Tweeker Seeker

We all know that most criminals are not the brightest people. In fact, most of them are really stupid and that’s why they commit crimes and why they get caught. So let’s all just agree that criminals are dumb, okay? Alright, now that we got that out of the way let me give you some proof. A couple of months back my partner and I were in Watsonville, CA. waiting for defendant to make himself visible. We were pretty sure of the address so all we had to do was wait. About an hour into our surveillance an older model pickup truck pulls up in front of the house. Inside the truck was the defendant and what appeared to be his father. The defendant climbs out of the truck and immediately jumps into a beat up old black Camaro and starts burning rubber in front of the house; just like any smart fugitive would do. Nice way to lay low idiot.

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I made a decision that I’m going to try to write shorter articles. I want to write more often but I’ve found that I’m starting to dread it because of how long it takes for me to write each article. I really enjoy this process and I want to increase the frequency in which I write. Otherwise I may get discouraged and stop all together. Writing for me is a tough process. I have no formal training and each paragraph is a painful. I’m still learning how to phrase my thoughts and keep my grammar and syntax errors to a minimum because I can’t spell for shit. Thank God for spell checkers.

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This happened a few months and I am not sure why I forgot to write about it. It involves a defendant that we had previously arrested and and since failed to appear again. We knew were he was living and the first time we visited the house his wife was more the cooperative. She allowed us to search the house and was very open about the defendant’s drug problems. She told us that they were separated and he was living between houses in Modesto and San Jose. She promised that she would call if he showed up at her house but he was eventually picked up my the police and returned to court. Case closed…

I get the new case and we immediately drive to the wife’s house. She lives on the border of San Jose and Santa Clara with her mom and her 2 young children in a fairly nice neighborhood. It’s a single story house with a 2 car garage and a fairly large backyard. Since she was so cooperative in the first cast we decide to just knock the door and find out if she knows where he is.

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A few days ago I was assigned a case on a guy who was currently on parole and had filed to appear on a case involving possession of stolen property and possession of methamphetamine. This guy had been in and out of prison most of his adult life. His stolen property included credit cards, drivers licenses and other items usually associated with identity theft. He was using stolen credit cards to support his drug habit.

Like most other Meth users this guy lied about where he lived, his job (or lack thereof) and just about anything else that we could use to locate him. Through the course of my investigation I locate his father who provides me with some crucial information about the defendant’s possible location.

I had also placed several calls to the cosigner, a female that was simply listed as a “friend” on the application, but she has not returned any of my calls. This is usually an indication that she may be hiding the defendant or knows his location and doesn’t want to tell me. After all she’s on the hook for the bail and most people who don’t want to pay the bond off call right away.

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it’s been too long since I’ve posted and I have a lot of catching up to do. It is true about crime increasing when the economy sours. We’ve seen an increase in theft, drug and violence related crimes. So much so that the jails are doing more OR (releasing someone on their own recognizance) to alleviate the crowding. The majority of my cases continue to involve drug use, specifically methamphetamine.

Meth is the worst drug to hit the streets in the US since the cocaine epidemic of the 80’s. However, I believe that Meth is having a far worse social impact on America. It destroys lives and the people around them. It’s an ugly drug and anyone connected to a Meth addict will tell you that the addict has little regard for themselves and even less for their loved ones. They are truly owned by the drug only care about thier next score.

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Wow, yesterday was eventful. Sometimes you really have to be there to understand how I perceive people and events but I also suppose my life experiences color how I see things as well. If that made any sense the you might understand why it’s hard for me to paint a picture of an event without writing a book.  The obvious solution would be to spend the day with me. I was working alone yesterday and I received a case on a 24 year old female who had 2 cases for drug related offenses.

I was told that the cosigner wanted her picked and knew where she was. She missed her court appearance and had 2 active warrants. I called the cosigner who was her ex boyfriend and he told me that she was staying with a heroin junkie at a house in Gilroy. He went into great detail about her personal habits, when she started her day and where she hung out or scored her dope. He talked a lot and was very interested to see that she got picked up quick. He also made several comments about wanting to be there when she was arrested.

I visited the address that she was supposedly staying at, a small duplex on the west side of Gilroy. I setup for surveillance (turned on my DVD player) and proceeded to wait until someone either went in or came out. It’s generally not a good idea to just knock on the door until you are sure the defendant is there and you even more sure someone is actually going to answer. If you attempt to make contact too early you risk tipping the defendant off. Remember, the idea is to go unnoticed and get your man, not knock on everyone’s door and burn yourself. The ideal situation is when they come out. That’s easy pickings’.

While I’m waiting the cosigner is calling me about every 5 minutes. It’s starting to get on my nerves. He is so interested to know where I am and constantly reminds me that he would love to see me arrest her. This is never going to happen. Having someone who you don’t know and is associated with the case stand by while you make an arrest is not a good idea. It’s just one more person you have to be concerned about. It’s a big safety issue for me.

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I love hunting homeless tweekers (just kidding). We had a late 20’s female we had to find in Seaside this morning and were hoping to get her early. She needed to be booked in San Luis Obispo county jail and it’s about 140 miles from Seaside. So it’s an hour from San Jose to Seaside another 2 hours to San Luis Obispo. This makes for a long day.

We heard she was staying in a typical tweeker hotel in Seaside but when we arrived she was tipped off and already checked out. Off to the races. We knew she did not have a car so we started checking the local shopping centers, liquor stores and gas stations, looking for her begging for money or cigarettes. This went on for 2 hours until we received a call from an informant who told us the girl would be at a park around 1pm.

This sucks, we have to wait until 1:00 and I’m already irritated that we missed her at the hotel. Seaside was cold, I’m tired, and now I have to wait for someone that I’m giving a free ride to SLO. Luckily, she shows right at 1:00. She’s sitting in the park on the ground with her head resting between her knees. Dressed in jeans and a pullover sweater, you can tell that she’s already had a tough life. So, I walked right up to her with my cuffs in hand and she immediately starts crying. Great, this is all I need.

Before I can tell her she’s under arrest she goes into the typical rant about how were screwing up her life, why today, why are you doing this to me. Yada, yada, yada. Why didn’t you just go to court? I actually started to feel kinda sorry for her, though. She, her boyfriend and 16 month old are basically living on the street. She was arrested for burglary and for writing bad checks, 2 separate cases.

It was obvious to me that she wasn’t a bad kid but because she liked to talk I didn’t want to venture into her past, I just wanted to take a nap. It’s so easy for us all to whine about our lives but when you see how bad things can really get you appreciate what you have.

So I lighten up on her and try to get her to relax. What I did learn was that she was from Colorado and 2 kids from a previous relationship who were put up for adoption and now she has a new kid with a new boyfriend. Poor kid. This is the part about drugs that a lot of people don’t understand. Yea, health wise, drugs are bad but most people don’t get a chance to see the social impact. I can only imagine how her parents must feel. Then again maybe their tweekers too.

I just want to get back to home in San Jose. We finally get her to SLO and get her booked pretty quickly. Wow, I get to go home again. No bologna sandwich or Sanka for me, lol.  I would love to tell you about how we screwed with a freind during the 3 hour ride home. It involved sending him text messages from an anonymous number. Maybe another time. It was funny as hell. That’s what I do when we are doing a lot of surveillance or on a long drive. My partner drives and I screw with people. It passes the time and makes the day much easier. It may also be a way for me to avoid thinking about the people we arrest.

I know, it’s been awhile since my last post. I’ve been really busy and yes I got the girl that I was looking for in my last post. I didn’t get her that night but I found her the day after. When I went to her mom’s house she ran out the back door and jumped a fence we lost her but she was dumb enough to come back the next day. I found her sleeping in the garage. Tweekers aren’t the smartest when their high and sometimes I think they just give up and get tired of running.

I felt bad for her kids, too. They stood there while I arrested their mom and pretended not to see what was going on. They just went about thier business almost like we were not even there. You could tell they have become numb to their mom and will probably result to drugs themselves. Something to ease the pain. It’s a vicious cycle.

Anyway, lot’s of other arrests since then, including this Somoan chick. We were watching her father’s house when this car pulled up. I notice the drive and a passenger in the back set of the car. When they saw us the passenger just laid down in the back. Hmmmm.. We followed the car and finally convinence the drive to pull over. She immediately exited the car and walked back towards me. I showed her a picture of the fugitive, who turned out to be her sister and told me that she had not seen her in months. So I walked to her car and asked her who was laying in the back. Hmmmm. “Um, that’s my other sister, yea.”. Same tatoo on the ankle? I don’t think so. Off to jail you go…

I’m going tweeker hunting tonight. I just got a case of a female who was arrested for Meth, amongst other charges and she frequents the local bars. So tonight I go hunting…. I need an arrest and am hoping I get lucky. Friday is a good night for the tweekers who bar hop. I’ll let you know what happens in the morning…