Little Johnny 1
One day while on patrol I was called to the local grocery market because of a theft. When I got to the small store I noticed that a lot more than theft took place. The store was left in a pile of mess. Ice cream was splattered throughout the store and landed on various objects. A line was drawn across the wall with what appeared to be lipstick and many of the arts and crafts were vandalized. The entire store seemed to be ransacked. The store manager then showed me a video. It was of two small boys; probably middle school age. They showed up with book bags and on the video they are seen stuffing a few things into the bags. Then they made a beeline towards the back of the store and you can see them opening the ice cream fridge and throwing it throughout the store. They then used lipstick as a marker and drew on everything in sight. After doing that, the boys ran out of the store.
After gathering all the information, I waited for the right opportunity to work on what was sure to be a weird report. A few minutes later we received another call from the same grocery store. It stated that the boys were back. I headed to the scene and when I arrived I saw the boys who I recognized from the video earlier. They were once again stuffing stolen things in their book bags. As I approached them I noticed two things. Firstly, one of the boys was not a child. He was just short. This young man had a scraggly beard. The second thing that I noticed was that the other boy was a lot younger than I thought. He was about 11 or 12.
I walked up to the boys and said “Hello.” They froze. “Put it back and walk outside,” I said. They put their heads down and did as they were told. Once the boys were outside, they introduced themselves without me even asking. The older one gave his name as Bobby and the younger one introduced himself as Johnny. I asked what happened and Bobby put on a tough look and said “Nothing.” Johnny then yelled out “I WAS STEALING STUFF!” I tried to hold in my laugh the best I could and said “Johnny calm down a little bit and say that again please.” Johnny took a breath and said “Bobby said it would be a good idea to take some stuff because we were bored and didn’t want to pay. I knew it was a bad idea … I am so sorry!” I looked over to Bobby and he looked shocked that his little cousin Johnny tattled on him. I told him “Dude you are the one who bought a 12-year-old to commit a crime. Don’t get mad at him.”
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Bobby was old enough to be taken to jail so he was placed in a police car for further processing.. Johnny on the other hand was taken to our police department where we waited for his mom. Johnny seemed to be a nice kid who did something pretty dumb. He told me how much he loved his mom, what his favorite subject in school was, and about his favorite sport. He asked me about police stuff and gave him honest answers. Johnny then went completely silent for a few minutes and said “Can you please not tell my mom.” “Buddy, we have to tell your mom we can’t just let you go,” I told him. Johnny looked straight at the ceiling and said, “She is going to kill me.”
A few minutes later Johnny’s mom arrived and I told her again what happened. The entire time while I was speaking, she gave little Johnny a death stare. I tried to stress that Johnny owned up to his mistakes and that he told us the truth but that didn’t seem to calm her down. She could not wait to take him home for a good old time exercise in discipline. Johnny’s mom repeatedly apologized and dragged Johnny out of the police station.
Originally posted on my blog (https://ourstoriesfrombehindthebadge.wordpress.com/)