A kinda slow time, so I thought I would share an interesting and sometimes funny investigation that I was involved in as a police detective in the early 60's. Police work isn't exactly what you see on TV. A lot of times it just being at the right place at the right time or dumb luck.

A gang had committed a string of burglaries in the Dallas-Fort Worth area were they were taking company checks and check protectors. They then made up dummy checks and passed them primarily at super markets on busy weekends.

Finally we got one of the passers IDed from a group of mug shots by cashiers at a couple of stores. She was a redhead with the nickname of "Bugger Red". The hunt was on !

Episode I - Acting on a tip, my partner & I, along with two county detectives went to a nightclub on South Ervy Street in Dallas. We parked a couple of doors from the club in front of a Hodge Super Market. The tip didn't pan out and we were just getting to our car when the burglar alarm at the super market went off. We ran around the corner of the building and nabbed a guy who had just jumped in a car parked behind a small storage shed. We call the Dallas police for backup and a police dog sniffed out another subject still inside the store. They had been peeling the store's safe when the alarm went off with 4 officers outside the building !
Score two safe burglars, but no Bugger Red.

Episode II - Still searching for Bugger Red, We had just left a meet with a Dallas detective in a West Dallas shopping center where we were exchanging info. We stopped at a root beer stand for a burger and while chatting with the car-hop show her a mug shot of Red. To our amazement she knew her, didn't like her and gave us a lead on where we might find her ! We raided the apartment and no Red, but we did find a guy hiding in the closet. Ran an R&W (record & wanted) and found that he was wanted for a couple of armed robberies.
Score one armed robber, but no Bugger Red.

Episode III - Questioning a girl who was in the raided apartment, we got another address that was frequented by Red. We raided the second apartment and found a naked redhead (not Red) and a guy who unsuccessfully tried for a gun. While we were cuffing him, the redhead thanked us for "saving her" as she thought her room-mate had called us. Turned out the guy was an ex-boyfriend who had picked her up at her apartment and alledgely forced her to go with him. When she found that we were there looking for "Bugger Red" and not her, she was still co-operative & told us where some of the check protectors could be. An R&W check revealed that our guy was a parole violator wanted for questioning on an assault where several shots were fired at a car.
Score one naked redhead & one parole violator wanted for questioning in a shooting, but no Bugger Red.

Episode IV - Folliowing info given to us by the naked redhead, a third raid netted several check protector, blank company checks, two more suspects but no Bugger Red.
Score two suspects, but no Bugger Redf.

Episode V - We were questioning suspects while my lieutenant and two county detectives went to the West Dallas Projects to serve a search warrant on another location. Keep in mind that the only folks who wore coats & ties in the projects were either police or insurance salesmen. Bugger Red came out of the apartment as they were driving up. She snapped on them at the same time they recognized her. After a short foot race they nabbed her. Bugger Red was now in custody.

My lieutenant rode us for weeks. "You guys looked for a month and didn't find her & I grabbed her in one day". When we tried to remind him that it was just dumb luck, he reminded us that the whole case was riddled with dumb luck or just falling in it and coming out smelling like a rose.

Thats funny....could be a good episode of Psych...