My Wife opened the door. I couldn't see who she was talking to, but I could overhear them talking about my security system and whether or not we may have captured images of a car last night. I stepped out into the living room to see who My Wife was talking to, seeing as I couldn't imagine how the Tile Man even knew we had a security system or why he would be asking about it.
Standing there at the door was not the Tile Man. It was a local Police Officer. I recognized him. I had talked to him many times over the past few years about various things. He had helped with the psychopaths attempting to murder me and other random crimes in the neighborhood and I had helped with some of his computer problems. We invited him inside since it was about 20 degrees out.
Just then the phone rang. My Wife answered. It was the Tile Man. He had been robbed and was with the police doing a report. He said this was the second time he's been robbed in the past 6 months.
The Officer explained to me that someone has been driving through Shelby County, and most recently through My Little Redneck Town here, shooting windows out of cars and homes and things. He knew from talking with me in the past that I had a security system which might have captured images of their car as it drove past our house last night. Unfortunately, we have been rearranging my computer room and had temporarily disconnected part of the system. So even if we had been lucky enough for something about them driving past to have triggered anything, I still wouldn't have any of it recorded because it that was turned off. He was disappointed.
Then he mentioned something else.
"Hey, you remember those guys, the fireman and those guys, who you had all that trouble with a few years back? The one guy had the black Ford F150 and lived just up the street from you? Well guess what ...."
I had a feeling this was going to be good.
"We just arrested him. It seems that his girlfriend had left him for an old boyfriend of hers. The old boyfriend had just gotten out of prison and she left the fireman to move back in with him. Apparently the fireman didn't like it so he tried to get her back, only it didn't quite work out. He's going to be going away to prison for a long time."
"What did he do?" I asked as I remembered the black Ford F150 that I had blogged about driving around the neighborhood smashing brick mailboxes and a brick church sign the very first week the fireman had bought the truck.
"Well, it seems he drove out to Raleigh and bought a bag of cocaine and some guns. Then he filed off the serial numbers of the guns. Then he stuck the whole thing in the water meter out in the other guy's front yard and called it in as an anonymous tip. He figured the guy would get put back in jail and he'd get his girl back. But it didn't work out."
"How did it not work out? How did you find out who did it?"
"Well, first, the guy was obviously clueless as to where the stuff came from. And when we asked the girl if she knew anyone who would want to plant the stuff and get them into trouble she mentioned her ex-boyfriend. He was the only person she could think of who would do something like that. Plus, since there were so many felonies here we of course took prints off of everything. The guy was already in the system because he was an ex-con and nothing matched him, but there were prints. And here's the thing. Whenever anyone becomes a city employee, a fireman or a cop, they print us and put us into the system. So right away this fireman's prints match up to the bag of cocaine. It's pretty hard to explain away how your prints got on a bag of cocaine, you know, so we questioned him about it."
"Oh Lord, I'd love to have been there to hear him try to explain this," I replied.
"Well, he didn't try to explain for long before he finally just gave up and admitted to it all. It's a big deal. Filing serial numbers off a gun is a federal offense. He did it twice. And then there's the cocaine. Plus, he carried the drugs in his truck so we confiscated that. And he crossed city and county lines. So he's in a lot of trouble. I don't think you'll be having any problems from him for awhile."
"You know, it's funny because years ago when they first attacked us I had said they would end up dead or in prison. Even when I held off Jeremy and his friend with a gun he screamed at me, "you fucked up when you messed with me. You don't know who I am." I knew he was a criminal punk and after he said that I knew he was a punk who considered himself above the law and untouchable. That's a man destined to get shot and killed or locked away in prison. That's the attitude of a true criminal."
"Things have changed a lot around here since that happened. The whole police department is different and that whole 'old boy' thing is gone, from the chief on down. Morale is good and things are by the book, so you don't get any favors for being a fireman or anything like that. We've been arresting a lot of firemen lately. I don't know what it is with these guys, but we've arrested three just this year. One was a child molestor. One was cooking and selling meth out of his house. His wife was sitting on the couch lighting up when we kicked in the door. And now this. And they aren't even all our firemen. This last guy was a Memphis city fireman. The meth guy was a Shelby County or something. And the child molester was ours. I don't know what it is with the firemen, but something's not right."
"I'd be suspicious of the guys at the top if that's the case, but since you said it's spread around among several different ones I don't really know what to make of that."
"Me either. Anyway, keep your eyes open. We're looking for a gray Dodge Neon. They're shooting as they drive past."
"I sure will."
When we first moved out here to Redneckville, just outside of Memphis' city limits, people said we would be safe. They said everything is fine once you get out of Memphis. I'll say this, things in Redneckville are much better than they are in most other places in this area, but there is still a long way to go, and the crime in Memphis is spilling out here more and more. But it is at least good to know that the old chief and his buddies are gone from the police department. As for the fire departments and their problems, I have no idea what that's about, but it sounds like it may come to a head soon. 3 Memphis city council members have been arrested and charged for corruption. One fought the charges and was found guilty. He just got 5 years. The second one pleaded out and got 2 years last week. The last one, an old black woman who very nearly got away with this shit for her entire career, is fighting it in front of a jury. She seems confident that an old black woman in a black town can sweet-talk a Memphis jury into letting her off. She might be right, but things are changing. So we'll see.
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