Fishing for Felons

I was working patrol out of East Precinct on a balmy spring evening as it was just getting dark. The district I was patrolling had several active known felons living in a high crime area. One of them was a female drug dealer that sold drugs to middle age school kids to feed her own methamphetamine addiction. She was about 28 years of age and looked like she was 60 years old. She was skinny with sunken facial features, rotten teeth and visible injection marks (tracks) up and down her arms and legs. Drugs are not cosmetics, they don’t make you beautiful.
She had been arrested in the past for unlawful delivery of methamphetamines within 1,000 feet of a public school and she was also selling meth to kids. Vice officers had developed enough evidence to obtain a no-knock warrant (a court issued arrest warrant to enter her home without knocking). I had attempted to arrest her in the past but she was cunning enough to slip out the back door or get away somehow. However, this night I thought I would fish for a felon. This is how I did it:

I knew most people like to know what is going on in their neighborhood when they hear police sirens or see police lights and that they will come out of their houses or look out of their windows. I drove within a block of the suspect’s home with my cruiser lights flashing and siren blaring. I pulled behind an unoccupied vehicle and sat there just long enough for people to look out or come out of their homes. Sure enough she opened her front door and looked down the street to see what was going on. I then walked up to the unoccupied vehicle and stayed just long enough to appear to be giving the motorist a warning for a traffic violation. I then made a u-turn and drove off.

A block or two away I called for a cover officer and ask him to cover the back of the residence while I approached the front door. Once the cover officer was in place I kicked open the front door and announced my presence. I could hear the back door open then close. My cover officer radioed me that the suspect went back inside the house when she saw him. However, I couldn’t see her anywhere, so I searched every room and under every bed but she was nowhere to be found. I was just about ready to give up, thinking she had somehow slipped away one more time, when I saw a large pile of clothing on the floor of a small closet.

Kicking the pile I heard her wince from the contact. I had a fish on and had to reel her in. I commanded her to put her hands out where I could see them and to come out from under the clothes. I hooked her up (hand cuffed her) and another felon was off to jail to be held accountable for selling drugs to kids.

Like this poor drug addict wincing when called upon to be accountable for her crimes, we sometimes want to avoid being accountable for our actions. We may try to hide from God like this drug addict tried to hide from me, but when we pass from this life each one of us will stand before Christ to be judged because, “… as soon as they (you or I) are departed from this mortal body, yea, the spirits of all men, whether they be good or evil, are taken home to that God who gave them life.* … the Holy One of Israel; and he employeth no servant there; and there is none other way save it be by the gate; for he cannot be deceived, for the Lord God is his name.”** Alma 40:11*, 2 Nephi 9:41**
To learn more go to: mormon.org or lds.org