Name Tag

Name Tag
During shift on a particular day we received an anonymous call concerning a man named Janet who was hiding out at the trailer park. The caller said that Janet had a warrant out for his arrest. Believe it or not, most calls like this turn out to be a false alarm. Such calls are often based on personal vendettas and you will find someone who suddenly becomes a good citizen wanting the police to do something about the person who they don’t like and who happens to have a warrant. But this time this call wasn’t one of those situations.

We checked Janet in our system and he indeed had a warrant. The information on him also came with a caution of notice that he warned of potential danger. So our supervisor assembled the shift and made a game plan. LT. Baggins said that she and a few officers would go to the front of the trailer and try to make entry. Baggins then said that the two fastest officers would wait by the back door because Janet would probably try to make a run for it. She picked officer Winslow and me to go to the back door. Baggins then showed us a picture of Janet. The picture was just of his face. We did not know how old the picture was or any sort of markings on his body but that’s all we had to identify the target.

It was about 4 am when we arrived. No one used their flashlights because of tactical reasons. Winslow hid in the wood line behind the house. I found an old shed near the backdoor stairs and took cover while having good visibility. Winslow and I waited in the back and we could hear our team at the front talking to the residents of the trailer. While they were talking I heard the backdoor slowly slide open. It was very dark so it was difficult to be immediately sure, but the male looked like the picture we had of Janet. He slowly and cautiously tip-toed out of the house to the top of the back stairs.

All of a sudden I heard Winslow call out “hey buddy. Where are ya going?” Janet looked into the direction of the woods, said “uhh…” and ran back inside the house. Winslow came over the radio and said he went back into the house. The team at the front entered the trailer and we met them in the middle of the house. We made it to the main bedroom. Once there, we spread out and I went straight to the closet and opened the door. Inside of it was a blanket about 3 feet off of the ground with a lump at the top. I pulled the blanket and it didn’t budge. It felt as if something was holding the blanket down.

I moved my taser to my left hand and pointed it at the lump in the blanket. I then pulled the blanket as hard as I could and it went flying off. Underneath was Janet still hiding in a fetal position. I yelled, “let me see your hands!” Janet just stared at me like a deer caught in the headlights. I calmly put my taser away, grabbed him, and pinned him down. The other officers helped to get Janet in handcuffs. The entire time Janet was screaming “you have the wrong guy!” We turned him around and a tattoo on his neck confirmed that his name was Janet. Again he yelled “you have the wrong guy!” Then I said, “Hey man, your name is tattooed on your neck.” Janet stopped talking for a few seconds and then said “that’s not my name.”

We searched him before putting him in the car and in his pocket was an ID card. The ID even showed the neck tattoo. Once I found it I showed it to Janet but he still yelled, “that’s not me!” We sighed and shook our heads that this guy was completely in denial. After we brought Janet to the jail, the shift celebrated the good arrest and called it a night.

Posted here first [https://ourstoriesfrombehindthebadge.wordpress.com/2022/02/08/name-tag/]