Page 111 - NIXBOOK

A helpful citizen called 911 to report the public library was on fire in the middle of the night. My concern level was pretty low
because the library staff had got in the habit of leaving decorative gas fireplace “on” 24/7, and from just the right angle at night,
th
yep, flames were visible from the outside looking in. I go the library and yep, it’s just the fireplace again, for about the 19 time.

Probably that same helpful citizen was the same one who called 911 everytime the guy living on his boat out in the bay fired up
his deck bbq grill; a thin column of smoke rising from his boat was enough to convince somebody it was definitely on fire. Every
single time we’d get our binoculars and confirm he was just cooking on the grill, and there was no need to send out the fire boat.

Chief of Police (#6 for me) parked his Jeep in our secure police garage on a Saturday and walked downtown with his daughter
to a coffeeshop. On my way out on patrol, I saw he had left his jeep unlocked, and the top was down. I ran back into the office,
gathered up a handful of punched-out paper holes, and carefully set them on the top of windshield sun visor. Later, when he
drove out and got up some speed, the open top of the jeep caused the paper dots to start blowing into his face. He admitted to
me that when that happened, he stupidly reached up and pulled down the visor, which of course spilled the rest onto his lap. I
of course told him that I didn’t know what he was talking about.

I pulled over a driver for some moving violation, and as I walked up the car the driver said to me “May I help you?” Now, I know
that sounds very polite and accomodating, but when the police pull you over for a reason, it’s not because they need your help
with something. Asking them if you can help this just sounds….weird. This is noteworthy because later in the day, about 6 traffic
stops later, I pulled somebody else over and got the exact same inquiry: “May I help you, Officer?”