 5:I've done that, yeah, just cargo nets down both sides. And it was, it was hot as hell. You know, when we got on and I said, I asked the pilot man, this thing got air conditioning in it? He said we got air conditioning, but we got to get up to cruising altitude before we can turn it on and I said well, shit, I'll just lay back and go to sleep. You know, once we get airborne, we get airborne. Well, if you ain't been on a one-party one, you, you, you're not going to keep on the one party one. So we flew, uh, we flew from, from uh, seattle to anchor, alaska, and we landed in Anchorage, refueled, and then we journeyed on to Tumson, korea, on that 141. Yep, and that was a trip.
Speaker 2:That sounds terrible.
Speaker 3:I flew a C-130 from Camp Pendleton to Kachikan, alaska, the worst flight I've ever been on, yeah.
Speaker 5:When I was stationed at the Eglin Air Force Base, we used to fly rescue missions out of a C-130. When you know, the Devil's Triangle was real big back then, and the Bermuda Triangle, whatever you want to call it, oh yeah. But anytime they would go looking missing ship or missing plane or something like that, three of us would have to go from law enforcement and then three paratroopers was on it and we'd fly. You know, they'd call you in the middle of the shift and tell you go to 10-7 and be back on the flight line for 5 am for a rescue mission.
Speaker 3:Oh, my gosh.
Speaker 5:They called me one day during the shift and they said go 10-7, be back on the flight line for 5, 0-500 for a rescue mission. I said, ah, so we get on the plane and like I say, it's that 130 search plane and get on that plane. We have headsets, we can talk to one another. I asked the pilot. I said where we're going this morning. He said we're going to the devil's triangle. I said yeah, that's real good I'm gonna see one third.
Speaker 3:We got disaster written all over.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh, we got disaster written all over you, oh my gosh.
Speaker 5:To the Devil's Triangle. We're looking for a mission shield. I said, yeah, okay, but we got. You know, we got. Right before we got to the triangle the Coast Guard called us and Coast Guard told us they was going into the triangle and they just wanted us to fly the perimeter of the triangle. I said, yep, sounds good to me, buddy, let's go. Oh my gosh, yes, we just flew the outskirts of the triangle. We didn't go into the triangle, which pleased me the luck you've had over the time.
Speaker 4:It sounds like it's the best thing that could have happened, absolutely yeah, like they uh, so I flew on.
Speaker 5:I flew on 130s and uh, 141 and uh and a huey that was with dps.
Speaker 5:We had an inmate that we had to transport by air uh, air amulets to new orleans and that was in critical condition. And I met the helicopter on the helipad and, uh, here in baton rouge, and pollock says, uh, he said you ever been in a in a chopper before? I said man, I said the last time I was in a chopper was a huey. It's a little bit different than a Dewey. He said they had the five-point safety harnesses and all that in that chopper, in that airman chopper, you know. And he said you know how these five-point harnesses work? I said I don't think we had seatbelts in them, deweys. No, I don't know how that five-point harness worked. It showed me how it worked and everything, but it was all good. A lot different being from being in that huey. Oh my gosh.
Speaker 3:Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2:Well, you lived a life, that's for sure. Yeah.
Speaker 5:What a journey. Yeah, it's been a fun time. Yeah, I'm pleased with the outcome so far.
Speaker 2:Good, good, good. Well, listen, chris, I've thoroughly enjoyed it. It's been fun, yeah, yeah it's been fun.
Speaker 5:Yeah, yeah, y'all had to come down and get some of this, this Cajun food man.
Speaker 2:I'm all about it it's definitely on the bucket list we're coming.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much. This has been a blast, an absolute blast yeah, same here.
Speaker 2:I appreciate it, no problem.
Speaker 4:We appreciate you taking the time to sit down with us alright anytime give me a call or a shout anytime, brother, I'll enjoy talking with you ok, same here dog. I appreciate it get up to Kentucky, give, give me a shout. We'll do that, you get that big fifth wheel and you start traveling around.
Speaker 5:now, yeah, we might make it up that way one day.
Speaker 3:Yep, All right brother, thank you so much.
Speaker 2:All right. All right, chris, have a good one All right, enjoy it.
Speaker 5:Y' have a good one. All right, enjoy it. Yeah, y'all have a good one too.
Speaker 4:All right, see you, brother. Bye.
Speaker 5:All right, bye-bye.
Speaker 2:All right, guys. Hope you enjoyed it. Catch us on the next one. Catch us on the next one. I did the pre-sign.