The Day I Flirted an Armed Robber into Custody (Pt 1)

Part 1 of 2

This story is from when I was a rookie police officer at the Reedley Police Department in central California. It is an excerpt from my memoir PET TRACKER that I felt is worthy of sharing (a 2nd time) as a stand alone (2-part) story. Enjoy!

While working a graveyard shift during my first month on solo patrol, free from the prying eyes of a field training officer, I responded to a silent holdup alarm. I was casually patrolling a residential area when the call came out, so I flipped on my emergency lights and floored it. I mentally prepared by running through my drill for an armed robbery in progress:

1. Try and not crash due to uber excitement

2. Cut the siren off a few blocks away

3. Push shotgun button release as I’m arriving

4. Grab the shotgun as you arrive (but avoid pulling the trigger)

5. Jump out and rack a slug into the chamber

As I was going down this mental list, I didn’t see the large dip in the road ahead of me. When I hit that dip, I went airborne! When I landed, I bottomed out. The undercarriage of my Pontiac Bonneville patrol car scraped the ground and sent sparks flying. Thank God I didn’t lose control and crash. The call turned out to be a false alarm.

Me (Kat) in front of my ancient-patrol car holding my shotgun (photo credit Reedley PD)

A few months later, I finally had my first armed robber encounter. A witness saw the crime and called the Reedley Police Department: A man was holding a security guard of an apartment complex at knifepoint while his two accomplice thugs broke into cars. Officers responded and managed to capture one of the suspects in the parking lot while the other two fled into a nearby almond orchard. A Reedley police dog captured the second suspect, but the third and final suspect was still at large. This all took place in the thirty minutes prior to my shift. When I arrived at the station, I was told to hurry up, suit up, and head out to assist at the crime scene. After jumping into my patrol car and rushing to the scene, I arrived and set up as part of the perimeter.

Perimeters are when the police cordon or block off an area in order to contain and capture a suspect. They require strategy and patient police officers to wait and watch a particular area for any movement. With both of my spotlights illuminating two corners of the orchard, I sat patiently and watched. After forty minutes with nothing coming out of the orchard, the sergeant disbanded the perimeter and released all of us to go back to patrol. The other officers left. The sergeant went back to the police station. Life in the city returned to normal. But I stayed put.

I knew it was possible that the suspect had escaped from the area and that I could be wasting my time. But my gut told me that he was still in that orchard. This came from several years of working as a 911 dispatcher and hearing bloodhound recovery stories, which taught me that suspects that run often go a short distance, hide nearby, and then wait for the police to leave.

Twenty minutes after all the other Reedley cops had left, I watched as a man casually walked out of the orchard, as if it were perfectly normal to be inside an almond orchard at one o’clock in the morning. He was wearing a white tank top of the same description as the armed robbery suspect at large.

I put my patrol car in gear, floored it, and yelled into my radio.

“Reedley Forty-one!” I called the dispatcher over the roar of my engine. “I need assistance! I have the robbery suspect coming out of the orchard.”

In a matter of seconds, I knew four things. First, I was going to face this suspect alone and that my backup was at least eight to ten minutes away. Whatever happened, it was up to me to catch him.

Second, I knew that he was armed with a knife. But I had a Colt .45 loaded with destructive Black Talon rounds. In my book, guns trump knives. If we went to combat, I would win.

Third, I knew that if I rushed up to this suspect and yelled, “Police, freeze!” he would bolt and get away from me. This neighborhood was the suspect’s turf. I was a rookie, and I wasn’t as familiar with the area as he was. If he ran, he would win.

And fourth, I knew that he likely thought that I was dumb. Reedley was a tiny town. The locals, especially the local troublemakers, knew all of the cops. Being that I was one of only two female officers who had ever worked at Reedley, I knew that when he saw me, he’d immediately know I was the new rookie.

As I sped toward the suspect, I recalled something that a mentor had told me before I entered the police academy. Margie Hernandez was a female cop at the University Police Department while I was a dispatcher there. When I first announced that I was “thinking” about applying for the police academy Margie was full of encouragement. She told me what I could expect about the level of difficulty for the physical training, the range (shooting firearms), and the three most common problems that knock police cadets out of the police academy—test taking, reading comprehension, and report writing. But the advice I remember the most was about “looking feminine.”

“Always wear perfume, makeup, and small post earrings,” Margie had told me. “You’re a woman and you should appear as feminine as possible.” Margie said I’d be making a big mistake if I tried to bully people or use manly bravado when I had to arrest a man.

I thought about wearing THIS lipstick while on patrol, but figured I’d be accused of EATING DONUTS instead of trying to look “feminine.” (Photo credit: Depositphotos Evgen Boyko)

“Plenty of men will slug a male officer to avoid an arrest,” Margie said. “But very few will punch a female. Use that to your advantage.”

With Margie’s words ringing in my ears, I decided to use my femininity as a weapon. I slowed down and pulled up to the robber who was walking casually on the sidewalk.

(To be continued…)