Warm Weather Fun

We have had unseasonably warm weather here in Massachusetts. I know that things are not exactly right when on Christmas Night while driving back to the station for shift change I distinctly smelled the spray of skunk in the air. With the extended good weather it has brought on all kinds of goodies, two most notable are:

  1. Flu Season, hard hitting and furious, I've had a lingering cold for about 2 months now, everyone around here has had or is in the grasp of it. It Sucks.
  2. It has provided a reason for all the crazies to come out of the woodwork night after night. We have had an upsurge in robberies, bar fights, and all around strange occurances.

The other night I took an overtime shift, I had worked as the booking room officer during my shift and for most of the night it was smooth sailing, about an hour before shift change it began. Arrests, a few trickled in at first and when the Midnight Lieutennant asked if I wanted to stay over for an extra shift, I said "sure why not?" Dumb move on my part, I moved from the booking room to the radio room as a calltaker and the calls came....... In droves. in one 8 hour shift I fielded 2 shootings, 2 stabbings, several shots fired calls, a guy barricaded in a hallway (supposedly) which got the Entry (SWAT) team out at 4:00 am (he was actually 2 streets away on his cell phone enjoying the show until someone recognized him and he got arrested (by the Chief of police no less, who had also been summonsed to the scene) Then I had to talk someone down who was having a heart attack until the fire and rescue showed up and to top it all off, My last official call, the coup de resistance was the drunk woman who had passed out in the bathroom of a neighboring towns WALMART (the 911 cell call got misdirected to us) and stayed passed out in the bathroom without anyone checking or knowing she was there until she awoke and called for assistance. What a freaking night, I don't care what Mrs. Enforcer says I ain't taking an extra shift until I fully recover from that one.