Cutting IT All Off, West Hollywood Sex Crime, Beheaded, Working VICE

This is Things Police See, firsthand accounts with your host, Steve Gold.Welcome to the podcast that interviews active retired police officers about their most intense, bizarre, and sometimes humorous moments on the job.It is I, Old Gingerface, with you as always everybody. Thank you for being here. Um, this week I have a specialepisode. It’s a compilation episode. So, I’ve been doing this for about six yearsand uh sometimes in the schedule we have cancellations or we have um gaps uhthings like that and um you know it let it leaves old uh leaves old gingerfaceuh high and dry for an interview. So, I thought it would be cool to go backand find some find some stories that you guys have commented on as being umextraordinary, extraordinary stories, uh insane stories. So, I went way back.We’ve been doing the show about six years now. So, I went way back and found some uh really really good stories thatI I I love. I mean, some of them are to this day. I mean, I’m going back almostsix years now with some of these and they are still some of the most shockingand bizarre stories I’ve heard. Uh, we have Brad Nishwitz from he’s a deputyfrom Ohio. We have Robert Wangel from uh Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department, GilReyes from the California Highway Patrol, and Dave Escodto from LAPDHomicide and Vice. They each have their own story on here. They’re they’re allequally entertaining. I I just love these stories. They’re so good. And I kind of put them together in acompilation for you guys to enjoy. I did go back and I tried to use um I tried totouch up the audio so that it’s better than it was before because in the beginning I was um not so great at audioengineering. So um as you listen uh it it should be much better. the levelshould be much better and I think it’ll be a much better uh listening experience for you. I’m excited to put this out.I’m hope you I hope you really enjoy it. I hope if you really really love the show and you want to show that to oldStevie boy uh monetarily, you can do that through the link in the show notes to the Patreon. If you, you know, havelistened to all the episodes, all 200 plus episodes of the free um freecontent and you want to support the show, you can do that there. And you know, I’m always looking for guests. So,if you are a law enfor law enforcement officer or you know somebody who is andyou think you or they would be a good guest, I’d love to hear from you. Just go to thingslecy.com, scroll down to bea guest and um send me a message. Let me know. Uh the the uh the criteria to getin is is very low. Just years on the job and good stories. That’s that’s all I’mlooking for, guys. And I’m looking for, you know, I know some people get intimidated by past celebrity cops I’vehad on. Um, believe me, if you’ve been on the job 5 years, it almost doesn’t matter where you work, you are going tohave some great stories. So, without further ado, let me start with the first question I ask the great Brad Nishwitz.All right, brother. Can you tell us about your most intense or terrifying call that you went to?Sure. And I hope you don’t have a weak stomach cuz this may be a little rough. I do, but lay it on me.So, as as a lot of guys are, you know, when you’re working the midnight shift, you hate to get a late call, like a latecrash or something like that, you know, because everybody wants wants to go home on time. Oh. Yep. So, it’s around six o’clock inthe morning on a Monday morning and dispatch, you know, calls me and I go, “Oh, no.” And then they go, “Just amedical call at one of our local hotels.” And then and and it’s a nice hotel, not not not too bad. Um got a barin it. Um colleges have parties there and dances there. So, it’s not terrible.And they say that the guy there’s a guy having a seizure in the hotel. I said, “Okay, no problem.” So I get at thehotel, they said, “Go up to the second floor.” The manager is up there with the guy. So I started walking down the hall.I see the manager standing in the hallway. And this guy is laying on the floor, half in the room and half in thehallway. He’s not wearing a shirt and hehas no pants on. He has bed sheets like around his midsection and he has dryblood all over the place. And the first thing I think is I’m not going home ontime. This is not a seizure. Exactly. Somebody beat this guy up. Something happened last night. SoI walk up and the guy’s laying there. He he’s awake and talking. No problem. Andmedics are always already on the way. And he’s got, like I said, dry blood on his legs and his hands and his chest andhis neck. And I asked the guy on the ground, I said, “Hey.” I said, “What’sgoing on this morning?” And he looks up at me and he goes, “I cut my dip on.”Whoa. And this guy’s like in his mid20s. He’s like like 25ish. And I said, “What?”And he said, “I cut my dip off.” I go, “Okay.” Um, I said, “Have you have youcut yourself anywhere else?” Because there’s blood all over the place. And he said, “Well, I stepped myself on bothsides of my neck and both of my groins.” I said, “Okay.Um, are you trying to kill yourself?” He goes, “No.” I said, “Okay.” I said,”Well, the medics are coming.” But I said, So, you pet your dick off?”He said, “Yeah.” I said, “Well, where is it?” He goes, “It’s in the room.” And Igo, “Okay.” So, the guy’s It’s really strange because then I said, “The guy’slaying right like his midsection is right at the doorway and he’s laying onhis back and right by his right hand is a framing hammer.”And I go, “Is he trying to get me to step over him? He’s going to hit me with his hammer. And so I kind of I I I kindof leaned in with with my foot and kicked the hammer out of his hands reach.I step into the room over him. The room’s dark. I start looking around andin front of the TV is a a a decent puddle of congealed blood. I’m lookingaround the bed and stuff. There’s there’s blood there also. And I come back to him and I said, “Ican’t find it.” I said, “Where is it?” He said, “It’s in the bathroom behindthe toilet.” I said, “Okay.” So, I I go in the bathroom and and itlooked like somebody slaughtered a cow in the bathroom. There was blood all over the place. Oh, I can imagine. And I go in there andI look behind the toilet and there is his penis and testicles togetherin in a package still connected together laying there on the floor.And I couldn’t believe it. Goodness. I could not believe it. So I come backand then on top of the counter in the bathroom is a Leatherman tool. And if you’refamiliar with the Leatherman tool, they have it’s a, you know, it unfolds obviously and on one side of the on oneof the folding parts of the Leatherman, he has the straight blade out and on theother side of the Leatherman, he has the saw tool out. So it looks like big monster scarysnippers with a blade on one side and a saw blade on the other. You know what I mean? Yeah.So, I go back to him and he’s laying there. Medics are not there yet. And Isaid, “Um, what are you on?” I said, “The medics have to know you’re not going tobe on trouble. I need to know what drugs you’re on or what you drank cuz they got to know to help you.” He said,”Nothing.” And he’s he is talking just like we’re talking. He is he has no painat all. And I started badgering him. I I said Isaid, “What are you taking? What are you taking? I I have to know.” Yeah. It’s all It’s for It’s for your owngood. And I And I was getting agitated. And finally, he said, “Okay, okay,okay.” He said, “I had a Mountain Dew last night at Taco Bell.”I said, “That’s it? That’s all you’ve had since last night?” He said, “Yes,sir.” And he was, “Yes, sir. No, sir.” He’s very this this dude was a cleancut kid and he just for a side note he wasin town doing construction and he lived down in Arkansas or Alabama. Okay. So,um while we’re waiting for the medics still um and this is all happening really fast. It’s not like our medicstake that long. They’re really good. Um he goes, “Can you get my good luck charm and my girlfriend’s picture from underthe bed?” I said, “Okay.” So, I go to the bed, I pick it up, put up thecorner, and sure enough, there’s a lucky coin. Allegedly lucky. I don’t know if I’d call it lucky.And a picture of his girlfriend. I bring it back to him. I give it to him. And hesays, “Would you write a phone number down for me?” I said, “Okay.” So, I write a phone number down and he givesme a name and I said, “Who is this?” He said, “It’s my mom and dad.” He said,”You need to call him and tell them I love them.” I said, “No, I’m not going to do that.” and we’ve been verycordial. You know, this has been a very good interaction for the situation.And he said, ‘Well, why not? And I said, ‘I’m sorry, but this did not work. And you’re going to tell them you love themyourself because in my my opinion and things that I have seen, if you dosomeone’s last will and testament, they can let themsel die. But if they haveunfinished business, they will hang on because there’s unfinished business tobe done if their body will let them hang on. Right? So he told me that I said, “I’m sorry.We’re not I’m not This did not work. You’re going to see him.” He said, and he didn’t like that, but he was okaywith it. Um so right around that time, the medics show up and they kind of, youknow, they they just rolled out of bed. They’re looking in the room. They said, ‘What do you got, Brad? I said, ‘He cuthis dick off. And they just freaked out. Not not not bad freak out, but they’re expecting a seizure. And then it wasfunny where it sort of hit me then as a crazy medical emergency now cuz I wassort of saw it as a very strange situation, but these guys look at it obviously froma different standpoint and they were saying, “Okay, we’re going to get double IBS going right now, right where he’slaying.” So they start working on him right away and they’re scrambling andanother deputy happened to show up just in case I needed. They didn’t know what they just think I’m on a seizure still.this other deputy shows up to see if I need anything and he sees what’s going on and he was out in the hallway whenthe medics picked up the sheet and I didn’t want to see I had already seen enough but um the medics had to see whatwas going on and and this deputy saw the void that this guy had and it showed mewhy he was on his back pushing himself out in the hall because once you removeyour package age, your insides will fall out. Oh my goodness.So, so his insides were falling out from the wound that he had created.So, I’m still in the room and one of the firefighters is out in the hall, andthis wasn’t very nice. It wasn’t very professional, but it is what it is. Umhe reaches over the individual on the ground and he has in his handa couple 4x4s of gauze and rubber gloves and says, “Hey, Brad, put that thing onice.” And I reached over and he thought I was going to grab it, but I grabbedhim by the forearm and I yanked him over the guy laying in the doorway into theroom with me. And I said, “No, no, no, no, no.” I said, “You guys are going to be dealing with that. I don’t get paidto deal with that.” Yeah. I said, “You’re going to pick that thing up and put it on ice.” And so we went and the manager got us anice bucket to put it on. And obviously I had trouble using hotelice buckets anymore after hitting that thing on ice in the ice bucket.So he got double IVs going and the andand I was still talking to him while the medics were working on and trying to keep him sidetracked and wewere still talking normal. I’m sure his anxiety was going up with all the scrambling they were doing. And as I’mtalking to him, all of a sudden his eyes just slam back in his head and his eyesshut. And I start yelling at him just I just start yelling his his name. And heyel opens his eyes. He said, “What? What?” I said, “I’m sorry.” I said, “Butyou got to stay awake.” I said, “I know you’re cold. I know you’re tired, but you have to stay awake. I don’t want youclosing your eyes.” He said, “Okay, okay.” Hey, I said, “You got to stay with me.” So, he he woke up enough afterI yelled at him, the medic said, “We got to get to the hospital right now.” And the hospital is probably about5 to 8 minutes away. And now you’re talking rush hour traffic also, andthere’s no highway involved, just uh main thorough affairs. So, I said,”Okay.” I said, “And and as as I’m sure you know, once you stop at Medic, it’s hard to get it rolling then from astoplight.” Yeah. So, I said, “I want I’m I’m I want to clear as many intersections as I can foryou guys. You can just keep on motoring.” They said, “That would be great cuz we got to be there fiveminutes ago.” We take off and I block these intersections. The medics goflying by me and we’re just leaprogging all the way to the hospital and we did an 8 minute drive in about 4 minutes intraffic. Wow. It was we were flying and we we get there and it was so surreal because I gointo the ER. The victim is still in the medic andthese three doctors are looking at this ice bucket going, “What in the world arewe going to do?” And then they bring the guy in and I didn’t realize it in in the hotel, buthe had I guess you’d call it extreme first extreme firstderee burns from hischest down. His chest, his arms, and his legs like old burns.No. Okay. Brand new. Because he did this removalin the in a scalding shower. as hot as that water as hot as that water couldcome out of that faucet in the hotel, he had it cranked on in the shower. And soyou could see and in the ER he was all beat red and blistered and stuff. Wow.And so um so I went to I obviously I hadtrouble sleeping that night and uh or that morning. And then the next night I went to the hospital to check on him anduh ER said we shipped him out to Ohio State to try to get it put back ontoday. He’s he’s he’s not here anymore. I said okay well hope and pray for thebest for him. And I was and it was really interesting where I was trying to figure outfor a month what how how how this could happen because I could the way my brainwas thinking if you guys had a a crazy mental thought orsomething, you get a meat cleaver and you cut it off, you would do it and you go, “Ouch, that hurts. That was amistake.” Yeah. You You’d think. But the way he did it, it took time,a lot of time to do it yourself in one package. And the pain, I could not evenfigure out what it could have been. And so I was trying to guess why he would have done it and dealt with all the pain. And my two, the only thing I comeup with was because he had a girlfriend and we have a lot of uh prostituteswhere I work. I said maybe he hooked up with a prostitute and felt really really bad and cut it off. My other option washe was a pedophile and couldn’t help himself. That was my guess.So I go back to the hospital maybe 3 weeks laterand they knew of the case obviously. So I talked to the ER doc and he said thatOhio State was able to put his penis back on but the testicles didn’t make it. I go, “Okay, well I guess that’shalfway okay.” But but then if you think about it now you’re talking about getting shots for the rest of your lifefor the testosterone. Oh, right. Yeah. Right. Right. Um so then I said, “Well,what happened?” And he goes, “I don’t I don’t know yet.” He said, “Well, so he said, “I’ll let you know.” So a shorttime later, I went back and I’ve been thinking about this a lot. I was I was really I just I just couldn’t believehow you could do that and not have any pain and just talk normal. And uh theysaid the bottom line was it was his first attack of being bipolar.Wow. And that’s what he did. I was going to say there’s no um drugs in his system oranything else. Um the only thing I could think about was like de demonic possession, you know.Right. Exactly. That was that was that was insane. Icouldn’t believe it. That is crazy. So they did they do did they test the blood and there was no nosigns of drugs or did you find out? No. He was still cold sober.So this was this his first psychotic episode linked to bipolar. Yeah. Yeah. And the crazy thing is I know Iknow nothing about that disease. But he had a roommate. These both these twoguys are doing construction. to get a roommate. And I I had to get a hold of themanagement to try to fly this roommate down because the roommate had asked this guy um if he wanted to go to the WaffleHouse of you hungry. He goes, “No, I just want to sleep in a little longer.” So his roommate goes to the WaffleHouse. This guy gets up and goes in the bathroom and cuts this stuff off.Yeah. Waffle House. No, I’m going to I’m going to hang back and cut off my wiener. Okay. I know. Come to chair. Good joy. Becareful when you come back you don’t step on the floor in the bathroom. Wow. Or fall over my pen. Did you ever think, Brad, that you wouldgo on a call like this when you became a police officer? Never. I mean, that’s insane. Never.Never. and my I and and then then the funny thing is as as you you could haveasked me maybe and then this was near the end of my careerand as as you know you you see odd things at the beginning of your career even at the beginning of my career maybeI’m three years in of seeing odd stuff I could have never even come up with this you knowyeah like as as as they often say you can’t make this stuff up rightoh thank goodness craziness That is insane. Yeah, they always say umum you know they always say I don’t know what’s the expression, Brad? They uh the truth is stranger than fiction. That’swhat it is. Yeah, absolutely. That’s an absolutely um guaranteed.Robert, can you tell us about the most um or the most bizarre or strange callthat you went on just that was just kind of like blew your mind? Well, you know, once you get through theblood and guts of of Lennox and you get up to West Hollywood, you know, my partner kind of said itbest. He said, “West Hollywood is like you parachute in, you gather your parachute, you put it away, you take astep, you look around, and you realize, I don’t want to be here.” And then youtake a step, you take your foot that you made the step with, and you put it right back. exactly where it was before, butyou can never go back because you’ve already seen what you shouldn’t have seen. So, yeah, WestHollywood is just I mean, you talk about they had some weird stuff going on. Imean, one night there was a the guy, he’s kind of drunk walking out of thealley and we jam him and, you know, he kind of smells he smells like like likelike like crap. Like dog [ __ ] Yep. He goes, “Oh yeah, I stepped in some dogshit.” I was coming through a yard. I’m like, “Really?” And my partner goes over and shines his light through the alleyand there’s a guy laying in the alley and he goes, “Hey, hey, bring that guy over here.” So, we bring the guy overthere and the guy’s pants, he’s passed out drunk and he’s laying in the alleyface down. His pants and underwear are down around his ankles and his his butt,his butthole is all like loose. And then we looked at theguy, looked at the guy and looked at his hand and his his arm, his hand, hiswhole arm up to his elbow was full of crap. So, he had been putting his fistin the guy’s butt in the alley while he was passed out. Oh my gosh.You don’t want to You don’t want to pass out in West Hollywood. That’s for sure. That is You ne you never know how you’re goingto wake up. That is one of the most single most disturbing things I’ve heard in my life, Robert.I mean, my god, it’s just a crazy Yeah, that you don’t Yeah. I mean, you run into stuff. They call it West Hollyweird because um you’re you are going to get exposed to um you know stuff that you’reprobably not going to see anywhere else. Wow, that is that is crazy. That’s I’mI’m sure you probably have a a plethora of stories similar to that. Look, man, I’m going to say it this way.There’s a lot of stories out there and they’re they’re you know they’re so Idon’t know what the word that you would want to use is horrific out of bounds sotaboo that you can’t believe it and you laugh about it but the reality is it’syou know that is someone else’s uh you know pl pain pain or displeasure orsomeone else’s someone else being a victim that you’re actually laughing at. think it’s the only way that you candeal with some of the stuff that that you see. It’s just it’s just too too far out there.Yeah, that’s a lot of people that I’ve interviewed say that about just how cops cope, you know, with those situationscuz like you said, that is that is an insane situation to deal with. That’sand that’s part of the reason that I’m doing the podcast is so uh and I’m glad you told that story because it is it isbrutal and graphic and shocking but people it’s good for people to hearthose are the things cops see and have to deal with. I mean the if if you could imagine it a cop has had to deal with itlike it’s that it’s that insane and that’s I mean no one in police academytrains you for that scenario you just described. No, it’s it’s technicolor. It’s not just it’s not just the, youknow, a black and white thing. It’s a real living evolving thing. And you you’re smelling the [ __ ] and you’re andthen you realize the guy’s got it all over his his arm and then you’re and then you’re getting grossed out andyou’re trying to deal with the situation, maintain your composure. The poor guy in the in the alley, he’spassed out. You don’t know if he was a willing participant and then passed out or they know each other. I mean, you’retrying to figure this out, but meanwhile, you’re dealing with the grossness of the whole thing, and you’re like, I can’t believe that I’m actuallyhere dealing with with this, you know? It’s crazy. Yeah, that is that is absolutely insane.I think you take I think you’re the winner for most bizarre so far. Oh,yeah. We got a there’s a few of them like that I got I I know of. Gil, can you tell us about the strangestor most bizarre thing that you dealt with? Yes, this one really is uh is amind-blower because not only was it bizarre, it kind of uh startled me in in a way and you you’ll get it as Iexplained to you. I was working a again a graveyard unit with a partner of mine and uh it was probably about 2:00 in themorning and uh the call was on the freeway. It was a call of a a rollover,a solo rollover vehicle uh was found to be when we went uh on scene uh coming torest in the center divider. And again, this is a four-lane highway uh shall I say freeway. It’s a southbound side ofthe freeway uh through Delmore in the north county of San Diego. And uh me and my partner arrive on scene and we seethe vehicle. You could tell it uh had rolled over. uh no other vehicles involved like uh just a basic uhrollover and it was my idea or my suspicion that somebody probably had got probably got ejected because we were thefirst on scene and the ambulance or any of the emergency personnel had arrived on scene. So at the time we got therethe first responsibility is to uh stabilize the scene. So we laid out a flare pattern to ensure that uh we haduh oncoming traffic guided away uh from the scene and uh give us a little uh uhworking area in that fast lane. Once we did that, the uh as we were doing that,the uh fire department had arrived on scene and uh noticed that there was a uh solo individual in the vehicle and theindividual was literally uh head first into the floorboard. And uh uh you couldsee his feet and if you could picture a body uh as if he was asleep uh uh headfirst with his back towards you on the floorboard on the passenger side of avehicle. And this vehicle again, it was uh it happened to be a uh uh what do you call those? Uh little aroof. God darn lost. Convertible. Convertible. Black art. Convertible. But it was a convertible. So uh as we walkedup uh we saw uh the guy in there and it looked uh he looked like, you know, hewas he was gone and you know he had that look of a death already. he had uh his skin color was gone and and uh you couldsee the uh fire uh personnel uh noticed uh that he was already just gone, youknow, while they worked on him. Uh they pulled him out. I didn’t know this and said they pulled them up towork on him. Me and my partner uh began to walk past the vehicle. Andas we were walking past the vehicle, we’re just looking for uh evidence, make sure nobody else got ejected. So, as wewere walking, we’re in the center divider and as I’m walking pro put my uhuh flashlight and the beam uh sees this object and at the same time the objectappears, I’m probably about 10 10 to 15 feet away from it and my flashlight hitsthis object and it is the individual’s head. Yeah. andatedand his head was like if they cut it off, took it off his body and just setit head up looking straight at me with the eyes open and it like greased me andit was whoa. And that was a pretty bizarre surprise because when I seen it, I Iyelled from my partner and it says, “Pat, take a look at this.” And he looks and they like, “Whoa!” cuz he was just alittle bit behind me. Cuz you know, you’re looking in the bushes, you’re looking, you don’t know what you’re going to find. Just uh in the process ofuh just uh clearing the scene and making sure everybody’s uh uh nobody else is out there and evidence, you know, beer,what whatever it is that you’re looking for. But uh I put my uh flashlight uh infront of me and the beam uh hit that uh decapitated head and it happened to be the uh the fella’s head that was headfirst into the uh floorboard of that solo rollover. And come to find out uh at the time freeways were actuallydivided by not hard uh concrete barriers. They were actually uh cablebarriers and they were just uh cables little cables uh that uh were strungdown the center divider. And it just so happened that uh during the roller it looked like uh he was just in the rightplace at the right time when the the vehicle rolled over. it uh literally sliced his uh head in half and the forceof the uh collision caused his uh head to roll uh a lot more uh ahead of uh thevehicle after it came came to rest and I thought that was very strange, bizarreand different and oh my gosh that is people are able to uh uh to uh to have afirsthand story about. So, that was probably one of my most bizarre events uh during during the course of uh of uhmy time on the job. Yeah, that’s that’s awful and bizarre for sure. Um so, when you walked by thecar, you just figured the guy was head the guy that was head down into the floorboard, you figured, oh, he’s he’sprobably dead, but you figure he had his head still. Yeah. Yeah. Cuz the way it was positioned is head head first into thefloorboard, and you know, he was under uh the dash. Uh so it was just uh it wasjust a natural assumption that he was just head first and you know dead and uhhis skin color and skin tone was was that of somebody that was uh was killed in the accident. And at the same timethat uh I I you know I take took a look at that uh that body the uh uh firedepartment uh had uh was starting to work on him. But as I walked and they were working on him, you know, I’m surethey uh they knew what was going on. didn’t know where his head was, but uh they they they they didn’t tell me andI’m sure they were waiting for me to find it and I I got Wow. That is uh that’s nuts, man.Yeah. Jeez. Funny because you look at some of these horror shows and you see these uh headsthat are placed on a table on, you know, you know how how all these things go and I I saw it for real, but sit up ontable. It was uh come to rest in the uh middle of a dirt center divider on a freeway. And did that mess with you at all? Imean that the the times I saw kind of disturbing deformationations of of people’s bodies. I always the next daywhen I woke up, it was always the first thing I thought of. I just and it always took me a couple days to kind of get itout of my system. It kind of screwed with me for a couple days. Did it bother you at all or were you just You know what, uh, Steve, I I I don’tknow if it bothered you, but I would say that maybe it did because us as uh ascops, as law enforcement officers, sometimes uh we won’t say it bothers us, but I think that’s why uh after shift wego out and we uh we go out and have a drink and build that camaraderie with our our friends because instead oftalking about it, we know about it, don’t have to say anything, but we just comfort each other and have a a goodtime and and laugh and and kind of like drink it away and it’s cynical way of looking at it or I uh but I think it’s areal way of looking at it. So, did it bother me? I wouldn’t admit it, but I’m sure it did. And it it it caused uh Idon’t know, it pointed you in the right direction of uh or the wrong direction of just uh uh letting that steam out orthose uh bothersome moments uh melt away uh with your friends and having a goodtime and not really speaking about it. But just partying it away, I guess you would. Yeah, I remember. I mean, you do takeit’s a real comfort you feel when it’s when you’re with another cop who’s either experienced the situation youwere in with you or similar situations. That’s when you really feel like morethan a friend. You feel like you’re it’s like a brotherhood. You feel comforted in Exactly. Because they were there. Theysh they their eyes share the same events with you. So you don’t have to explainanything to them. You just have to be there with them and have a good time and blow off steam.Yeah, I I think that’s that’s a good way. I have a question for you.Um I just out of curiosity and people might be interested in it. Um you said you worked Vice.When you work um when you work Vice there’s um likeyou’re expected you’re expected to mix it up a little bit like going to bars. Oh yeah. Yeah.You know, that’s that kind of fascinates me. The idea of like, you know, having abeer on duty is like really appealing to me. Yeah. It uh we did work bars. Uh youknow, we go in and and have a beer or two and uh see if they’re serving drunks, obviousHispanic bars have girls that, you know, they’re called bee girls. What they do is they solicit drinks from the uhpatrons and they’ll say, “Hey, let’s dance.” And they’ll say, you know, “Buy me a bottle of glass of champagne orwhatever.” And, you know, they they get charged double, which is against the law because uh right after World War II,most of the gis coming back from the war lost all their money at these bars. So,they were all over the United States. So, they they made them illegal. So, wow. worked we worked the gamblingprostitution and u you know that that was uh the best time I had on the jobwas uh was working vice get to grow your hair grow a beard yeah absolutelyhave a couple beers what was the rule like with the if you’re going in like and um you’re goingto have a cocktail you know to kind of obviously to fit in you’re not going to go in there get a soda water orsomething were you allowed like one drink an hour or something or you were allowed two drinksin an eight hour shift. Man, that doesn’t seem like doesn’t seem like enough. But I know, but what you do is, youknow, you have a drink and you order another one and you spill it. You know, you throw it under the bar and then you order another one and Yeah. Or so youtell your supervisor. Anyway, I’m picking up what you’re putting down there. That’s great.That’s funny. Yeah, it’s it was a good time. It was a good time. Especially when uh working street prostitutes and you can get thesame one twice. That’s that’s always good that you know that that’s what uh all the guys strive for is try to getthe same girl twice cuz you’re right know you’re a cop but if you could talk your way into getting aviolation again you’re the man. Yeah. Or they just have like memories like goldfish. They just don’tWell, I had I I arrested this one girl for prostitution and um she um well whatyou know you work them and they say you’re a cop and I’m saying no I’ll pull over and I said get out of my car you’rea cop you know I don’t I can’t afford to go to jail and then she’d say well would a would a cop do this I’m no cop andshe’d lift up her dress and you you know and show you the hardware rightand uh you know I I arrested her cuz I got the violation, the sex for money.And then a couple weeks later, I see her out in the street and I pull over and she goes, “Hey, Officer Essco, how youdoing?” And I said, “I’m doing good.” You know, the last time I saw you, unfortunately, I arrested you, but youknow, when you showed me what you had, I really got, you know, I really liked it.You’re kidding me. She goes, “You did?” I go, “Yeah.” And she goes, “Well, can I get in the car?” And I go, “Yeah.” And she goes, “Are youworking?” And I said, “No, I’m off duty.” So she gets in and she goes, “Well, you know, I’m not going to giveit to you. How much are you going to pay?” And I said, “Well, how much are you asking?” And you know, and then I got the violation, the text for money.So I give I give the signal to my partners. They come up and arrest her. And well, as they’re walking up, shelooks back and I said, “Oh, no. It’s internal affairs. They’ve been following me.” She goes, “Oh, I I’ll cover you.”So when they come up, she goes, “Oh, officers, some guy just robbed me.” And officer Scotto was just taking me to asafe place. She was she was covering for me. Oh, you must have felt like at least alittle bit bad. I felt like Oh, I felt really bad. I felt like crap cuz she, you know,fortunate she was a nice girl, but she was just uh strung out on uh on crack, you know. Yeah.It’s It’s unfortunate how how drugs will will do this. Yeah. Oh my god. I mean, talk about justkind of believing what she wanted to believe like like Oh, no. No, I’m off duty. Don’t worry about it this time.Yeah. And her mother came to pick her up and she’s a nice woman and she’s saying, you know, I I don’t know what to do andyou know, we give her some referrals and stuff, but there’s not much you can do really. Yeah.If they don’t want the help, you Yeah. You can’t can’t force it on them really. Yeah. Yeah. I felt bad, but I felt good.