A Day Out for Momma Leads to a Kidnap!

So about 3 months ago, I'm working with this nice probationary officer, about 10 years younger than me. Good guy. Good head on his shoulders and has previous experience working in LA County jails as a jailer. But I will tell you, in the 28 day deployment period we worked together, our car was the ultimate cluster magnet.

Case in point, the call I like to call "Mamma's Day Out!" We respond to a radio call of a missing person from a nursing home / assisted living building not far from the station. Nice place, newer, and all the amenities. On the way, I'm quizzing this officer wtih the standard questions. How do we handle a missing person? What makes it a critical missing? What paperwork do we use? Who should we notify and who shall we notify? And to be honest, he's doing a good job with the answers. He pays attention and asks questions when unsure. So we go inside and meet with a person there, advise the reason of our visit. We're taken upstairs to a "lockdown" area. This must be where they keep the alzheimer patients, dementia residents, etc. Smart. You don't want them to wander off.

Through the course of the interview, we find out that the missing person is about 90 years old, has dementia and is somewhat medically fragile. And guess what? Whoops! They let her adult son (in his 50s) waltz her out of there for lunch! That was yesterday morning.

Crap.

Oh, and she has some money. And her adult daughter and son-in-law live nearby and they are not happy, having been notified by the staff that morning. In addition, Momma has two (thats right, 2) executors to cover her financial and legal rights. One in Nevada (Las Vegas is full of retirees and nursing homes) and one in Los Angeles. And they're not talking to each other. And no one seems to know where Momma is at. But the manager of that floor explains that she is sure, based on the history she knows of this woman's family, that the son took her back to Nevada. The daughter is supposed to be responsible for Momma. The son only comes to visit once a month.

I grab the mike on my radio, "Yeah, let me get another unit and a supervisor to my location." I'm thinking, this could be a bona fide kidnap. We might have to contact the FBI. Supervisor gets there, we determine a little bit more, like, turns out that the daughter has done the same thing about 2 years ago. Snatched Momma from her nursing home in Nevada and brought her here to our sleepy beachside community.

Guess what, folks? It's all about the money. Momma's got it, and in her late stages of life, the kids just want to make sure they get as much of it as they can before she shuffles of this mortal coil. You have to feel sorry for Momma, thinking she's going out to lunch with her darling boy and next thing you know she's on the freeway enroute to Vegas.

Well, we get everyone involved, detectives, notify the watch commander, call a few people for advice and even have the LA legal executor come to the senior home. Guess what? Turns out there was supposed to be hearing the following day! The LA executor was supposed to take over ALL responsibilities for this lady! And now she's gone...surprise-surprise-surprise.

Sidenote: There is one detective who works robbery who came to this call...we know each other from working at another division a few years ago. She sees me and my rookies on a call now and she just starts shaking her head! "Damn, man! Always a cluster with you! Haha. Always have to be some old lady kidnapped, home invasion, aliens coming up the beach type, streets on fire, you chasing someone across town on a unicycle or somethin' when you're around!" And she's right. HAHA. She's right.

Well, turns out that when she calls the executor in Nevada, she pulls no punches and they come correct, if you get my meaning. Telling someone they may be accessory to kidnap sort of causes the information flow to turn from a trickle to a river! Turns out Momma was safe and sound back in a nice nursing home in Vegas. Las Vegas Metro PD was able to confirm it.

And the best part was, for once, patrol officers and supervisors didn't take a single report. Detectives took the ball and ran and told us we could clear the scene. They would handle it as a possible elder abuse. Thanks, guys. That was the best training I could have given my guy and one he won't soon forget.

Back to the car, back on the air, "Show me clear and send me any calls you have holding." I love this job.

Enjoy this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HoquUdlSfo&NR=1

Off for a while and sorry for that. Had a bit of vacation time and enjoyed it!

Past few weeks back have been a blur. The LAPD, specifically our sworn employees union, is negotiating with the city for a new contract. I don't doubt they are doing the best they can. And in a city this big, with this kind of economy, well...everyone is feeling the pinch.

There is no overtime. Expect to hand over your arrestee and evidence at EOW (End of Watch) to the next unit so you can prevent overtime. We are REALLY managing our time effectively now. In all fairness, this should be the norm, but it isn't. I am all for hiring 10,000 more officers over the next five years if we can. Build more police and fire stations right next to each other.

I feel for the guys who bought too expensive a house, too many cycles, one more trophy handgun. I told an old partner of mine that you know when it's bad, when you come to work and look at the employee billboard filled with SeaDoos and boats for sale. Coppers hate giving up their toys more than a 5-year old!

Back to the lecture at hand. When will these states and cities wake up and spend MORE on schools, police and fire instead of spending less. The more educated our populace, the greater benefit to society as a whole. Here in the Peoples Republic of California, we continue to fund and build prisons and jails at an alarming rate. Meanwhile, the amortized burden of that is borne upon the backs of our kids in the UC college system, with 10% or more in tuition hikes that they will be trying to reconcile for the next 15 years.

Good job.

I'm no socialist, but the more people that go to college the less IDIOTS out on the street.

On a lighter note, I want to minimize LA's crime burden by issuing a Cease and Desist order to HUD for all future Section 8 housing applications. Go the F*&% away. LA doesn't want you. And if you can't get off Section 8 in the next 5 years, guess what? You're cut off. And if you can't afford to live here - MOVE. Let market forces decide who lives here and who doesn't. Let market forces decide if we need to put in better public transit to get people here.

In the area I work, there is a master-planned community with apartments, condominiums, townhouses, etc. Beautiful shops, parks, close the everything. But guess what? A bunch of people living there are Section 8, and some of them are the same miserable, no account F*&%s that I dealt with in other areas of the city. And now the car burglaries and residential burgs are up! Well, when you don't have a job, the government is paying for your apartment, SSI is paying for your "bad back" and you have all day to case houses....hmmmmmm?

But, all that said, everyone knows how thankful I am to have a job. I say it every day. I tell everyone, and give thanks to the Lord above for being a sworn Los Angeles Police Officer. I will NOT get furloughed. I will NOT be fired. I will NOT be downsized. I will NOT be early-retired. I will NOT be promoted anytime soon either, but hey, I have the best job in the world right now.

I work the streets.

And as an old training officer once said, "You gonna work the streets or let the streets work you? You gonna be out there making moves, making lives better for people or you gonna let the whole thing wash over you like a wave? You work the STREETS. You work the JOB! Never let the job work you."

Thank you brave citizens of Los Angeles. You often surprise me, sometimes you have let me down, but you never bore me. And quite a few of you lift me up on a daily basis. The waves and thanks are always appreciated.

Watch your six.