In this episode Steve interviews retired CHP Officer Gilbert Reyes. Gil saw a lot in his career while patrolling the highways of California and supporting local law enforcement agencies. We have a great chat about sleep over police academy, wrestling giants, the LA riots, and brutal car crashes.
Contact the show at – thingspolicesee@gmail.com
this is things police see first-handaccounts with your oast Steve goldhey guys welcome to the podcast beforethis episode starts I just want to takea minute to thank you guys all the loyallisteners to the podcast that podcast issteadily growing I checked out theanalytics on libsyn that’s the podcasthost and it says the podcast has beenheard in 34 different countries aroundthe world and 46 of the 50 states aredownloading the podcasts on a regularbasis so it’s really awesome it’s morethan I could hope for really excited soI thank you for thatit’s truly appreciated in this interviewI sit down with retired CaliforniaHighway patrolman Gilbert Reyes it’s areally fun interview he saw a ton ofstuff as a highway patrolman as you canimagine I think you’re really gonnaenjoy it so without further ado episodenumber 9 Gil thank you for coming on thepodcast man my pleasure Steve how youdoing very very goodso Gil you were a CHP officer CaliforniaHighway Patrol which is California’sState Police correct that’s correct yesso I have a question for you before weget started that I’ve always beencurious about you’re just a man toanswer it so I’m from Massachusettsoriginally and there’s they they justhave a state police department in thestate police patrol they do mainlyhighways and they do a bunch of otherfunctions and towns that maybe don’thave police officers they’ll offer thepolice service there but why why isthere is that just a difference in stylethe naming of it or you guys is theredifferences you know I think basicallywe’re both state agencies maybe ourfunction or our mission may be a littledifferent but the end result I think isbasically the same the primary functionfor us is highway patrolman with theCalifornia is our enforcement of thevehicle code but then again being a lawenforcement agencies especially in mycase I I had a lot of variety as far asassignments went as far as lawenforcement was concerned that’s yeah Ican imagine the the working for a stateagency is really cool especiallyCalifornia when it’s like one of themost the largest states in the countryand I think you just surpassed Englandin size of its economy so it’s a it’s akantak place for sure I didn’t know thatit’s pretty interestingyeah it’s bizarre so and you guys do theto me the dreaded sleepover policeacademy there’s nothing that I couldthink of that’s worse that I wouldn’trather do at the beginning of a careersgo sleep somewhere in a barracks youknow well you know what I thought thatat first but there’s there some there’sa lot of positives to it one inparticular is that it is live in it’salmost six months and you really buildgreat friendships that Brotherhoodreally takes hold and evolves and growsand just is nurtured there and that’sprobably one of the biggest benefitsthere and it allows you to concentrateon your chosen career field and reallyget involved in your training and to meit was it was very positiveI didn’t didn’t regret it at all thatwas one of the things I think thatallowed me to get introduced to the lawenforcement lifestyle gotcha yeah I meanI hear the same thing from buddies backhome where you can go to a varietyacademies in Massachusetts some of themare stay over and they say the samething they after they they’ve gonethrough it they say that’s that’s legitthat’s the real deal when you go thereand you sleep eat and breathe it youknow four five days a week they sureresidents four four four six months theonly the only way it wouldn’t be and wehad some guys that were actually fromthe Sacramento area because our Academyfor the Highway Patrol is in SacramentoCalifornia and there were a few guysthat went through the Academy with methat live local they did have to staybut on the weekends they didn’t have along drive to get to visit their lovedones oh that’s cool would they would theAcademy stay open on the weekends forpeople who were like a long way fromhome could you just could you remainthere yes it was a residence there werea couple guys that never left and not bychoice it’s a lot of them came from allover the United States and they reallydidn’t have the resources at the time togo back and forth to say the west coastthere are a couple guys that werefrom out east and they they justremained at the academy on the weekendsand now it was live in the chow hall wasa left openwe pretty much leave you alone on theweekends or not they’re chasing youaround yes well you know what they wouldleave you alone as long as you adhere tothe rules just like any other place thatyou live but being a law EnforcementAcademy there were a couple of thingsthat were or you couldn’t do you know ifI didn’t want to come back walking inzigzags at night like the bar not at allbecause believe it or not when you leftanytime you left yet to sign out when hecame back he had to sign in so there wassomebody there to watch all the time youwere you were monitored that’s for sureit was a place you could stay in residefor the entire time if that was yourchoice very cool Gil can you tell theaudience the first time you responded toa call that you’d that you consideredlike a hot call really got your bloodgoing and you had that adrenaline dumpyou know what one incident really uhstands out and it’s not really a callyou’ve got to remember that with aHighway Patrol our primary function istraffic enforcement and I just got off abreak-in and I was I was on patrol I washappening to be a freeway beating thelocation that I worked the station Iworked I was really fortunate in that itwe had a variety of areas to work andnow you could either work free with afreeway beat or a surface street thisparticular evening I was working afreeway beat it was in the North Countyof San Diego an area through Oceansidelocadia Encinitas on i-5 and I was onpatrol and mind you again I was I was arookie I’d just gotten off breaking Iwas really young and really into my jobI don’t know how I would explain it Iwas enough Brian knew 1982 Ford Mustangat the time the Highway Patrol ahead Ibelieve they refer to them asinterceptors but they were vehicles thatwere really fast and they were able toget up and go and the primary functionwas for our speed enforcement to forcethe the traffic and speed up along thefreeway and in that area again that wasfive community in San Diego but butready to get off and it was I waslooking an afternoon shift and a callhad come out that I don’t I’m not gonnause the code but it was an armed robberythat had happened to a liquor store itoccurred in the Oceanside area which wassouth our show I say north of where Iwas working and they put it out as adark-colored Boren make sedan black incolor and they had only the last threeof a possible last three of the licenseplate number and I thought lo and beholdI’d be nicer really uh get involved andgetting my first car chase yeah and loand behold I was traveling south aroundSanta Fe Avenue that’s in around locatedlike a new Cady areas of North County ofSan Diego and this vehicle blows rightby me when I say blows right by me I wasin the fast lane and I was usuallyusually crews around the little littlefaster than the flow of traffic and thisvehicle literally flies right by meit doesn’t even see me or if it did seeme didn’t care so I try to catch up toit catch up to it and lo and behold thelast four last three uh yeah licenseplate number uh I match and so I get onthe radio and you mind you I’m I’m arookie and I still get nervous withradio calls and sure on the radio andtalk and act professional and sound likeI know what I’m doing I remember thatyeah yeah so I put out there you know Iwanted to run a my role in twenty nineyou know I was in other words I was uhon the freeway traveling behind avehicle and I ran the license plate andthe license plate came back stolen andat the time that came back stolen thedriverI’m sure saw me right behind him and hepunches it when he punches it again myheart’s racingI’m trying to act professional and whenhe takes off I take off and I put it outand believe it or not Steve II probably yelled into the radio insteadof sounding great and soundingprofessional like I sounded like arookie but anyway to make a long storyshort he picks it up I pick it up andwe’re in and out of traffic trap it’sprobably light to moderate but it’s afour-lane highway shall I say freewayand he’s in and out of traffic I lookdown at my speedometer and we’re hitting125 130 miles an hour I’m putting outlocations when I’m putting out locationsagain I’m instead of flowing and sayingyou know I remember the the call sign Ihad that night it was 92 7 and Iremember say 92 7 in pursuit and yellingthis and just I just sounded like arookie your mind’s racing your yourAdrenaline’s going you’re putting outallocations in and out of traffic we’redoing this for probably about four orfive miles again the call comes out as aarmed robbery and armed robbery there’sa a weapon involved so all these thingsare going through my head be ready forthis be ready for that you’re like anyother cop you know you always go throughthese scenarios in your mind and you youyou you actually roleplay in your mindand all that role playing was in a roleplay this time it was actually somethingthat was I was chasing a bad guy and allthese thoughts are going through my headthis guy’s threatened the use of forceyou know I like I can shoot this guy Ican take this guy out all these thingsare just like running through my head soabout four or five miles into the chasewe’re going so fast that all the mybackup they’re still trailing to me andI remember you know calling for an airunit a helicopter and they’re in routeand now you’ve got people convergingfrom all over when I say people we’vegot we’re going through that locationand we’ve got San Diego Sheriff aboutSan Diego PD that send it up we’ve gotour units that that are behind me theyare trying to catch up but as we comesouth and there’s a split in the freewaywhere it turns into five turns into 805and you could take either 805 south orfive south well right before weget to that location this guy dives tothe shoulder when he died when I saydied to the shoulder he goes from thefast lane to the slow lane and into theright shoulder and at the right shoulderthere he begins to slow down and I canyou know I’m trying to keep all thisofficer safety stuff in mind and I tryto keep everything straight stay safeand this guy slowing down I’m behind himI didn’t want to get too close didn’twant to stay too far I wanted everythingtogether and let the you know advisedthe responding he knew it’s what’s goingon and I’m telling them and again I’msure I’m yelling the radio and I know Iam and I didn’t even want to listen tothat tape after he comes to a stop and Icome to a stop I put it out you knowsuspect feel comes to stop rightshoulder he may take foot bail not sureand sure as heck as soon as I say thatthe door flies open I try to get outbefore he does pull my gun he doesn’teven look back and he takes off and hejumps where he stops on the rightshoulder there’s a guardrail and littledid I know on the other side of theguardrail there’s a hill that literallyjust goes straight down and he jumpsover I jump over right behind him againI had my gun in my hand and I rememberdon’t put my finger on the trigger Idon’t want to shoot my gun until I haveto or anything right so I over and whenI jump over I hit the other side of theguardrail and I literally fall androlled down probably about 25 feet asI’m doing this I hold on to my gun I’mtrying to stop sliding down the hill butI’m not sliding I’m literally rollingand and is if you can picture somebodyrolling it’s almost like a cartoon ascenario full uniform gun in your handjust rolling down the hill and I lose myhand radio handheld and as I realizedthat I come to my feet with just dirtjust all in disarrayI just full of adrenaline keeping my outI opted for this guy and he turns outhad rolled and I was on the other sideof this bushand I stopped look and I’m just wait andjust got my gun pointing whereverwherever my eyes are gone and I see himrun as he runs he’s running towards thisuh you would business area and to mybenefit into my look as he runs I’mright behind him and I don’t have achance to fire off my gun only becausehe was too far and I just didn’t have aclear shot he makes the left goes aroundthe corner and I’m probably about 15 20but yeah about 20 25 feet behind him butas he turns the corner again you’ve gotto remember your tunnel vision youreally don’t hear anything I couldn’tput out my my locations because I didn’thave a radiobut as this guy runs turns the corner Iwas fortunate enough that there was aSan Diego Police Department and unit nowit had just been right at the rightplace and this guy literally runs turnsthe corner we wind up nabbing thempicking them up and nobody shot butthat’s the first intense adrenaline rushto where it was what it’s all about yeahman that is a hell of a first call yeahyeah you know come to find out the guyhad had all the money up India hisvehicle when we started get up back upwith this vehicle and not he was I don’tknow what put what his thinking was orwhatever but when he ran he had the Vhis weapon that was a it was under hisseat and he just he just wanted to getaway guy on parole I just got releasedand stuff to no good and doing thisthing you know it it won’t have been agood ending but good for story for ayoung guy that it just got on the jobabsolutely I’m after that you kept theclean uniform back in your locker rightyeah you know and luckily it was towardsthe end shift and you know being theyoung guy and just getting Raz by allthe all the older guys but you knowyelling into the radio and you know butit wasn’t as bad as it seemed but youknow just like anything else you alwayswant to project and sound professionaland not sound likeoh you’re a rookie you know didn’tabsolutely had some calls back homewhere I was like I just took that breastin first and then go on the mic justgive yourself a second to get composedyou know you not just happen just likethat and you know right towards the endof shift and that’s the way it goes youknow it was it was a good a good storyto share and had a good endingabsolutely can you um can you tell us ahumorous call or event that you don’tlisten I tell you this one I you knowit’s humorous to me at the time itwasn’t very humorous and this is thereason why I mean I was working with apartner of mine in that me and ended wewere working a graveyard shift and wehad made a stop on this individual andit’s uh this fella was he was a big guyhe was about 6-3 6-4 built just like uhlike an offensive lineman you know andwe stopped him made contact there wasjust something a little hinky about theguy just from the get-go well he winshe’ll minds up that I hear he was inpossession of some crystal meth he wastweaking he was just high you know andhe needed to go to jail well mind youit’s my partner and myself were bothprobably about five eight at the time anice lean 170 hundred sixty-five poundsin pretty good shapewell we go to take this guy to jail ortry to attempt to take him to jail andwe go to uh I’ll place him under arrestdo our thing and he literally tells usyou know what I’m not gonna go to jailbut he says it so a matter-of-factlythat he wasn’t gonna go Wow it’s justnot the way it works you know the fightsong and the fight starts and we try toget him to the ground and we’rewrestling with this guy but you’ve got apicture this we’re on the right shoulderthere’s a wide dirt shoulder and we’refighting with this guy and he’sliterally it’s just like a cartoon moviewhere this big guy is literallyrushing us off and throwing us off likeif like a four feathers our next stepapproaches we start beating this guywith our or our PR 24s are ournightsticks and we’d been better offhitting them with with with straws itjust didn’t it just wasn’t working so weput out a cover call and in the meantimewe’re trying to get into position tochoke this guy out to get him downanywhere we go we can and it’s about Iwould imagine about a minute before ourbackup comes but in the background wehear the sirens come and we hear justthe Calvary coming and we’re fightingwith this guy back and forth he’swhooping the software jumping on top ofthem and it’s almost hilarious becauseit’s like you’re literally getting youryour rear end kicked by this guy that’sjust strong high not gonna go anywhereit’s like two kids turn to fight theirdad yeah and you know what I can laughabout it now but at the time it was itwas pretty intense I bet it was a it wasa knock-down drag-out type of fightpunches kicks everything except and Idon’t know why you know what and I had Ikept this I was fully aware aboutkeeping my gun side away from this guybut as we were doing this and fighting Imean I literally smoke fighting gruntinghidden pound of flesh off our fists andthis guy’s just not really yelling butjust not gonna go to jail and the savinggrace and I remember feeling socomforted in the fact that our backupghosts on scene and I’ve got these twobuddy of ours that were our beatpartners that these guys or two footballplayers themselves Andy and and Terryand the the approaches they run towardsus but it’s really funny how it turnsout because at the time I looked upthere’s smoke there’s dust and rightbehind them is the light of a helicopterunit that’s over us knew did we knowthat they’re actually putting out what’sgoing on guiding the units in what’shappeningand of course the responding units havetheir adrenaline rushing their runningback running towards us and as they runtowards us the like of that helicopterjust has the silhouette of these twomonster guys coming at us and it’s likethey race like like these hero movieswere finally the good guy backups hereand front they jump and on the sky helpus we get this guy we’re out of breathwe get him booked handcuffed andliterally after this guy’s handcuffed Iroll over and just as a I’m exhaustedand almost laughing I me and my partnerare looking at each other shaking herhead and we were we were actually justinin laughing out of disbelief andprobably out of fear in adrenaline andthat was a it was something it duck thatwe uh we laughed at for a really longtime that was really uh hilarious but tothink about it how it went down and backup game and how uh it looked and justwas like being in a slow-motion movieand it was it was pretty hilarious itwas it was uh it was something I thoughtwas fun now we could laugh a laugh aboutit it’s something stuck in my axstuck in my mind for a long time andstill does that’s why I shared it withyou know that’s great yeah it’s uhPCP is like stories you guys have fromthe stuff is terrifying but hilariousyou know the guy that the tox resultscame back on the guy and we thoughtmaybe he would be he was on PC but hejust came back just with crystal meth inhis uh in the system and a lot of liquorand this guy was just uh go to jail youknow but he didn’t have the PCP look hejust looked like he was tweaking andjust didn’t want to go to jail and youknow he had he had a lot of fighting itwas drug-induced I guess you could sayfor lack of a better he wasn’t he wasn’tfeeling any pain I’m sure yeah I alwaysgo to PCP in my mind when I hear a storylike that uh you didn’t have that PCPstare you didn’t have anything like thatgoing on sobut it wouldn’t surprise me if he didhad my debt and system but it didn’thappen that wayGill can you tell us about the strangestor most bizarre thing that you dealtwith yes this one really is uh it is amind blower because not only was itbizarre it kind of uh startled me in away and you’ll get it as I explained toyou I was looking at again a graveyardunit with a partner of mine and uh itwas probably about two o’clock in themorning and the call was on the freewayit was a call of a rollover solorollover vehicle was found to be when wewent on seeing come to rest in thecenter divider and again this is afour-lane highway shall I say freewayit’s a southbound side of the freewaythrough Dalmar in the North County ofSan Diego and me and my partner arrivedon scene and we see the vehicle youcould tell it had had rolled over noother vehicles involved like just abasic rollover and was my idea or mysuspicion that somebody probably had gotprobably got ejected because we were thefirst on scene and honor the evidence orany of the emergency personnel hadarrived on scene so at the time we gotthere the first responsibility is to usstabilize the scene so we laid out aclear pattern to ensure that we hadoncoming traffic guided away from thescene and give us a little working areain that fast lane once we did that theas we were doing that the firedepartment had arrived on scene andnoticed that there was a solo individualin the vehicle and the individual wasliterally headfirst into the floorboardand you could see his feet and if youcould picture a body as if you wasasleep headfirst with his back towardsyou on the floorboard on the passengerside of vehicle in this vehicle again itwas uh it happened to be a what do youcall those roofed I don’t know lostconvertible convertible but he was aconvertible so as we walked up we sawthe guy in there and it lookedhe looked like you know he was he wasgone and you know he had that look of adeath already he had his skin color wasgone and you could see the firepersonnel noticed that he was alreadyjust gone you know well they worked onhim they pulled him out I didn’t knowthis and said they pulled him up to workon him me and my partner began to walkpast the vehicle and as we were walkingpast the vehicle we’re just looking forevidence make sure nobody else gotejected so as we were walking we’re inthe center divider and as I’m walkingprobably put my flashlight and the beamsees this object and at the same timethe object appears I’m probably about 1010 to 15 feet away from it and myflashlight hits this object and it isthe individuals head yeah dated and hishead was like if they cut it off took itoff his body and just set it head uplooking straight at me with the eyesopen and it reached me and it was whoaand that was a pretty bizarre surprisebecause when I seen it I am my partnerand it says Pat take a look at this andhe looks and it was like whoa because hewas just a little bit behind me becauseyou know you’re looking in the bushlooking you don’t know what you’re gonnafind just in the process about justclearing the scene and making sureeverybody so nobody else is out thereevidenceyou know beard whatever it is you’relooking for but I put my flashlight infront of me and the beam hit thatdecapitated head and it happened to bethe fellas head that was headfirst intothe floorboard of that solo roll overand come to find out at the timefreeways were actually / not hardconcrete barriers they were actuallycable barriers and they were just cableslittle cables that were strung down thecenter divider and it just so happenedthat during the rollover it looked likehe was just in the right place at theright time when thethe vehicle rolled over it surely slicedhis head in half and the force of thecollision caused his head to roll a lotmore ahead of the vehicle after it cameup came to rest and I thought that was avery strange bizarre and different youknow oh my gosh they are able to uh touh they have a first-hand story about sothat was probably one of my most of usour events during during the course ofmy talent job yeah that’s that’s awfuland bizarre for sure um so when you walkby the car you just figured the guy washad the guy that was head down in thefloorboard you figured out he’s he’sprobably dead but you figure yet hishead still yeah yeah cuz the way it waspositioned his head headfirst into thefloorboard and he you know he was underthe dash so it was just it was just anatural assumption that he was justheadfirst and you know dead didn’t hisskin color and skin tone but with thatif somebody that was was killed in theaccident and at the same time that I youknow I think took a look at that thatbody the fire department had wasstarting to work on him but as I walkand they were working on him you knowI’m sure they they knew what was goingon didn’t know where his head was butthey they they didn’t tell me and I’msure they were waiting for me to find itlike oh yeah wow that is uh that’s nutsmanhey long stuff it’s funny because youlook at some of these horror shows andyou see these heads that are placed on atable on you know you know things goingsure I I saw it real but stood up ontable it was a come to rest in themiddle of a dirt center divider on thefreeway and that mess with you at all Imean that the the times I saw kind ofdisturbing deformations of people’sbodies I always the next day when I wokeup it was always the first thing Ithought of I just and it always took mea couple days to kind of get it out ofmy system it kind of screwed with me fora couple days did it bother you at allwere you just you know what Steve Idon’t know if it bothered you but Iwould say that maybe it did because usis uhas cops as law enforcement officerssometimes it won’t say it bothers us butI think that’s why after shift we go outand we you go out and have a drink andbill that comma order with our friendsbecause instead of talking about it weknow about it don’t have to say anythingbut we just comfort each other and havea good time and last and kind of likedrink it away and it’s cynical way oflooking at it or I but I think it’s areal way of looking at itso did it bother me I wouldn’t admit itbut I’m sure it did and I did it causedwhy don’t they – plenty of you in theright direction of us or the wrongdirection of just letting that steam outor those bothersome moments melt away gowith your friends and having a good timeand not really speaking about it butjust partying it away I guess you wouldyeah I remember I mean you do take it’sa real comfort you feel when it’s whenyou’re with another cop who’s eitherexperienced the situation you were inwith you or similar situations that’swhen you really feel like more than afriend you feel like you’re it’s like abrotherhood you feel comforted andexactly because they were there and theyshade their eyes share the same eventswith you so you don’t have to explainanything to them you just have to bethere with them and have a good time andblow off steam you know I think that’sthat’s a good way of putting it yeah Gilcan you tell us about the most intenseor terrifying event that you dealt withyou know what Steve there’s one eventand that really stands out because yougo through a career and most of ourcalls are incidences that that happenedand they’re there a moment that timecall and it’s nothing that prolongedover a period of time and the reason Isay that is because the one thing thatare the one incident the one historicalincident I would would refer to thatreally stands out with me is uh otherRodney King riots and I bring that uponly because I responded to that withalong with a large groupmy partner’s denied that those riotsstarted and to be involved and be a partof that whole event was not a nightthing it was literally a event thatlasted days to where we were shot atwe were cussed at we were in a veryunique situation in that we were outthere outnumbered outgunned and we werejust being we were doing our jobs butman I’m telling you it was very uh it’sgot to be sad a beautiful event becausethere were I mean we were getting shotat we’re getting cussed at we were in aarea to where the city was on fire andpeople were out in a in a pack justlooting up to no good just expressingabout their frustration over everythingand whether it was right or wrongeverybody has their own opinion but wewere there to do a job and we wereinvolved in right in the middle of thatand it was the first time that Iactually had fear and the fear wasn’tbecause of anything except that we werewe were in control the whole place wasjust out of control it was a verydifferent type of event that I’d everbeen involved in in looking back at itnow I kind of feel proud to be part ofthat history because I was there I had afirsthandI have first-time first-hand memories ofthat entire whole event you know Iremember the night it went down Iremember we were actually working andpart of the mission for the CaliforniaHighway Patrol is that of mutual aidwhether it’s a natural disaster or inthis case civil unrest I think everybodygot the call to uh to assist the areawith with our help and get involved touh bring some law and order to the wholeevent so that probably was one of theonly timesthat I was in fear because there were wewere outnumbered we could have shot oneperson but there would have been 150people coming at us and full of hateready to take you out you know it wasone incident where we were on but notnow mind you we when we went out and wewere dispatched from our the commandpost where we were all originallycongregated there were four to a vehiclethere was a long riflewe had our shotgun we had the driver andanother individual another officer withus so we we drove in a group of fourfour deep and I mean four deep therewere four units together and squad notwhen they told us to go is just go outand you hate to say this but we were outthere with without a mission other thango out and patrol but man I’m tellingyou are my unit took custom grounds thatwas a bullet holes by the time by theend of the first night that we were outand not or responsibilities or shall Isay our assignment got changed frompatrol to being assigned to our firestations and respond with the fireengines to the fires to calls toeverything and that in itself also wasjust an explainable type of assignmentbecause we would go and scene and getshot at they we would get sniped at itwould see it was just it was it wascrazy crazy yeah yeah it was it wasreally a some dicta I don’t thinkanybody could really comprehend unlessyou were there like most things that wewitness as uh as cops that it’s justsomething that’s really unique so thatprobably was a biking guy I’ll say ithim it was the only time that I had everbeen in fear you know other types ofcalls aside from that type that thenwhat I’m just playing you don’t you’reyou go and you have an adrenaline rushyou you you’re you want to go and you’reyou you don’t think of fear you justthink of doing your job and taking thebad guy down you know right and thenit’s over and you de-escalates and yeahthat’s I mean those rideit’s that’s something so unique that youexperience that most cops won’texperience anything like that in theirentire career and it’s a it’s a reallyit is a really scary thing to imaginewhen you’re the police forceyou’re law and order your the long armof the law and usually when you go outand force with your with other officerslike that that’s it you’re the biggestgang in town you’re not you’re notyou’re the final word so to be to havethat kind of police presence the city’sburningwho’s gonna come get you you know you’reit it’s it was a very unique experienceto go throughthat’s crazy man did um now do you feellike the people like and others likethat mob mentality that hysteria thathappens and obviously in a situationlike that people who have thosetendencies are who are who are alreadycriminals whether they’re angry atsomething or not they’re gonna takeadvantage and start doing it and and isit do you think it’s like kind of athing it just kind of catches on to thenlike people it kind of works its way upto the people that they’re usuallypretty good but have tendencies see itand they go alright you know what I’mgonna go I’m gonna go nuts too and it’sjust kind of contagious that way peoplejust go nutsI believe that it’s it’s a contagiousthing it’s like you follow the crowdit’s a herd you know and you know whatit was it was open game and it wassomething that people probably like yousaid they’re doing it I’m gonna do itand they did it it was uh it was quite afew people out there just starting stuffon fireLewton just carrying on like fools I’mtelling you you know I heard there wasjust there was dead bodies and thenthere was a couple places designatedareas this and you can tell me if thesister or not that they would just dropthe bodies off and you know there’s notime oh yeah I had no witness that firsthand but I mean there were places wewere told to go if you run into thisthat and it was it was it was just likethat it was definitely a differentexperienceman that is wild go I have one morequestion for youyes kind of a newer question I’ve notasked anybody this yet but a listenerhad written in a fan and of the podcastand I was debating whether I was gonnatry it or not and I may be a Canastaaudience right now and I think I alreadydid ask them in the podcast episode thatwill come out after this one but can youtell me a feel-good story or somethingan event that happened that things wentwell and you went above and beyond andreally help the community and tell goodwell you know if this was not I’m tryingto do this one real quick only because Iknow we’ve been on the air for a whileand this one so really a feel-good storyit’s a feel-good story personally inthat the reason is is because this ishow it went I have a partner of minethat I work graveyards with and that weall during the course of our careers goseparate ways I went to investigationshe went on internet and became a motorrider so he was on a stop again I’mworking investigations and he’s uh Ishouldn’t say a stop he was checking outon a disabled vehicle on the side of thefreeway he was on the side of thefreeway and as he’s on the side of thefreeway this what turns out to be adrunk I would imagine but at the time wecatch him it he wasn’t drunk but anywaythis drunk veers off the freeway and heruns my partner over literally breaksboth of his legs in half the only reasonhe survives is when the vehicle hit somehe goes headfirst into the windshieldand he has his helmet but prior to thishappening he pushes the the two peoplethat he saw checking on out of the wayand he’s the one that gets hit Wow andit goes down the only description theyhave of this vehicle is it’s adark-coloredlarge sedan and the only descriptionother description identifyingdescription was that it had damageto the right front side of thewindshield the call goes out we get thecall being invested by the investigationdetective unit of our department come tofind out I know who the fella is he’s mypartner and he’s a critical conditionwould go on scene get witness statementswe put out the call with the descriptionthat we have and one fortunate thingabout living and working in an area thatyou grow up and you know the Geographicsabout the certain areas where thatparticular criminal element is prevalentso we put the call out my partner and Iare the case agents to this particularincident hit and run partners downfollow officer transported not in goodcondition don’t know if he’s going tomake it or not as we’re getting all thistogether me and my partner go to thehospital to make sure he’s all rightwe’re coordinating the case gettingunits dispatched putting the Bo Al’s outbeing on the lookout with what smalldescription that we have I go to thehospital real quick to check on mypartner as I get there I run into hiswife his wife is yes you can imagine notvery uh not in good shape you know youknow you know he’s in the operating roomhe broke both his legs are brokenblah blah blah blah and then she tellsme Gilbert find this guy and I tell herI promise I’ll find you oh my I’m sorryand I say this and when I say this mypartners with me after I say that westep back leave on our way out and Raygoes do you realize what you just did Isaid yes we got to find this guy wellyou know we worked through the nightwith the B wall that went out I hadinstructed allied agencies in aparticular area to particular area toconcentrate in this one a part of townthat if this guy is going to be aroundthat it’s highly possible that’s whereit’s gonna be and wouldn’t you know whatone of the San Diego PD units puts outthe call you know a we might have foundthe suspect vehicleand it’s in the area that we say not toofar from the actual incident nobody’sthere we get the license-plate number wewon the license plate there’s a changeof ownership it’s been sold a couple oftimes we go to each address and luckilythe second address that we wind up goingto we tell him what’s going onwe try to develop this type of rapportwith them offer him money to spill hisguts you know just become an informantwell little did we know the individualthat we did try to develop as ainformant he knew who the guy was and hehad it out for him because evidentlythis suspect had molested disguisedyoung daughter so he says wow he giveshim up and it just really I mean youknow we found the vehicle we find thisinformant he gives us all theinformation we wind up finding ourheading towards the skies a place ofresidence we’re starting to do up a setup on the house at the time that thisall happens you know the guy puts twoand two together and by that nextmorning before Sun the Sun came up andwere able to to nab this guy and to makea long story short I was able to takehim into custody or shall I say we wereable to take him into custody and therewas a lot of things in between that thatthat occurred that really was atestimony to the the other alliedagencies that were involved and theirdiligent work and their their ability tojust go out and and pound the pavementand just do their thing and we were ableto find the vehicle and find the guy andgot the suspect took him into custodyand that very next morning we were ableto tell Rhonda that though we got theguy and she was she broke into tears youknow yeah how good at that feel yeah letme tell you not only did it feel goodbut it was such a relief because and youknow you sometimes you say things andWowyou gotta you gotta come through but manI tell you I firmly believe that wewould have worked if it would have tookwe but if you would have found that guybut we had actually had the bordercovered because you know San Diego beingclose to the Mexican coast of theMexican border we had customs agents andwe had units out there checking trafficas it went southwe had just all everything just cametogether and it was a great work withthe different agencies that wereinvolved and uh the work in the the waythey just were able to just jump on itno questions asked it wouldn’t workedout good that was a really good comehere was a feel-good story only thatbecause it was uh it was satisfying thatwe could get this knucklehead and gethim into custody and you know jewelrybelong that was in jailabsolutely man that’s great fantasticthey should yeah everything everyone wasinstant should happen like that that’syeah that’s greatso Gil in closing do you have any advicethat you would give to a young personthat wants to be a police officer thefirst thing I would tell them what don’tdo it but of course that would thatwould just be a from up the opinion if aguy that’s already been through itduring an old-school era probably andit’s a lot different it’s a lot harder Ibelieve but I would tell you uh to uh tomake it a career not a job you know usecommon sense train and take his trainingserious you know treat all people withrespect and fair and now every decisionyou make whether to split this is adecision a decision that takes a lot ofthought but make all those decisions ingood faith and I think your luck it’llhelp you in the long run than in acareer you’ll thank you so much forcoming on man I really appreciate it nota problem thank you for having me youhave a great day
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