Page 207 - NIXBOOK

Fast forward about 20 years and I’m at some official business again in that neighborhood, and I meet the latest newest owners
of that old farmhouse where the guy had died. I casually mentioned his tragic death and the young couple are like “Wait, what?!?”
and I realized that nobody had ever informed them that somebody had died in their front yard years ago.

nd
Explosion in the closet of an apartment duplex; 2 floor. No fire, but the roof had been blown up and off a bit, leaving it askew.
Turned out to be a very, very large firework comparable to a small stick of TNT; legal only on the Indian reservation, where it
was bought. But the responding police and fire department crews thought it was a meth lab explosion; which made it really
funny when my sergeant and the fire Marshall convinced themselves and each other that they had gone in there and been
exposed to a deadly meth lab and therefore their respiratory distress was logical and expected and if they lived long enough,
there would be a claim filed with the state because they were exposed to cancer-causing chemicals whilst on the job and oh…wait
it was just some gunpowder, never mind. They both miraculously recovered very quickly after learning that.

Shoplifter ran out of WalMart. The loss prevention associate watching him called 911. I called him back. He told me that he saw
the suspect run into a nearby business. The suspect was black. Which for this story, is very relevant. I go into the business, see
the guy, and he admitted to me that he had just left the WalMart, so I figure I got the right guy and I detained him in handcuffs
and take him out to my car despite his protests. The loss prevention associate came over, looked into the back seat of my car
and said “Uh…, that’s not the guy!” The thief ran into THAT business!” and he pointed one door over. The doors were really close
together so that was an honest mistake on his part. Another officer on the scene went into the other business, found the other
black gentleman that we had in town that day, and arrested him, because that was indeed the actual suspect. I could not get my
guy out of handcuffs fast enough. Fortunately the other officer smoothed things out with him, it helped I think that the officer
was black himself. I will admit…uh…that when the loss prevention officer was talking to me on the phone, he said something
like “The suspect is a black male, 5 foot 9, wearing blue jeans and..” At which point I cut him off and said the regrettable words
“I don’t care what he’s wearing, I’m just going to grab the first black guy I see over there,” …figuring.. of course….(quite wrongly)
that there would be only one black guy over there at that time. To my credit, I did at least ask him if he had just left the WalMart,
and he had told me that he had indeed been over there, so that’s my defense that it sure looked like I had a good enough reason
to detain him in cuffs at that moment. But yeah, I still do feel a little bad about that whole thing.