24/7

I switched police departments after about 9 months, which is pretty unusual. Maybe I will share how that became possible someday. At the new department I had to go through their basic training again. Although I was by no means a veteran officer, the basic training was pretty much to make sure that I had a decent grasp of what I was doing. This basic training included me answering calls in addition to the usual evaluation of standard policing by my trainer. Things went smoothly. With one week left of training, my supervisor LT. Simon said; “hey man you know what you are doing. Just go about doing what you want and ask me any questions you have even if it is not about work.” I took what Simon said literally and we spoke about everything from video games, to religion to politics while policing the town. Simon and I instantly became friends and we had a lot of fun.

On one call that came in via the radio we had to check on an alarm going off at the main post office. Most alarm calls at business locations in our small town were faulty systems or accidentally caused by human error. But we of course still treat every alarm call as a potential burglary in progress.. Simon said “you check the front and I’ll get the back. If you see anything, hold your position and call me. We will handle it together.” I nodded and we took off. As soon as I got to the front of the building, I gently pulled the post office door and it swung open. I immediately retreated, took cover, pulled out my gun, and called for backup over the radio, convinced that someone was inside the building. It was silent. Simon did not respond. I started panicking a bit.what if Simon is hurt I thought. I wanted to go look for him but training taught me never to leave our position.”

So I waited and called for backup again but still nothing. After a couple of minutes,which felt more like an hour, another officer showed up. I heaved a sigh of relief when Ofc.Brown arrived on the scene. Brown and I went to the academy together so we are pretty well acquainted with each other. When Brown arrived, he just looked at me, took a deep breath and walked off. “Brown… Brown” I whispered as he walked to the back of the building. I could not figure out what happened. Did he see something that I couldn’t see from my position? First Simon disappears and now Brown. I kept my gun pointed at the door and I waited for Brown to return.

A few moments later Brown did return. “Good you are back,” I said with a grin. “Let’s get it.” Before I took the first steps to enter the building I looked at Brown and noticed that he didn’t have his gun out. “Take your gun out. Let’s go.” I said to Brown. Brown just said “no.” with a straight face. I looked at him confused. “What?” I asked. “Josh, what do you see there?” And he pointed at the post office. “A window?” I answered but more as though asking a question “Past the window Josh.” Brown said again. “I don’t get it,” I said to Brown. “It’s a post office. Post offices are full of P.O. Boxes. How can people get their mail if the post office locks the front door.” Brown.explained.

Then it dawned on me. The post office wasn’t broken into, the door was left unlocked for a good reason. Needless to say it was embarrassing putting my service weapon back in the holster while following Brown to our vehicles on the other side of the building. When I got there I saw Simon bent over in pain from laughing. It took him a few minutes to tell me the entire story. He said that he started to laugh a little bit when I initially saw the open door. He was walking towards me to tell me that it was supposed to be open but then he saw me take cover with my gun out and he busted into laughter. He couldn’t stop laughing for about 7 or 8 minutes and that was when Brown arrived at the scene. He was laughing so hard that he was crying. When he finished telling me the story, a new burst of laughter erupted from him. Simon fell to the ground and tears of laughter once again watered his face. I looked down in total embarrassment. To this day Simon always reminds me that post offices have the front door unlocked 24/7.

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