Last Night in Salt Lake City...

Last Thursday way my last night in Salt Lake City, I made the journey home to New Zealand on Friday afternoon, arriving home early Sunday morning.

So, what do you do on the last night of your holiday?  Have a guess? Bet you won't guess?

Go to dinner with family? Yea, did that !
Go to a movie? Nah, did that the night before!
 Go home and finish packing? Heck no, what a waste of time that would be.

I did something that I would never in a million years thought I would get to do. I got to be an observer in the car of one of  Salt Lake City's police officers. Evette's friend has been with the police for about 13years and he invited Evette and I to ride with him on what was supposed to be a pretty dull, routine night of checking for DUI's.  Well, dull it certainly was not. The shift started at 9pm and went until 2am, and I admit that I was not expecting to be out for the whole time.

About 20minutes into the shift we get a call on the radio to say that there was a traffic accident not far from where we were. Well, it was all on, we took off at a VERY high speed and were the first on the scene. When we arrived we were told to stay in the car until told otherwise, obviously for safety reasons. The driver of the car had taken off, and a member of the public indicated who he was and he was immediately arrested. By this time another six police cars had arrived, and one of the officers did a "pat down" of the driver of the car, and on checking the pockets discovered a gun magazine fully loaded. Meanwhile, a retired police officer had advised our friend that the driver had thrown a bag over a nearby fence, on retrieving it and checking the inside there were three fully loaded guns, a revolver, and two Glock's that had been modified to semi-automatics.

By this time Evette and I were out of the car, and standing looking at the guns in total disbelief. I could not get over the guns, I have never seen anything like it. The whole thing was like something out of a TV show, there were police everywhere, and because the driver was out on probation he was in BIG trouble for having all the guns. And it didn't end there, the forensic team arrived to photograph and tag the guns.

Next stop was the jail to get a blood sample for testing for alcohol and/or drugs and an interview with some FBI officers. And then off the prison...

Oh, and did I mention the dog? Yes, there was a dog going over the car checking for drugs.  All in all it took up 3hours of the shift. It was a truly amazing experience, and a great adventure.

And to all those on Facebook who saw the pictures of me getting arrested, ( a little gag put on by Evette and friend) the above is what really happened.