The City of Prineville had a population of under 5000 people. There were 6 police officers and one jailer/janitor. The police department owned 3 cars. Two were marked and the newer one was unmarked, it was the chief’s car. When there were three of us on patrol we had to drive to the chief’s house and get his car. On this night there were three of us on, but only two cars. I was sort of in trouble about catching a person after an elude incident. This night was a quiet night. The Sergeant and the Corporal decided to ride together in a market unit.

I was starting my second week as a Prineville Police Officer when this incident occurred. Before my first week had ended I was sort of labeled as trouble and assigned to the department’s corporal. Trouble seemed to follow me around and I somehow managed to get into it. The sergeant and corporal were riding in the front seat and I was sitting in the back seat of a patrol car. I was listening to them talk and to the police radio. I was hoping to learn from their words of wisdom. We received a call of someone “casing” Joe’s Eastside Market. Now the market was outside the city limits of town, but a city commissioner owned the store, so off we went to check out the report.

I was dropped off at the front door while the sergeant and corporal went to the rear of the store. I had been there about a minute when the store owner arrived. He was drunk by all standards. He asked if I had checked the interior of the store. I told him the front door was locked and we had just arrived. He unlocked the front door. I stepped inside and he locked the door behind me. Well, I figured I would just stand there until I was rescued by the sergeant and corporal. I didn’t have a radio and beating on the door didn’t get me out. The commissioner just smiled.

I heard voices in the store and by listening I decided they were the bad guys. I yelled at them to give up and come out, but for some reason they refused. Have you ever tried to chase someone through a grocery store, up and down the isles? It became apparent to me that I had to think fast. I grabbed some cans of food and began throwing them over the isles at the bad guys. I herded them into a corner by throwing the cans and managed to grab them. I had two bad guys and one set of cuffs, and I wasn’t bright enough to cuff them together, so I didn’t cuff either one of them. Beside I didn’t have a handcuff key.

I took them back to the front door. The owner looked at me and refused to unlock the door. Now I’m stuck inside with two bad guys and no way to request help, or to get out of the store. I asked the bad guys how they got in. They took me to the back of the store and showed me a hole they had made in the outer wall. I could hear the sergeant and corporal talking outside. I decided if I could hear them, they could hear me. I yelled that I was “sending two” out to them. I pushed the first guy out and he was jerked away, followed by a metallic ringing sound. I pushed the second guy out and he disappeared, again there was that same ringing sound.

I decided I didn’t like that ringing sound so I didn’t go out the hole. I yelled out that I was inside and the owner was at the front door, but he would not let me out that way. They told me to meet them at the front door. I went to the front door and the sergeant arrived with the store keys and let himself in. He wanted to know what I had gotten into this time, and why was I in the store? I explained my actions and walked him through the store. I was ahead of him near the hole in the wall when I heard the hammer get pulled back on his revolver. The Sergeant had already demonstrated that his revolver had a hair trigger. I stopped moving, wondering if I was going to be shot on the spot. The sergeant ordered me to show him my hands, without turning around. I did as I was told. He then said he was going to put cuffs on me and not to move. I didn’t move a muscle. I heard the cuffs ratchet down, but not on me. The sergeant had spotted a third guy hiding in the store room, that’s who he was talking to.

The dispatcher had actually been told by a witness that people were “stealing cases” from the store. She told us people were casing the store. We found the get away driver passed out behind the wheel of a car a short distance away. He had about a dozen car gas caps in his vehicle that led to the arrest of the four for stealing gas from several people, along with a burglary charge. One of those gas caps belonged to the city commissioner that owned the store.

The ringing sound I heard was caused by the bad guys heads impacting the side of the patrol car, making them go to sleep. The sergeant and corporal thought the two guys were escaping from me and as they exited the store they were launched into the side of the patrol car. I knew I didn’t like that ringing sound.

Would you believe I still had the reputation as “trouble”