Cop Stories

Cross-posted from a forum I frequent, I was recalling a cop story from my early days in law enforcement.

 Early '80s, a local yokel decides to hold up the local bank, downtown in Natchitoches, LA one morning about 9:00. He strides in, gives the cashier a note, she gives him the dye pack. He turns around and leaves the bank. As he 's going out the door, he stuffs the dye pack down the front of his pants and while going through the second door, actually has the door held open for him by young police detective, there to make a deposit for his wife.

This young detective has never seen a dye pack, and is considerably surprised when he hears a pop and dye shoots up the front of the guy he's holding the door for. The robber takes about two more steps and collapses on the sidewalk, 'cause things are getting hot in his crotch.(A dye pack gets very hot when it goes off, normally burning the fake cash as it catches fire).  The detective is considerably confused at the gymnastics this guy is doing, flopping and crying on the sidewalk,  until the bank manager comes to the door and tells the cop that the guy just robbed the bank.

Suddenly, the light goes on, and the young detective springs into action, doing all the right things, making the arrest, getting an ambulance, etc, etc. So, this young detective gets to be a local hero, foiling a bank heist and getting his photo in the paper. Of course, the rest of us know that he was simply in the right place at the opportune time and had it not been for the dye pack, the robber would have escaped while he held the door open for him.

No, the cop wasn't me.  And, it's better to be lucky than smart although the young detective was smart enough.