Theft: "A" for effort

So we recently responded to a large nationwide retailer for their security watching someone that they know to have stolen from them before. The complainant said that the subject had picked up a lot of DVD's and gone into a restroom. We waited outside ready to pounce when he tried to make his escape. The retailer stated that he had run from them before...so we were ready. An hour and 45 minutes later the subject came out of the restroom with no DVD's visible. However, he had a kind of funny walk when we stopped him to see what the deal was. It took only a quick pat-down to figure out what he had done. The subject had taken 25 DVD's ( a couple at a time) into the restroom. He had taken three rolls of tape and a box cutter as well. He had spent that almost two hours cutting security tags off of the boxes with the box cutter he had taken, then began taping the DVD's directly to his body using the tape he had taken. He had taped them 2-4 DVD's thick from his neck to his knees. He then left the knife in the bathroom and attempted to leave. We were kind of all over him when he hit the exit, so he didn't have much of a chance. I took a bunch of photos for court of how he taped them to himself. That will look good. After giving him his rights, he began telling me that he sells them on the street to get money for his heroin habit. He then gave me as much info as I could want about where he gets the drugs, how much he uses, and so on. I give him an "A" for effort in trying to steal that way. To no avail. Little did he know, he stole just enough for it to be a felony. Maybe he'll get help with his drug habit while in jail.

http://www.wcpo.com/content/news/fresh/story.aspx?content_id=a9a267c4-4f48-452a-9978-ad9fe7ad3bfa

Tactical Driving School

Went to a week long tactical driving school in London, Ohio. It was excellent. The facility had a very large test track that was basically a road course with marked intersections. I don't want to get into too much detail of what they taught us, but we mainly worked on how to take corners at higher speeds under control with new steering techniques and pedal management. It was a lot of fine tuning that turned us into much better drivers in the week that we were there. A lot of the week was spent working with cones and maneuverability around them, but we also worked on a skid pad (learning to control an out of control car)and did emergency response drills. We ended the week in mock pursuits suited up with 5 point harnesses and racing helmets chasing a rabbit car who was an extremely good driver. All in all it was one of my favorite classes I've been to. If you want to know more, ask. I'm not going to post details on an open forum.

Show-Me State Games: Soccer

Well, once again I participated in the Show-Me State Games (2008) soccer tournament. As usual the boys got together a bunch of old high school friends and friends made since to play a little soccer. Unlike last year, we entered the recreational league, hoping that we could do a little better. This year we also took on a little different format. It was 8 v. 8 on slightly smaller fields. We hoped this would relieve some of last years complete exhaustion within the first 5 minutes. It almost did. We lasted till halftime before we were all pooped this year. Our first game was on Friday night. We kept up with the team through the first half both teams scoring a couple, but they pulled away in the second half (we are completely out of shape) and ended up winning something around 8-4. Sounds worse than it was. I played a little keeper and a little field. Second game was in the morning of Saturday. The other team came with 15 people (almost two teams worth). We were doing just fine again till around halftime when their extra players became much more noticeable. We lost that one around the same score something like 8-5. After that we went to chill/sleep/eat at the mall in the air conditioning. Our last game was in the afternoon of Saturday. We had heard from other teams that we could beat this one, and we did. After a little work we came away with a victory of 6-4. Better than last year. We all wanted to win at least one and we did just that. So it was a slight improvement over last year. But no matter, it was good to go and play ball with the boys who I don't see nearly enough. I always forget the fun I have in the country. We ended by going out to Hooters and then a county fair watching a tractor pull. Great way to end the weekend. Now back to Ohio for training.