Daughter of a Police Officer

As most of you know, (because most of you who read my blog are family members) my father is a police officer. Growing up, I always thought this was really really cool. Especially in elementary where you'd have arguments with other kids about who's dad can be up the other dad, my dad always won. :) I really appreciated it in high school when I'd get a speeding ticket and I'd be able to "sweet-talk" my way out of a ticket by asking the officer if they knew my dad. Of course there were times when I wished my dad could have followed another profession, ok this was only once and it wasnt even serious... The story is when Gav and I first started dating and he was coming over to pick me up. My dad took out his gun and started cleaning it seconds before Gavin was supposed to show up. (Ok ok, I actually thought this was REALLY funny.) Another time I appreciated my father being an officer was when Gavin asked him for permission to ask me to marry him. Being a cop, he has access to cool gizmo's and gagets and was able to bug the entire conversation of Gavin asking for my hand! (Of course I heard this AFTER Gav popped the question.) I thought it was pretty dang awesome. I love my dad so much. I feel like him and I have alot of similarities. We both love the same kind of humor, same kind of food. I love talking to him and sharing stories and jokes. It actually scares me ALOT knowing he is a police officer and is more at risk of getting hurt than us sitting at our desk jobs all day; I am especially more aware of how dangerous it is now that I am older. I am so glad he hasnt been seriously injured, or worse in his line of work. But there are some really great stories he has told us and I'd like to share one of my favorites with you now.



This story is told by my Dad:


Starski and Hutch by Rick Jones:

While working for a Major department store as security/loss prevention officer I was working with another officer and we were watching two young males in the men’s denim area. The suspects were gathering clothes and they appeared to be longing around to see if anyone was watching them. Both of us were dressed in plain clothes so we blended in with the store customers. We could get fairly close to them without them suspecting us as officers. We continued to watch them as they gathered more clothes and the nerves to make a get-a-way. The other officer and myself stayed a fair distance away from them so they would go ahead and walk out the store doors. The suspects kind of wondered around looking to see if anyone was looking or watching them. They started headed towards the store doors and we were closing the distance between them and us. I knew they were headed out the doors without paying for the items.
I need to mention that the store doors they were exiting was near the employee doors. (The door where all employees enter and exit out of)
The suspects quickly exited out the doors, trying not to draw attention to themselves. But my partner and I were almost blasting out the door a few seconds behind them. When they saw us coming out the doors they knew who we were and started running. They each went in a different direction from the other one so my partner and I split off chasing them. My partner’s suspect headed through the parked cars in the parking lot darting in and out of cars. My suspect took a more direct line of travel running parallel to row of cars.
I caught up to my suspect and like a professional hockey player I body checked the suspect into the side of a parked car. He bounced off the car and I grabbed a hold of him and spun him around in a circle and bounced him against another car. He fell to the asphalt with me on top of him. I gained control of him and put him in handcuffs.
I stood up and pulled the suspect to his feet. I could see that my partner had grabbed his suspect also. Then I noticed that a crowd of people had stopped to watch all the commotion. I made eye contact with an older distinguished, well dressed, man who stood in the middle of a group of other professional men. I recognized him immediately as the store owner. Not the store owner like someone who is the manager but the owner of the whole national chain of stores. He said nothing as we escorted the shoplifters back into the store.
Now I should mention that this national store has a very strict policy about apprehending or stopping suspected shop lifters. We had violated several of those policies in front of the store owner.
The store manager’s office is across the hall from the security office where we had the suspects in custody and the store owner and the group of professional men had sat down in the store manager’s office for a meeting. As I began to do the necessary paperwork before the police officer arrived the store manager poked his head in my office and asked that when I was done with the suspects to come over to his office because the store owner wanted to talk to me.
My mind was racing as I reviewed just how many policies I violated and how hard I had bounced that suspect off the car and ground, all in front of the store owner. I came to the conclusion that I was about to get fired. I finished the paperwork and the police officers had finished theirs and the suspects were taken and booked into the county jail. Now I had to face the store owner.
I knocked on the office door and the store manager let me in. Sitting behind the office desk was the sober faced store owner and several other men were silently seated around the office. The store owner motioned for me to have a seat in front of him. The store manger closed the office door. I sat down and thought here it comes. I could feel my face flushing and the sweat beading up on my head.
The store owner began. “In all the years that I’ve worked in the retail business, I have never seen anything like that before.” He paused. ‘When you came busting through those doors chasing those guys, it looked like I was watching Starski and Hutch* episode.”
“That was the coolest thing I’ve ever seen!” He smiled at me and he stood up and shook my hand. “Good job.”
The other men in the office started talking about the incident and they all shook my hand and patted me on the back. But all I wanted to do was to get out of there as quickly as possible with my job.
Later as the entourage left the store the store owner smiled and waved good-bye to me as I was still trying to keep my knees from shaking.

Isnt he something? :) I love my Pops. He is the greatest. I would LOVE to see him in action like that. When I was younger, I'd sometimes go to work with him, and it seemed like nothing exciting EVER happened when I was with him, but something cool ALWAYS happended when one of my siblings went with him, but never me. I will share those stories another time! :)

Haha! I love this picture!