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March 30, 2007
The Trip Out West Part IX: Incarceration
If you are just coming in to the story, you should really start at The Beginning.
In yesterday's exciting episode I was arrested and charged with aggravated menacing (and really, if you're going to do some menacing you should do it in an aggravating manner), attempting to gain entry and burglary. The episode ended with me being driven to the Sedalia Jail by The Formerly Bad Cop.
With many stories, I imagine and certainly stories that are 22 years old, it is hard to remember every detail of everything that went on. For example, I don't remember walking from the police car into the police station but I'm sure it happened. I don't remember being beaten by billy clubs and then being questioned in a smoky room sitting in a chair beneath a bare light bulb … but I feel it is unlikely that occurred.
I do remember being in the police station and it seems that there were about three police officers hanging around me. I also remember having a sense that everybody had a feeling that there was some sort of giant misunderstanding going on involving me and that I probably wasn't Public Enemy #1. I'm certain the officers had a feeling that I hadn't left Ohio the day before set on terrorizing little old ladies in subdivisions as I made my way to Las Vegas.
Which brings me to two things I meant to mention yesterday:
1. On the way to the police station, Bad Cop mentioned that the neighborhood I'd been in was an elderly community and that had the door knocking happened anywhere else it would have probably been handled without an arrest. He went on to say that the elderly were the most victimized demographic; which I recalled learning in my gerontology class at Miami U.
2. We'd left Ohio at midnight Sunday morning and I was arrested something like 29 hours later. That's got to be a record of some kind.
So, we were at the police station, and everybody seemed to have a sense (to me, anyway) that there was some sort of misunderstanding involving my reign of terror. They didn't know exactly what was going on, and I certainly wasn't being terribly helpful, but I seemed harmless enough.
I was given a phone call and since I knew for a fact that Tom was back at the tent, probably asleep, and confident I'd be home soon, I decided to call him. I had a business card for the campground we were staying at and used my phone call to ring them up. The guy we met when we checked in — and I'll bet that one day when I'm trying to remember my PIN at the ATM his name will rush toward my frontal lobe so hard and fast it will actually bruise the inside of my skull — answered the phone. We'll call him Bob.
"Bob," I said, "This is Delmer. Is Tom in the tent?"
"I don't know," Bob replied.
"Could you take a look? I'm in jail in Sedalia."
Bob gave me an "Oh, my," said he'd check and I heard him put the phone down. A minute or two later he returned to tell me the tent was empty. He also said he'd tell Tom where I was when he showed up.
I was genuinely confused. If Tom wasn't at the tent, where could he be?
At some point one of the cops, who had recently moved to Sedalia from a city not too far from where I grew up, took me aside and said in a low voice, "The charges will likely be dropped to trespassing. The fine on that is about $80.00, but court isn't until Wednesday. Your bond [on the current charges] is going to be about $80.00. If I were you I'd post bond and then run. We'll issue a bench warrant for your arrest, but we aren't going to come out of state looking for you, and you won't have to wait around until Wednesday to go to court."
Shortly after that the officers took my shoe strings, I'm guessing so I wouldn't hang myself, and showed me to a very small room with a two beds and a stainless steel toilet.
I remember the officer who locked me up apologizing for the fact that the lights didn't go all the way off. They were all, really, very nice people.
I was pretty sure the lights being on weren't going to affect my ability to sleep.
Posted by delmer at March 30, 2007 8:58 PM
Comments
So the room had a regular toilet and a stainless one? maybe a sink? You stated you were going to Colorado but then say Las Vegas, what is it man are you sleepy?
Posted by: Mikeo at March 30, 2007 10:20 PM
You are a ballbuster, Mikey.
We were on our way to California with stops in Colorado and Vegas. I like to mix them all in to the story so that one state doesn't feel slighted.
There was just one toilet, and it wasn't so nice that it needed to be mentioned twice. I was prepping kids for bed as I wrote this on and missed that one. (I don't remember a sink at all.)
Posted by: delmer at March 31, 2007 8:39 AM
I do what I can, some say I'm annoying, others say jackass, it's a fine line!
Posted by: Mikeo at March 31, 2007 2:48 PM
Don't sell yourself short Mike, you're an annoying jackass! Just kidding, but if you open the door that wide I am compelled to kick it down.
Posted by: icymt. at April 4, 2007 2:00 PM