February 18, 2007 - newsherald.com
From funny to bizarre, cops have seen it all
Law enforcement officers do not have normal 9 to 5 jobs.
They have to deal with stalkers, drug dealers and all sorts of criminals during their daily grind, but at times, the men and women at the Bay County Sheriff’s Office encounter suspects and situations that leave them scratching their heads — and sometimes laughing.
“You can’t imagine the things people say and do,” said Sheriff Frank McKeithen.
Before McKeithen became sheriff, he drove by a man inside a phone booth who McKeithen recognized as a notorious robber. McKeithen stopped and started talking to him. The criminal wouldn’t admit who he was, but the sheriff was sure he had his man.
“I’d arrested him before,” he said.
McKeithen radioed dispatch, which told him the criminal was dead. When dispatchers searched for any outstanding warrants on the criminal, it came back that he was deceased.
But McKeithen knew that couldn’t be true. Even after the man’s fingerprints came back as a match to the robber’s, the man still would not change his story.
Then McKeithen remembered the robber only had three toes on one foot. The robber refused to take off his shoe, but when the future sheriff finally got it off, sure enough, the guy was missing two toes. The robber still would not say who he was, McKeithen said.
“So lying doesn’t always work,” he said.
Why was the robber listed as dead? The Washington County Sheriff’s Office had received incorrect information and added in their computer system that the man was deceased.
Confession
One day, as he was driving in an unmarked car through Springfield, Capt. Jimmy Stanford of the Bay County Sheriff’s Office noticed a man that didn’t look right to him, so he offered the man a ride. During the drive, Stanford knew the man was up to something, so he tried to goad him into incriminating himself. Stanford told the man he hoped they didn’t get pulled over because he had outstanding warrants.
The man then told Stanford he’d just escaped from the Okaloosa County Jail, but Stanford didn’t believe it. The man continued to try to convince the deputy of his story, but Stanford thought he was just crazy.
Finally, the man pulled off a shoe and showed Stanford his Florida Department of Corrections number on his tennis shoe. That caught Stanford’s attention, and he arrested the man.
Stanford called the Okaloosa County Jail and asked if the man was missing. The jailer in Okaloosa County checked; when he got back on the line, he explained to Stanford that the inmate was, indeed, on the lam.
Surveillance gone awry
Deputies often find their busts don’t go as planned.
A string of purse snatchings from cars stuck in traffic on Cove Boulevard during the 1980s prompted Stanford to go undercover. He dressed up as a woman, including wearing makeup to cover his mustache, and he wore a wire, he said.
One day as he sat in traffic on Cove Boulevard, his big purse next to him, a man in a pickup pulled up beside him. The man started to make obscene gestures toward Stanford, who tried to turn away, but the man kept at it.
Finally, the guy in the truck asked Stanford, “Are you game?” The officers listening on the other end of the wire thought they heard the guy said, “Want some cocaine?”
Police surrounded the guy’s truck and arrested him, Stanford said.
Another time, during a murder-for-hire sting, now-Capt. J.D. Nolin wired up an informant, who he thought was “sharp as a razor,” Nolin said.
To make an arrest, Nolin told the informant he had to say his name and the date while he was wearing the wire. The man got to the house where the sting would take place and knocked on the door.
When someone answered the door, the informant blurted out, “Your name and the date.”
Crack, rope and wires
Back in the 1980s, when crack cocaine started to become a problem in Bay County, authorities tried a less conventional way to arrest drug dealers.
In Springfield, there was an escape route through the woods at the end of Second Street, Stanford said. Every time law enforcement showed up, the dealers would run into the woods and get away. So Stanford and other deputies tied a rope across the main path through the woods.
When authorities arrived later, the dealers ran into the woods. This time, though, several of them tripped over the rope. Stanford said they caught eight dealers that night.
During a separate crack sting, Stanford had an informant wired and sent him to buy drugs to catch the dealer. The informant bought about $100 worth of crack. But instead of returning to authorities, he took the crack and a female into the woods, where the couple smoked all the drugs, had sex and passed out.
Stanford and his partner couldn’t find the man, but the wire was still on, so they could hear him snoring. Stanford drove around the neighborhood, honking his horn as his partner, who was listening to the wire, would tell him if he was getting closer. Call it a woods version of the children’s game Marco Polo.
Stanford eventually found the informant asleep in the woods, snoring.
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Quote:
veggie said: February 18, 2007 - newsherald.com
From funny to bizarre, cops have seen it all
During a separate crack sting, Stanford had an informant wired and sent him to buy drugs to catch the dealer. The informant bought about $100 worth of crack. But instead of returning to authorities, he took the crack and a female into the woods, where the couple smoked all the drugs, had sex and passed out.
Stanford and his partner couldn’t find the man, but the wire was still on, so they could hear him snoring. Stanford drove around the neighborhood, honking his horn as his partner, who was listening to the wire, would tell him if he was getting closer. Call it a woods version of the children’s game Marco Polo.
Stanford eventually found the informant asleep in the woods, snoring.
That has to be one of the funniest things I've ever read. What a badass.
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