Spent 10 hours on a "Ride Along" with a local PD last night. My younger brother works for them, and was scheduled last night 3pm  to 1am... I took a buddy of mine with, and put him in a car with a Sgt. for the night.

Friday night and a full moon proved to be a busy night...

We got there at 3pm to sign the liability waivers and sit through roll call... Approx 3:30pm we loaded the trunk with the Mossberg 500, Mini-14, digital camera kit, EKG machine, spike strips, door battering ram, etc...
No sooner did we get all geared-up, and we got a call to assist a neighboring Twp with a "Cat stuck under a seat" call... We looked at each other and laughed… No lights or sirens on this call…
Apparently, some woman brought her cat home from the Vet unrestrained. Cat decides to crawl UNDER the bucket seat of her Ford Ranger pickup on the passenger side. This cat is HUGE and looks just like "Morris the cat"... Big Yellow tabby is on his side, head and right front leg protruding from under the front of the seat, tail and back legs are sticking out from the side. He’s meowing, panting and has already pissed himself. The lady is hysterical and crying about her poor cat. The officer already on scene has a few bolts out of the seat, but none that will “effect a successful rescue”. He was trying to remove the entire seat, not realizing the cat was in between the seat frame itself. Not to mention, the cat’s head blocked access to the remaining bolts he wanted to get at. I offered to help, and crawled inside the lady’s truck to have a look. The cat was stuck pretty bad and the fire dept was already en-route… This meant I had to hurry because I damn sure didn’t want them to cut the roof off the truck and then the seat using the jaws of life. I found the bolts that held the cross brace in place under the seat and removed them ¼ turn at a time. They were right against the carpet and damn near impossible to get a wrench on. After removing the last bolt, I grabbed the brace and yanked it out from under the cat. A few seconds later, the lady in tears grabbed her silly cat. (The fire dept had just arrived as I pulled the last bolt out.)
We left that call and went for a ride…

A little while later we got a call for an accident, with entrapment. This is where it got fun… Lights & sirens, 100mph, etc… As we approached the scene, we had to weave through a bunch of idiots stopped in traffic, unaware of how to get the fuck out of the way.
As we pulled up, my first thought was… Oh fuck… That guy is DEAD. The car was a crushed, twisted mangled heap of wreckage.
My brother runs over to find a 19 yr old girl pinned between the roof, A-pillar, seat and steering wheel. From where I was standing (10ft away) I couldn’t even see her… The whole car had folded around her.
Apparently she hit a curve too fast and lost it on the wet slippery road. The right side of her car got off the road, caught the rocky embankment, spun her sideways, onto her side and into a utility pole. A minute later unit #2 arrives with the Sgt and my buddy… The Sgt comes right over to help stabilize the girls neck, and my brother gets on the radio in a hurry and asks to expedite EMS and Fire Rescue.
Two minutes later, the scene is crawling with rescue personnel, and we get another call for a fight in progress…
Our cruiser was stopped on the South side of the wreck, Unit #2 was on the North side of the wreck…(picture a narrow 2-lane mountain road)
Both of us responded, but us being on the wrong side of the wreck, had to go several miles out of the way to get to it… By the time we arrived, Unit #2 was already there and determined it was basically nothing more than a verbal dispute… Took a bunch of names & info and left…
While sitting in a parking lot, we heard the Life-Flight helicopter fly overhead with the girl that had just crashed…Apparently she was unconscious but did survive the wreck…
Later in the night while running VASCAR on the interstate, my brother took a call from her Mother, thanking us. Mom said the girl was flown by Medivac to Lehigh Valley Medical Center where she was stable, with a fractured pelvis, collapsed lung, head, face and neck injuries, etc… but was expected to live. That was unexpected, but great news. I couldn’t believe anyone could have survived inside that twisted carnage. My brother said she was a bloody, mumbling, gurgling mess… She was a VERY lucky young lady.

After sitting alongside the interstate for 15-20 minutes running VASCAR, it looked like nobody was gonna get stopped… Everyone was running 55-65mph…
Brother decides to look for action elsewhere… He pulls the car into gear, and while in drive, foot on the brakes, we timed a guy doing 78.5 in 55 zone…. Talk about timing… Gas pedal to the floor, we caught the guy about a mile up the highway… Typical kid & girlfriend driving Mom’s Acura and in a hurry…  My brother said the kid was courteous and polite, so he only wrote him a “non-points” , “Failure to obey traffic devices” blah-blah-blah ticket…Whatever that means… He said nobody ever contests his tickets in court because of this…
Apparently my brother writes attitude tickets… Not speeding tickets.

We drove around some more, did a few reports, had dinner, etc…  It really slowed down later in the night, but there was still activity. We were back at the perch alongside the interstate running VASCAR when we got a request for backup on another traffic stop…
We arrived on scene to find a beat-up old pickup truck towing a RATTY old trailer with an unsecured 500 gallon tank of diesel fuel on it. The driver had a suspended license for multiple DUI’s, no inspection, registration or insurance on either the truck or the trailer… He got over $1400 worth of fines, and will likely be ordered to serve 90 days in jail. (He wasn’t arrested) The whole mess had to be towed away by morning.
By this time, it was nearing the end of the shift…
On our way back to the office, while sitting at a light, we observed a car making an illegal right turn on a red light. That was just too easy to pass up… We looped around, pulled her over, checked her info and sent her on her way with a warning….
After we got back to the office, my buddy and I thanked everyone for having us along, BS’d for awhile, shook hands and went home…

What a great night in Mayberry J

Advice to all…
If you ever have an opportunity to ride with a PD, I highly recommend it… You will see cops and emergency response personnel in a whole different way.

Great story. Who ended up writing the wreck report?

The return/enter key in on the left side of the keyboard. It makes paragraphs.


ETA.  Ahhhh, better.

No one's dog got shot?

Sounds like an interesting night with your brother

Quoted: Great story. Who ended up writing the wreck report?

Another unit that had responded to the call...  There were about 6 cars out last night.

Quoted: The return/enter key in on the left side of the keyboard. It makes paragraphs. ETA.  Ahhhh, better.

I wrote it using MS Word so I could correct/edit spelling, etc...
Wasn't sure what it would look like when copy-n-pasted...
Went back and edited paragraphs to your/my liking...

Quoted: No one's dog got shot?

Seriously, come up with some new material.

On a typical night out you guys carry a "door battering ram"? You guys are hardcore

We had a nice little wreck on our corner yesterday.  I do believe every functioning unit in Huntington Beach stopped by for a look see, at least.  I counted 4 motorcycle units, 7 other police units, 3 firetrucks, 2 paramedic vans and a big red Ford Excursion FD Battalion vehicle.  Not much blood but the jaws had to be used to cut open one car.  Air bags on both vehicles deployed.  Everyone went to the hospital, at least for a checkout.

I was impressed that so many people showed up but more so that they all seemed to be fairly organized and each found something to do.  Two hours later there was just a skid mark left.

It's no wonder accidents are expensive.  30 or so fire and police personnel, hospitals, insurance companies, lawyers, car repairs, rentals, etc.