August 20, 2025 • 45 mins
Roll call! Officer Josh Vanbrunt and retired Officer Mitchell Ellis share hilarious stories about their REAL Police Academy (pull-ups, runs, and showers), unapproved ride-alongs, and MORE!
Welcome to Offbeat! The Light Side of Law Enforcement.
Hosted by retired police officer Steve Rutherford and Detective Curtis Hadley.
Links:
Alexander Financial Management
Cook DFW Roofing & Restoration
Website: Offbeat! The Light Side of Law Enforcement (offbeatcopshow.com)
Follow us on Facebook
Instagram: Offbeat: The Light Side of Law Enforcement (@offbeatcopshow) • Instagram photos and videos
Welcome to Offbeat! The Light Side of Law Enforcement.
Hosted by retired police officer Steve Rutherford and Detective Curtis Hadley.
Links:
Alexander Financial Management
Cook DFW Roofing & Restoration
Website: Offbeat! The Light Side of Law Enforcement (offbeatcopshow.com)
Follow us on Facebook
Instagram: Offbeat: The Light Side of Law Enforcement (@offbeatcopshow) • Instagram photos and videos
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
Welcome, Welcome to Offbeat The Light Side of Law Enforcement
are the Treehouse Podcast Network. On today's show, we want
to hear about academy stories, name games and ride alongs
that the interesting, and who knows what else we'll get into.
(00:47):
Steve here co host for today, Detective Curtis Hadley.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Groad to be here. Guys, thank you, and.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
We're joined with two guests in studio. We've got retired
officer Mitchelle Ellis. Hello, what's up for those of you
listening and not watching on YouTube? Mitchell saluted everybody on YouTube, so.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
He's pressure of mind bab guess yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
Mine's cool. Yeah, that's his retirement job. He's a mine now. Yeah.
Also joined us in the studio, we've got officer Josh
Van Brunt. Good welcome everybody. Do you want to Curtis,
I do you want to mention something? Old Rachel Roberts
was on the show a couple episodes back. Rachel works
(01:29):
for Louisville PD and she got us a Louisville PD patch.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
No, man, the collection is growing, it is and.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
I was almost almost a little embarrassed whenever she was here,
and she's like, where's my Louisville patch.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Well, you gotta admit it looks like a fireman's patch.
So it's a little red and black there. Yeah, where's
the blue Louisville. Come on, Yeah, there's no blue. I
mean that literally is red and black. I would I
would say, yes, fireman, what do you got there? You
know it says Louisville.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
Well, and Louisville being one of our closer agencies out here,
you would think that you would have You would think
that one of the previous guests from Lewisville, Chris Clements,
would have brought us a patch. But yeah, we've got
patches from this You never know, you know, Australia brought
us a patch Louisville at now curtis not We're going
(02:20):
to stay away from Barnard animals today. But I do
want to say one thing I was sent. Karen and
I were sent a thank you card from Donkey and
Equon Haven, the place we actually adopted the two donkeys from.
So we got our little little thank you card from them.
So if you're listening to the show and you need
a horse or a donkey, contact the folks at Donkey.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
Get your ass over there. And did.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
Get your ass, get you a donkey. Okay. Now today's
show is a little bit different because Kurdish.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
You know these two, Yes, I do. These these two
were in my my academy class. All three of us
were class on.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
Twenty seven, so all at four wards PD Yes, forwards
p D Academy Class one twenty seven. And I mean
this is kind of like a reunion.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
Well, I mean I never thought that at this part
in our career one.
Speaker 4 (03:18):
Was to be retired.
Speaker 3 (03:19):
That's true.
Speaker 4 (03:20):
True.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
I mean, who knows. I'm still kind of wondering how
I did it. But I'm just saying, I mean, you
gotta know people.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
Now, Mitchell, Mitchell, we mentioned that you are, you are retired,
You're no longer an officer? What do you? What do
you do now?
Speaker 5 (03:36):
It just depends on on the day, Honestly a lot
of things. But but my wife and I we we
own a boutique hotel in Glen Rose, Texas called La Pomia.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
And then uh, and then I fly helicopters.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
So you fly helicopters, and in fact, you were you
send me a message earlier said hey, I'm gonna be
gonna be late, Steve, because I had.
Speaker 5 (03:55):
To Yep, I had to go pull the helicopters out
for the mechanic to to work on a couple of things.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
And uh, sorry about that.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
Yeah, sorry, I mean I.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
No, no, if you're going to go up in the air,
we want to be mechanically sound. That's pretty important. Parishes
don't work real.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
Well with the no.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
And you mentioned you guys have a boutique hotel love Pamelia.
But h where can people visit your side at or
find out more about it?
Speaker 5 (04:18):
So you can find us on Instagram Lapomia t X
or you can go to our website www dot Lapomia
t X dot com. Uh, we've got a beautiful place,
I mean chapel venue space. We're on the Brass River,
lots of room, it's a it's first class, it's a
it's a really cool place.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
Very nice. And had Mitchell, how long were you an officer?
Speaker 3 (04:39):
I was with fort Worth for thirteen years, so I
left about two and a half years ago.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
Okay, and Josh, what what about you? You're over there
in fort Worth? How long you've been an officer? Thirteen year?
Speaker 4 (04:52):
Thirteen years?
Speaker 2 (04:53):
Well, well wait, fifteen years, yes, quitters fifteen now.
Speaker 6 (04:58):
Yeah, we just hit our fourteenth year after the graduation
from the academy.
Speaker 4 (05:03):
So we just hit fourteen in June.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
Fourteen year anniversary sir, All right, do you guys celebrate
your anniversary together or anything.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
It's generally a text.
Speaker 4 (05:10):
Yeah, it's like is it here, Yeah, it's like everybody
still in the group.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
Yeah. This year Elis was a hoods is all we
got back new number? Yeah, sorry, new number, but here's
my here's my website. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
And joshuait, what do you do currently? Are at the
police department? Any special ASSIGNM and S thing like that. Yeah, Currently,
I'm a neighborhood police officer. I do all the community
things where we have a signed beat in our in
our division, and I'm the point of contact for all
the stuff that doesn't need to be called end at
nine to one one the way to say it.
Speaker 6 (05:45):
I mean, that's really I catch all the the crap
that you know, they don't want to send an officer
out for. They give them my phone number and they
call me a lot of parking violations, a lot of
neighbor disputes over silly stuff.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
He's the gentle giant, you know. He goes there and
to soothes them lets me know that they're being heard.
He does have a soothing voice. He does he does
face for radio. Yeah, he does have a good voice
for radio.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
Well, obviously you guys have a little camaraderie built up
between you, you.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
Know, the Academy days. I heard some old man told
me this one time, and that did not resonate two
years later. It says, you know, the Academy is a
million dollar experience. I would not pay it down to
do again. And when he said it, I was like, Oh,
that sounds cool, dude. And then like years later, I'm like,
to that old man knew he was talking about because
I was thirty two, thirty three when I hit the
(06:36):
Academy and some of these guys were in their early twenties.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
I was twenty two.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
Started here you go, I had ten years on els Man,
and these guys would just work circles around me.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
So wait that, which takes me back to a previous
episode that you mentioned the Academy and something about doing
pull ups or chin ups and if you couldn't then you.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
Had to do the levee. Yeah, so they would they
were like front, try be cool with you, Like, if
you can't do the pull ups left. The instructor know,
we'll find another thing that you can do, another calistenic
or wherever. So you go up and he's like, sir,
I can't do a pull up. He's like, can you
do one? Like, no, I don't think I can't. He goes,
all right, no worry about it, run the levee. And
then after like two or three times of doing that,
you realize, yes, sir, I'll try to do one. Because
(07:16):
the levee was I don't know how tall that thing is,
but it was a monster.
Speaker 7 (07:20):
It was.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
It was like a mountain to us.
Speaker 5 (07:23):
Yes, which is kind of weird because running the levee
doesn't make you better at doing pull ups.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
It does not, it does not, but it makes you.
It makes you reflect why you can't do pull ups,
especially when they say run up the levee backwards. Man.
That was just all roll down the levee.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
Yes, the pencil rolls and this is the levee for
the Trinity River there and yes, and you guys were
at the old Academy building right. Yes, we've done Academy
downtown for word, just north of downtown there.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
So yeah, that's yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
Our academy was not as boogy as the new one
is like ours only had one plat toilet paper that
was it. If you pushed too hard, a finger went
through and promise you. So you had to you had
to be ye, had to be gentle. You learn it.
It taught you lessons.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
Well, you know, there were certain things brought in whenever
the Police in Fire training center was put together the
whole complex, they brought some of the luxury of the
fireside over to the police side and that's way oh yeah, yeah,
that's you know, firemen, they're not going to go with
one play, no, so yeah, you combine your police and
fire training facility that you know, It's just.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
I never thought of that added benefit.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
Now officers are going to get at least two play.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
Yeah, they get like separate showers and everything. So yeah,
oh man. But I do remember our very first day
of academy. That was one of the stories I wanted
to start with. Uh So, in our academy, we had
to go to some kind of orientation a couple of
days before, which was was rather that was comical in itself.
I can probably talk about that, but I remember one
of the things that they impressed upon you was until
(08:45):
you're an officer. You do not use the front door.
You use the side door. And there's a special parking lot.
You're a parking lot is across the street and around
the corner or whatever. You don't park in the regular
parking lot. So our very first day of academy, of course,
everybody you know, is just on. They're all amped up.
We're all wanted to make sure that we make a
very good impression. We're all in slacks and dressed up nice.
(09:07):
And you know you might have on the first day
of school where you have your supplies, but you know
it's like then you set it over here, it's like
a bag or something, and yeah, and so of course
it's like, you know, we started at seven sharp, I believe.
I don't know what time it was. It was, no,
it was November first, twenty ten, I remember that. And
we're all standing there, lined up down the hallway, and
of course here's our instructors. They're walking up up and
(09:27):
down like their sharks. Man. They're like, good God, pict
your damn uniform out to there. You picked those slacks
up for you or you know, they would just stay
stay stupid stuff like that, trying to throw you off,
like you know, like, man, those slacks are three sizes
too small, so just to see if they can get
you amped up. And we've been standing there for probably
an hour forty five minutes and we're still missing people.
They're like, you know, what happened to so and so?
(09:47):
What happens to so and so? We can't find this person.
Do you all remember who the very last person was
to show up. It was Jesse Williams. He showed up
in the gatorskin boots. There you go, a rolling su
He come walking up in like purple pants, like a
green shirt, alligator shoes and had a roll luggage with them.
(10:08):
Carry yes, I a carry on, like this guy was
going to df W.
Speaker 3 (10:12):
You know.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
It looked like he was going to df W for
a pastor's convention, Okay, is what he looked like he
was doing. And of course he walks in and the
instructors like, oh, fresh meat, here we go. And I
think that was the very first time we hit the levee.
I mean, as soon as we got out there, he's like, everybody,
dropped your room and get on the levee right now.
And we're running slacks and nice shirts and least were
wearing boots.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
We were just in.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
Regular dockors, you know, and we're running the levee and
I remember, I mean this guy and I'll say his name,
because he did not make it their academy. He was
the first person that dropped our academy. The actually fired
him out of our academy. But I remember when Jesse
woked up, I was like, yeah, this guy didn't get
the memo and what And I forgot to say he
walked right through the front door like he owned the place.
Because I don't know if you just do what the
listening or what. But I remember that that impressed me
(10:56):
that whole day. That was the one thing I remembered.
It was like this one guy, one guy didn't get
the memo and us.
Speaker 5 (11:03):
Yeah, and I had just come out of I was
in the army, so I've just come out of the army,
and I kind of expected, you know, this to be
you know, I didn't expect it to be easy by
any means, but I expected to be a little bit
more relaxed. And that was such a wake up call
when he pulled up and we get smoked day one
right then and there in our in our nice dress clothes.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
I was like, oh man, this is he was military.
Wasn't gonna have nine months. We don't count those guys,
and I wasn't militaries.
Speaker 4 (11:30):
I don't know either, but he kept he kept bringing
that up. I remember that.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
I don't know how many push ups and miles he
ran because of his career.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
Well, do y'all remember, do y'all remember us being out there?
We were running up and down the levee, and of
course he's sandbagging, and so then I don't know who
the structure was, maybe Jamie. He's like, hey, ity, by
stop that, by stop, we're gonna grab this pole. As
we had to grab a telephone pole, we all died
to pick it up. And so as we're doing it,
of course we have guys that are so short they're
not even touching the pole. We have Van Brus put
van Brunt in the middle. He's holding the pole. And
(12:00):
what do they do. They go, Jesse, no, no, no, no, Jesse,
we're gonna give you a ride. And so they put
Jesse on top of this thing. And we had to
carry him from the Trinity River all the way up
over the levee, down down the parking lot, down the
hill and to give him a ride. And this guy
was a professional sweater. This dude was like raining. I mean,
you're underneath them. Was like he's like you could feel
his sweat just coming off you. Uh, I know they
(12:22):
call it training juice, but that was just horrible.
Speaker 4 (12:24):
He had the biggest grint on his face the whole time.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
Yeah, yeah, he thought it was he thought that he
was being uh, you know, put up on a pedestal
for what he did.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
It's like, no, no, you're being seeing that buddy, blanket
parties coming later. Oh yeah, Now, Mitchell, did you think, Hey,
I'm out of the military, I'm good to go, and
then all of a sudden, crap, I'm back into a.
Speaker 5 (12:45):
Huge wake up call. I mean, and then and then
you realize, like this is going to be nine months
of this, you know. So it was just it's, uh,
it's for anybody who's thinking about joining a police cattery.
It's a long it's a long process, you know, and
it's it's obviously it gets a little easy or later
on you get into the academy. But I would say
the first half was until we got through the range,
(13:05):
it was it was a beating every day.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
I was exhausted, every day when I came home.
Speaker 1 (13:11):
Yeah, I mean it's definitely a commitment. But but you
know it's it's a commitment that's worth it.
Speaker 3 (13:16):
Oh, it's worth it.
Speaker 5 (13:16):
And there's so there's so much pride when you come out.
You know, you walk across the stage and and you're officially,
you know, a police officer. Now, I mean there's there's
a tremendous amount of accomplishment and pride that comes with that. So, uh,
it was it was definitely a worthwhile experience.
Speaker 4 (13:31):
Now, I.
Speaker 1 (13:33):
I'm gonna brag just just one second. When I graduated
my academy, I graduated the salutatorian. The funny thing behind this,
I mean I had just been through college and had
all the classes, penal, coach, CCP, all that kind of stuff.
So the academy was just review on the academic side.
We had one fireman in our class because he was
gonna be an arson investigator, so he had to get
(13:54):
I had to get Helios certified. Time. He was our
valedictorian because he beat me by a tenth of a point. Like, okay,
this supposed to be a police academy of fireman just
came in here and beat us.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
But was there three in those class. I was just ouch.
I'm just a second.
Speaker 4 (14:13):
There was two.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
I just remember because I was so proud. It's like, okay, yeah,
I'm salutatory. And and then I got to my first
trade officer. He said that, I mean.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
Crap, Yeah, the fireman beat you. I can you get
a mustache? I never talked with the mustache, never thought
about that by a hair. This is Offbeat, the light
side of law enforcement. Check us out online at offbeatcopshow
dot com.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
Let's welcome Daniel Cook from Cook DFW Roofing and Restoration
into the studio the number eight three three Cook DFW,
the website cookdfw dot com. Anything new in your world, Daniel.
Speaker 4 (14:59):
Steve We just in busy, busy man.
Speaker 7 (15:01):
We are trying to stay on top of everything.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
Well, and it seems like this time of year a
lot of folks are busy. It's that time when the
kids go back to school and a lot of people
are are focused on that. But it's also a good
time to make sure everything is in order with your home.
Speaker 7 (15:20):
Yeah, we always see a big influx this time of year.
You know, parents are hectically trying to get their kids
ready for the summertime. We always see that in that
you know, May timeframe, and that's just just coincides basically
with the end of our major storm season. And so
sometimes your home gets put off because life gets hectic,
and that's normal. So a lot of times, you know,
(15:41):
families are trying to get ready for vacations, they're getting
their kids. They got to get them in the road
and camps and programs and stuff like that, and so
the home trying of becomes a secondary issue. So, but
what we don't want to happen is something down the
road when we get you know, believe it or not,
falls around around the corner and we're going to start
getting more rain, and then all of a sudden, you're
gonna start get leaks because from the storms that you
(16:02):
had six or seven months ago, now they're going to
rise up and show you that they're still there. And
so that's why it's important after the kid, you know,
you got the kids getting bad to go back to school,
Let's give us a call. Let's come out. We can
then do it once over on the roof the property,
make sure and see what happened earlier in the year.
If you have some issues, we can address those show
(16:23):
you what you need to have done. Just prepare you
for you know, I believe it or not. Winter is
here almost and fall will be here before you know it.
So let us come out. We want to protect your home.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
Bring on, bring on the winter thing that you just
mentioned right there. Let's uh, let's get past the heat.
Let's let's cool this place off. But again, Daniel, you've
mentioned many times you've told me that, hey, you have
someone come out, have a professional come out check out
your home. Make sure that there's no issues. You You
might see an obvious issue and that and that's what
(16:55):
prompts you to call someone to come take a look
at it. But sometimes there's underlying issues that you I
not notice. And it costs nothing to h to give
you know, to have Daniel and have cook gift to
be come out, take a look at your property, inspect
your property and just make sure that everything is set
and like you said, back to school time, Hey, that's
(17:15):
a good time to mark everything off that checklist. Just
make sure you're in good shape. If you're in need
of a new roof, repair, remodeling, or restoration, thank you
might have a problem. Don't know if you have a
problem or if you do know that you have a problem.
GIF Daniel Lacall at Cook Giftw Roofing and Restoration. The
numbers eight three three Cook DFW again, that's eight three
(17:38):
three Cook DFW. The website cookdfw dot com. Make sure
you check them out on Facebook and Instagram and be
sure to ask them about their free first responder upgrade.
Speaker 8 (17:50):
Hi, this is Joanne Jackson, My husband Dallas Polase office at.
Brian Jackson gave his life serving the city of Dallas
in two thousand and five. The RMS Treehouse Listeners Foundation
supports the families of Dallas and Fort Worth area police
officers and firefighters who have selflessly fallen in the line
of duty. To donate, please visit Offbeatcopshow dot com or
(18:11):
Treehouse on Air dot com and click on the link.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
And we're back back to more Offbeat the light side
of law enforcement. Steve here co host for today Detective
Curtis Hadley. Glad to be here and we're joining with
two guests in the studio. We've got retired Officer Mitchell
Ellis and Officer Josh Van Bruynt. Now this segment Offbeat
(18:47):
sponsor by are good friends at Alexander Financial Management. If
you have questions about retirement planning, investment strategies, life insurance,
or estate planning, check out Alexander Financial Management at.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
Alex f M dot com. Again, that's alex f M
dot com actually says dot com dot com, dot com,
dot dot dot love dot com dot dot M.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
Curtis, you should get you should get paid, uh, to
be a dot com guy for.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
Multiple that's pretty good. And he practices out in the
mirror before he comes. Well, he's dot com dot com
dot com.
Speaker 4 (19:35):
That's all I heard on the way up here from
Fort Worth.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
To how's the sound man? It's okay, that's not my
real voice.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
That's Curtis sounds enough twinkle in my voice. Okay, now again,
you guys are all academy classmates, uh, and have have
several different stories, you know, well you two have several
different stories since Mitchell quit two years ago. I mean
y'all have more than yeah right, yeah, Well.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
I will admit he was a corporal when he left,
so I mean he did, he did, he did some
cool stuff when he was there. But hey, good for
him that he was able to get out with you know,
most of his fingers. Yeah, but I used to fly helicopters.
Now yeah, yeah, his life is just so rough now.
He's like, I don't know, I know, I get up
in the morning, I'm not sure if I'm a fly
helicopter or getting my jet or Yeah. I'm nothing but
(20:26):
proud and jealous of them.
Speaker 3 (20:27):
So I appreciate it absolutely.
Speaker 1 (20:29):
But Mitchell, during your during your time in law enforcement,
obviously you you experienced quite a bit. And he had
several stories and one of those stories you mentioned was
about her right along.
Speaker 4 (20:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (20:42):
So I met my wife on a right along so Kimmy, Uh,
just a little back history her her dad was a
Dallas police officer. He was killed in the lan of
duty when she was four years old. So fast forward.
We did not know each other, but we had a
mutual friend and another guy that I worked with, and uh,
(21:03):
and she was talking to him one day about her
dad and just his life and stuff and just kind
of curious about police life. And he's like, well, you know,
why don't you just come on a ride along? And
and so she shows up at the sector one day
and I see her. I'm like, man, I hope I
hope she rides along with.
Speaker 4 (21:19):
Me, you know.
Speaker 3 (21:21):
But she didn't. She ended up runing with another guy
and uh, and so at the end of the night,
we make this call. I don't know it was. It
was kind of a crazy night. There was a shooting.
Speaker 5 (21:30):
This guy got shot in the butt running away from
some drug deal. And then at the end of the night,
our last call, we get this, you know, domestic disturbance
at this house on kind of South Central and uh,
and we walk up to this house and there's a
guy sitting on a couch and he looks naked at first,
like no shirt, doesn't look like he has pants on.
(21:51):
We're like, what is this dude doing, you know, and
so we start talking to him. Finally he stands up
and he's in his tidy whities and so this in
this domestic dispute.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
This this guy had like thrown his girlfriend's keys out
in the yard and that's what she called.
Speaker 3 (22:07):
And so we're talking.
Speaker 5 (22:08):
This guy turns around, biggest skid marks on this guy's
whitey tidy So that that was just hilarious. But uh,
my wife and I have actually been together since that day.
So uh, she exchanged numbers that night and started dating
and married shortly later. So that was pretty special. But
was it the skid marks that really just you know,
(22:29):
grove it home. I feel like that, you know, she
there was love, love at first skid mark, you know.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
Skid mark handle anything man.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
Well, yeah, okay, that's yeah, that's a good test. But
you know, I do have to ask you this, Mitchell
did Did she fall in love in the back of
a squad car?
Speaker 2 (22:45):
No?
Speaker 3 (22:46):
No, I have another story about that.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
All yeah, I'm not even sure we can go there.
Speaker 5 (22:54):
But that was kind of a segue into and later on.
So she loved coming on right along, So we're kind
of restrict on how often you could come on a
ride along back. Then you know, what's over six months.
You've got to get approval from your supervisor. They've got
to fill out this form. So she'd she'd done it
a few different times. We've probably been married, you know,
three or four years at this time. It was kind
of towards the end of my patrol career, before I
went on to some tactical stuff. But you know, she
(23:17):
would come to dinner, and it was always a struggle
because you know, you planned dinner, right, You're like, hey,
meet me at seven or eight o'clock, and it never
you know, right, you're on the way to dinner and
you get a call and you're like, hey, it's going
to be a little while. So it was one of
those nights we'd we'd planned dinner out. I don't think
I got off this call until like, you know, nine thirty,
ten o'clock. So finally we sit down, we have dinner,
(23:39):
we finish up at like eleven, and and you know,
she's We're enjoying each other's company, right, We're having a
good time. And I was like, well, don't like, I'm
not going to do anything the rest of the night.
You know, I've had a long day. I think I'm
just gonna she's gonna ride out the rest of the night.
Why don't you just jump in with me? So so
she jumps in the car, and, uh, you know, obviously
(24:00):
this is this is not not an approved ride along.
But I had a super cool sergeant at the time.
I didn't think you would mind, even even if even
if he knew. But anyway, so, so right, we're not
We're just gonna chill, right, We're not gonna do anything.
We're just gonna hang out. So that's that's how it goes, right,
That's how it starts. So yeah, we we we pull
out of the restaurant. We go sit in this neighborhood.
A couple of other officers come up and we're hanging out,
(24:22):
just talking. You know, we're pulled up in this in
this dark neighborhood, and uh, you know, you got guys
that ride around bikes sometimes with no lights and and
that's completely unacceptable, right, I just can't let that.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
Happen in my neighborhood. You're not going to ride a
bike out of light, you know.
Speaker 5 (24:42):
So we see this guy on a bicycle coming towards
us at a high rate of speed with no light,
and you know, three guys we're all just like, hey,
let's let's stop that guy. So one guy jumps out
of the car and he's gonna just like halt, and
so he jumps out. Well, this guy's going to fast,
like like too fast for a bicycle, right, And he
(25:04):
gets closer and I hear something and then he's and
we realize he's got like this little fifty c C
motor on his bicycle and he just blasts past us. Well,
one guy's like running on foot like he's gonna catch
this guy. Well, then I do like the coolest move ever,
you know. So I put the car in a verse
and I do the jay turn and my wife's in
(25:24):
the car, right, so this is like, I'm I'm super cool.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
Right, he's got some points there, buddy.
Speaker 3 (25:29):
Almost I did almost hit a building when I did
the jab.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
Thankfully what you did, so I still count count.
Speaker 5 (25:34):
So we're we're we're like following this guy from a
safe distance, right, we don't want to make too big
of a deal about this. And uh so we were
following him, you know, he kind of goes to the neighborhood.
He's making you know, turning left turn and right and
uh and finally we get up to him and he
he's gonna bail, right, So now it's turning into a
foot chase, and uh so we jump out of the car. Well,
(25:56):
we realize he's he's at his house or at a
house that he that he knows of, and he's going
to try to get inside this house. And so I
jump out of the car and I just like latch
onto this guy's back. He goes down to the ground
and by that by that time, my buddies are there.
We're trying to get this guy in custody. Well, you know,
he's a big guy, and you know, sometimes really hard
to get their arms behind their back, and so we're
(26:17):
we're really struggling to get his arms while we hear, oh,
his shoulder puffs out of place for putting them in handcuffs. Well,
right about the time we're getting this guy in handcuffs,
well this lady comes out of the front of the
house and she's not happy with what's going on in
her front yard.
Speaker 3 (26:34):
Turns out it's his wife.
Speaker 5 (26:36):
And she starts screaming and yelling and we're like, man,
stay back, stay back, stay back.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
Well she's not listening. She's she's coming at us.
Speaker 5 (26:43):
She wants she wants to fight, and so we end
up taking her to the ground, putting her in handcuffs,
arresting her for interference. And now we've got this guy's
got a motorized bicycle. It's evading in a motor vehicle now,
and then we've got interfering with interfering with official police
duties on the wife. So now this is this has
turned from me not doing anything for the rest of
(27:03):
the night to a pretty big call. And so we're
sitting there. We've got we've had we've got a use
of force incidents. So we've got to call our supervisor.
My wife's in the car, so I'm like, oh, this
is not good, and so I go. I go back
to the car. My lights were on and I was like, hey,
I turn the lights off. She's like, no, no, no,
leave the lights on. I don't want anybody to know
(27:24):
that I'm in here. I'm like okay. So next thing
I know, Big Serge pulls up to the call and
we're we're giving him the lowdown on what just happened
and uh. And while we're sitting there talking to him,
he's like, he's like, man, those those lights are bright. Man,
oh gosh, I can't see you can't can't hear you, guys.
The light lights are too bright. So overhead lights referring
(27:45):
to my overhead lights. So he walks over to my
driver door, pops it open, and there's Kimmy and he's like, whoa, whoa, whoa.
Speaker 3 (27:53):
Guys.
Speaker 5 (27:54):
It's like, you gotta start locking your doors. You got
to stow away. Somebody just got somebody just jumped into
your car. You guys, you guys gotta be more careful.
Speaker 3 (28:05):
And that was the end of it. I never heard
anything else. About it so.
Speaker 6 (28:11):
Well.
Speaker 2 (28:11):
On your defense, no one knew that it was a
swin Supersport. You just thought it was about one of
the best parts of the story.
Speaker 5 (28:18):
We called we called a flatbed record and we put
that motorized bicycle on a record and pound.
Speaker 2 (28:24):
And also, in just a small note, homage to all
those police wives that have set in an eye hop
for hours waiting for their husband to come in to
do with prop. I can't tell you how many times
I've done with my wife, and I was like, it
means a lot from them that they put up with
our junk. But then they sit there hour after hour
like sweetheart, sorry, one more cope out there, and it
never it always dominoes into something.
Speaker 1 (28:43):
Well, that's it. Had you not planned to meet her
for dinner, you would normally fine. Yeah, but if you
had plans.
Speaker 2 (28:50):
Then yeah, absolutely, anytime you set a time in a day,
it's not gonna happen.
Speaker 1 (28:54):
Yew Josh, you had told me earlier. You you know,
you've had to deal with some difficult people out there,
and you know you had somebody playing name games with you.
I think we all have, but elaborate on that a
little bit.
Speaker 6 (29:06):
Okay, So in patrol. That was like my favorite thing
to do. We would set up, you know, make a
stop on somebody. You get somebody lying to you about
who they are, and it's always fun to try to
get their true identity out of them. Our old report
system was really good. We could search a lot of different, uh,
different things, and you know, we get information we get
(29:26):
from them, you know, address as friends, look them up
as an associate. Our new report system's not that good.
But in patrol it was so much fun. And I
we used to like to set up over in the
neighborhood down the south called the you know, they called
it the fish Bowl, and everybody would go set up
down the you know, set outside the fish bowl and
(29:47):
wait for a car to leave. Nine times out of
ten cars leaving the fish Bowl, if they didn't register
to an address there they were, they had to dope
in them because the dope houses were down there. And
uh so we were sitting up there just fishing, and
we caught a car, that's really what it was. And
(30:07):
you just sat there, you said, there very long till
you got a bite. And so we're, uh, we're sitting
there and me have a buddy and he was driving
I was a passenger that day.
Speaker 4 (30:16):
So we see a car leaving. They I don't know,
didn't signal turning leaving. I don't know.
Speaker 6 (30:20):
I don't knowmber what the PC was. But they pulled out.
We made a traffic stop shortly after they left the
fish bowl, and so my partner goes up to the
driver's side and he's talking to the driver, and I
go to the passenger side. Of course it's occupied, two
or three times just looking at the passengers, and of
course the front passenger doesn't have a seat belt. So
I'm like, awesome, I get to identify this guy. So
(30:41):
I tap on the window, get him to open the
door or hroll the window down, excuse me, and uh,
asking for his ID, and of course I don't have
an ID on me. You had a driver's license. I
don't have a driver's license, or I think he told
me he did have a driver's license, but he didn't
have it on him. So I'm like, okay, well give
me your name and data birth and so he gives
me a name of data birth standard things, and so
(31:03):
I get the driver's license from the driver from my buddy,
and I go back to the car to run everything
run the driver, run the information from the passenger, and
I get a driver's license return and I start looking
through it. And you know, anybody that's running driver's license
in Texas, you get the admin status. It says it's
eligible or not eligible. This one's deceased.
Speaker 2 (31:22):
That could be a problem.
Speaker 4 (31:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:24):
So I'm like, sir, how long have you been deceased?
Speaker 4 (31:27):
So I'm like, good guy. I'm like, this is going
to be fun. Here we go. You know, this came on.
So I go back up, tell my buddy. I'm like, hey,
driver's goods deceased.
Speaker 3 (31:39):
So much.
Speaker 6 (31:40):
So I go back, you know, and do the usual
things that we would do. I'm like, hey, man, let
me make sure I got your name right, you know.
I'm like, spell that for me, you know, and he
spells the name for me in data birth. I'm like, okay,
this is you. Yeah, okay, you got anything else that
I can check? I said, because your driver's license is
not it's not right. He goes, no, man, that's me.
I'm like, okay, well, why don't you step out of
(32:01):
the car for me? Why I gotta step out? I'm like,
because STEP's not matching up. I'm like to step out
and talk to me, and he steps out, and as
he turned out, padded him down real fast, because you know,
all these things are adding up. There's something going on here.
So when he turns around, I look him up and
down and it was I busted up laughing because I
got the clue that I needed. And his T shirt
(32:23):
that he was wearing had a picture on it had
a name matched the name he gave me, and it
had a dated birth and a date of death, so
it was his buddies death. It was his buddies like
rest in peace memorial shirt. He's wearing it, and he
gave me that information and I was like, I just
started laughing.
Speaker 4 (32:39):
My buddy.
Speaker 6 (32:40):
He was like, what's going on. I'm like, this is
the info he gave me, and I showed him the notepad.
I'm like, you notice anything, and he just started laughing too,
or like okay, dudeje's up.
Speaker 4 (32:50):
Yeah. I'm like, what do you you know? You got
what kind of warrants do you have that you're lying
about this?
Speaker 1 (32:54):
And he's like, you know, just hangs his head and
was like the deep sigh, just like the first thing
that came to his mind. You ask you, man, what's
your name? He just like looks down his shirt so
and so so and so.
Speaker 6 (33:05):
Apparently, I don't know, I caught I guess I caught
him off guard and he didn't have time to make
up something else. But you know that that was one
of the funnier ones. I mean, because I mean we've
played that game time and time again, and you go
back and forth multiple times, you know, Okay, give me
this little bit of information, you go search that and
you go back and forth. But this one, I mean,
it only took one time.
Speaker 1 (33:25):
And is this the first time you ever had to
do a pat down on a dead guy?
Speaker 4 (33:29):
It was the first time pat down a dead guy? Yeah,
oh man.
Speaker 2 (33:32):
You always think of that one kernel of truth that
they give you.
Speaker 4 (33:35):
Yeah, down the pathway, you ask all those questions.
Speaker 6 (33:38):
They can't they can't lie about everything, you know, they
always throw some little nugget of truth. And that was
what was That was the fun part, was trying to
dig out, you know, Okay, which part of this is true?
And how do I find this guy's real identity? And
I mean that one was really quick.
Speaker 2 (33:51):
And it's the first time I thought you could say
you got ahead like no legs or something as well.
I thought you were going to say. I was like,
maybe maybe they thought he was diseased, he had that
attached you know here or something. They also was a
dead giveaway. And some guys give us some weird name.
And also they get out and go, why does your
chest say ortis you just gave me you know, Smith
or whatever is your last name? Because they always put
their last that's always their last name, but assume on their.
Speaker 3 (34:13):
Chest or their backs. You should have just checked his pulse,
like not.
Speaker 2 (34:17):
You you're alive. It should be in a hearse in
a Cadillac man, start me.
Speaker 6 (34:21):
In an ambulance because I've got a dead guy here,
you know, Yeah, send a yeah send They said he
was deceased, but.
Speaker 1 (34:32):
So yeah, send a send a priest or somebody, because
I'm talking to a dead guy and he's talking back.
Speaker 4 (34:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (34:37):
Now over And for warth p D.
Speaker 4 (34:39):
I know you guys.
Speaker 1 (34:40):
We we've we've had several several for worth guys on
the show before, and we've heard a lot of stories
about nicknames and stuff, and I I understand, Uh, Mitchell,
you used to work with a gentleman in the nickname
of Radar Radar.
Speaker 5 (34:54):
Yeah, Signal sixty nine signal sixty nine. So radar, he
was a class clown for sure. I mean, never had
a bad day, always in a good mood, always cracking jokes,
you know, community communal shower time after pet was always
hilarious because he's doing something stupid in the shower.
Speaker 2 (35:11):
So yeah, yeah, yeah, no, y'all can hold on. But anyway,
so he uh, he's we make it to and he's
just eager, right.
Speaker 5 (35:20):
So he's one of those guys that just he loves
his job, he wants to do it well, he wants
to move up, and his dream was to be in narcotics, right,
so that's all good stuff. He wants to be a
narcotic and and he was really good at it, Honestly,
he was. He was a great officer. And uh, and
so but we are we are fresh cut, loose, like
I mean, this is like first month out of out
(35:42):
of field training when we're out on the street and
so none of us had really had a pursuit yet
or anything super excited. So we're all just kind of
waiting for that moment when something cool happens and uh,
and we get to jump in and do something, and
so we're we're just I'm just cruising around one day
and I somebody get on the radio with one on
the ground. But it's it's a very high pitch. You know,
(36:04):
nobody wants to be that guy on the radio that's
like screaming. But when you're running and chasing somebody, sometimes
you get you just get excited. Well, he's so excited
that the pitch of his voice goes so high, like.
Speaker 4 (36:18):
Central one on the ground.
Speaker 5 (36:21):
So he's just screaming, you know, like I knew what
he said, I knew who it was. But dispatcher, you know,
dispatchers are pretty good about recognizing call signs and voices
and things like that, but totally threw the dispatcher off
and uh and her response to his I got one
on the ground is is there anybody or are there
any units to to assist this female officer with So
(36:42):
I'm driving as fast as I can to worry he's out,
But at the same time, I'm crying, laughing so hard, crying,
laughing so hard, like about to crash out because I'm
laughing so hard at this coming Sally.
Speaker 8 (36:58):
You're listening to Offbeat the Light Side of Law Enforcement.
Visit us online at Offbeecopshow dot com.
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Speaker 1 (38:14):
Welcome back, Welcome back to Offbeat the Light Side of
Law Enforcement. Got two guests joined us today. We've got
retired Officer Mitchell Ellis and we are also joining with
by officer Josh Van Brunt.
Speaker 2 (38:31):
Is there something can help that female?
Speaker 1 (38:32):
The host there? Wow, I can't take you anywhere, man,
I'm sorry.
Speaker 2 (38:44):
Go ahead stay?
Speaker 1 (38:45):
Okay, where were we were? Check out the website if
you haven't been there yet, guys, Offbeatcopshow dot com Again,
Offbeatcopshow dot com. There on the website you can listen
to all episodes all oh yeah, and its entirety in
(39:07):
their entirety. But also at the top of the website
there is a link there you can click on that
is for the RMS Treehouse Listeners Foundation. Go ahead and
click on the link. Check out the foundation. Foundation, established
many years ago to provide monetary donation to the families
of our fallen police and firefighters here in the Dallas
Fort Worth area, covers ten counties. So very very good
(39:33):
cause I hate that we've got it, but I'm glad
that it's there. Hate that we have a reason, right,
but yeah, glad the foundation exists. So yes, if you
feel so lad, I would encourage you to make a
donation there to the foundation. Also on the website, there's
a little button microphone on it you can click on
that you can share a story with us, leave us
a message, whatever. So yeah, if you've got a funny
(39:56):
story and you want to leave your name and where
you're from in the store, go ahead and do so.
You can be anonymous, or you can use Curtis's name
if you want, absolutely, doesn't matter. Doesn't matter to me.
Speaker 2 (40:09):
Make sure you spell it s T E v E
here it has I own a couple.
Speaker 1 (40:17):
Wow Okay, And also, uh, check us out on Facebook
and Instagram. If you're listening to the show, I just
know you can watch it also on YouTube. And if
you are watching on YouTube, go ahead and click that
subscribe button. Give us thumbs up on there, so like, share, follow, subscribe,
all that mess now, Curtis, you you were telling me that,
(40:39):
I mean, these guys in studio today, Sincy, we're your
academy classmates. You guys got a lot of stories together,
and you told me that you you've got one that
you would like to share with everybody and kind of
make me nervous with this one. But I think we're
going to give you a shot.
Speaker 2 (40:53):
At this okay. So our academy was was unique in
a lot of different ways. One of the main things
that was unique about our academy is that we did
not have a senior class. Most time you have a
senior in junior class. So we came into the academy,
we didn't have a class ahead of us that could
RaSE us or give us, because that's usually what your
job is once the junior class comes in and you're
gonna mess with them a little bit and do a
(41:13):
little pranks to you know, welcome them in. We didn't
have one of those, but we did have a junior
class come in. I don't know when it was, guys,
but it was what halfway through our academy whatever, one
twenty eight came in and one twenty eight, So up
to that point when it was time to get released
to the showers, it was just us twenty something guys
going there and getting showers. You know, it's the same thing.
You're all standing there with the towler over your shoulder.
You know, we're men. We don't mind stand around naked.
Speaker 3 (41:35):
It is what it is.
Speaker 2 (41:36):
And this one time, after the other class had started.
I don't know how the schedule got discombobulated. Somehow they
released us all at the same time. They go into
the bathroom and this is the old academy guy like
sixty guys, And this bathroom's pretty small, and it's it's
literally like only like two steps up from where they
shot saw. I mean, it's like the old tile. There's
(41:57):
pipes on the ground, there's there's mold. I mean, it
was a nasty bathroom. And there's only like six rate heads.
So you've got accustomed to having to share a shower
head with another guy because you had to get back
out there for inspection. Well, this one day, somehow, you
know what, guys to this day, I probably think it's
by design that they did this. And so they released
all six Davis in this bathroom. And we're in there
(42:18):
and we're all standing alone, and we got our towels
on our shoulder. Well, Radar is our our or class clown.
And Radar is just running around like a kid in
a candy story. He's popping people with his towel, he's
jumping around, he's making fun of people. Well, of course,
but we know Radar the entire time, Like, yeah, we
know Radar, we know what he's doing with this. Yes,
(42:38):
this new class had no idea who this was, right,
And so I remember he's running around. He turns around
so fast. Now I'm not certain if it was the
towel or part of his menzel Genner tealia that slapped
another guy in the butt. And the fight was on.
And I remember the first thing I did is I
look up and I'm trying to find the smallest guy.
(43:00):
I thought, if I'm gonna take one, if I gotta
take one, I'm taking the small guy, you know. And
we're all a puzz faces were yelling each other. We're
I mean, cussboards are coming out, mom insults are coming out.
And luckily our two class uh sergeant arms step up.
They were both staunch Marines, got into their faces and
got it all calmed down. And I remember, like I
was sitting there, I was like, how am I gonna
(43:20):
explain to my wife that I got fired in a
naked fight in the in the in the in the
locker room of our academy, you know. And I be
to this day. I mean, I remember we we walked out,
no one spoke a word of that. I mean, the
whole day, I was like, somebody's gonna come in and
somebody saw this. Somebody had to see what happened because
we were loud. I mean no punches were thrown, but
(43:40):
there was a lot of yelling and screaming. And the
rest of the day we're all like on pins and needles,
like drinking our coffee. Like, okay, I don't think I
don't think anybody heard that, you know, and I have
never told that story until today. I have never told anybody.
Speaker 3 (43:53):
You left out one.
Speaker 2 (43:54):
What did I do?
Speaker 3 (43:55):
The important detail?
Speaker 5 (43:57):
What's the Serial Killer movie where they guy stands in
front of the mirror put.
Speaker 3 (44:05):
On the skin. Yeah, you know he does the tuck.
Speaker 5 (44:08):
Oh my god, I forgot about so while radars dancing
around popping people with howels, he's doing the tuck.
Speaker 3 (44:16):
Yeah, and so I think that might have been a factor.
Speaker 6 (44:21):
Responsibly ran into one of the physically ran into one
of their people.
Speaker 2 (44:27):
Oh that was why the tuck came to an untucked
And that's what happened. That was that was when, as
I said, I would hit the fanny, because he ran
into from behind you like like bumped into guys. I
knew that. See more ees, you have more perspectives. I
(44:48):
was still scared. I wish I didn't have a Yeah,
I wish I hadn't seen that.
Speaker 1 (44:53):
See, there is trauma and law enforcements. There's stuff that
you can't get out of.
Speaker 3 (44:57):
I talked about it with accounts.
Speaker 2 (44:58):
Yeah, it's training scars will.
Speaker 1 (45:00):
All those look guys were scarred for the beginning.
Speaker 4 (45:04):
We didn't even get on the street.
Speaker 2 (45:07):
Thank you Radar.
Speaker 1 (45:09):
All right, guys, that's what we've got for today's show. Mitchell, Josh,
thanks for joining us today.
Speaker 3 (45:14):
For having us guys.
Speaker 1 (45:16):
Until next time, keep it real, keep it funny, stay
safe and watch each other.
Speaker 2 (45:21):
Six
Welcome, Welcome to Offbeat The Light Side of Law Enforcement
are the Treehouse Podcast Network. On today's show, we want
to hear about academy stories, name games and ride alongs
that the interesting, and who knows what else we'll get into.
(00:47):
Steve here co host for today, Detective Curtis Hadley.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Groad to be here. Guys, thank you, and.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
We're joined with two guests in studio. We've got retired
officer Mitchelle Ellis. Hello, what's up for those of you
listening and not watching on YouTube? Mitchell saluted everybody on YouTube, so.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
He's pressure of mind bab guess yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
Mine's cool. Yeah, that's his retirement job. He's a mine now. Yeah.
Also joined us in the studio, we've got officer Josh
Van Brunt. Good welcome everybody. Do you want to Curtis,
I do you want to mention something? Old Rachel Roberts
was on the show a couple episodes back. Rachel works
(01:29):
for Louisville PD and she got us a Louisville PD patch.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
No, man, the collection is growing, it is and.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
I was almost almost a little embarrassed whenever she was here,
and she's like, where's my Louisville patch.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Well, you gotta admit it looks like a fireman's patch.
So it's a little red and black there. Yeah, where's
the blue Louisville. Come on, Yeah, there's no blue. I
mean that literally is red and black. I would I
would say, yes, fireman, what do you got there? You
know it says Louisville.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
Well, and Louisville being one of our closer agencies out here,
you would think that you would have You would think
that one of the previous guests from Lewisville, Chris Clements,
would have brought us a patch. But yeah, we've got
patches from this You never know, you know, Australia brought
us a patch Louisville at now curtis not We're going
(02:20):
to stay away from Barnard animals today. But I do
want to say one thing I was sent. Karen and
I were sent a thank you card from Donkey and
Equon Haven, the place we actually adopted the two donkeys from.
So we got our little little thank you card from them.
So if you're listening to the show and you need
a horse or a donkey, contact the folks at Donkey.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
Get your ass over there. And did.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
Get your ass, get you a donkey. Okay. Now today's
show is a little bit different because Kurdish.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
You know these two, Yes, I do. These these two
were in my my academy class. All three of us
were class on.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
Twenty seven, so all at four wards PD Yes, forwards
p D Academy Class one twenty seven. And I mean
this is kind of like a reunion.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
Well, I mean I never thought that at this part
in our career one.
Speaker 4 (03:18):
Was to be retired.
Speaker 3 (03:19):
That's true.
Speaker 4 (03:20):
True.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
I mean, who knows. I'm still kind of wondering how
I did it. But I'm just saying, I mean, you
gotta know people.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
Now, Mitchell, Mitchell, we mentioned that you are, you are retired,
You're no longer an officer? What do you? What do
you do now?
Speaker 5 (03:36):
It just depends on on the day, Honestly a lot
of things. But but my wife and I we we
own a boutique hotel in Glen Rose, Texas called La Pomia.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
And then uh, and then I fly helicopters.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
So you fly helicopters, and in fact, you were you
send me a message earlier said hey, I'm gonna be
gonna be late, Steve, because I had.
Speaker 5 (03:55):
To Yep, I had to go pull the helicopters out
for the mechanic to to work on a couple of things.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
And uh, sorry about that.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
Yeah, sorry, I mean I.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
No, no, if you're going to go up in the air,
we want to be mechanically sound. That's pretty important. Parishes
don't work real.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
Well with the no.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
And you mentioned you guys have a boutique hotel love Pamelia.
But h where can people visit your side at or
find out more about it?
Speaker 5 (04:18):
So you can find us on Instagram Lapomia t X
or you can go to our website www dot Lapomia
t X dot com. Uh, we've got a beautiful place,
I mean chapel venue space. We're on the Brass River,
lots of room, it's a it's first class, it's a
it's a really cool place.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
Very nice. And had Mitchell, how long were you an officer?
Speaker 3 (04:39):
I was with fort Worth for thirteen years, so I
left about two and a half years ago.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
Okay, and Josh, what what about you? You're over there
in fort Worth? How long you've been an officer? Thirteen year?
Speaker 4 (04:52):
Thirteen years?
Speaker 2 (04:53):
Well, well wait, fifteen years, yes, quitters fifteen now.
Speaker 6 (04:58):
Yeah, we just hit our fourteenth year after the graduation
from the academy.
Speaker 4 (05:03):
So we just hit fourteen in June.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
Fourteen year anniversary sir, All right, do you guys celebrate
your anniversary together or anything.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
It's generally a text.
Speaker 4 (05:10):
Yeah, it's like is it here, Yeah, it's like everybody
still in the group.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
Yeah. This year Elis was a hoods is all we
got back new number? Yeah, sorry, new number, but here's
my here's my website. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
And joshuait, what do you do currently? Are at the
police department? Any special ASSIGNM and S thing like that. Yeah, Currently,
I'm a neighborhood police officer. I do all the community
things where we have a signed beat in our in
our division, and I'm the point of contact for all
the stuff that doesn't need to be called end at
nine to one one the way to say it.
Speaker 6 (05:45):
I mean, that's really I catch all the the crap
that you know, they don't want to send an officer
out for. They give them my phone number and they
call me a lot of parking violations, a lot of
neighbor disputes over silly stuff.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
He's the gentle giant, you know. He goes there and
to soothes them lets me know that they're being heard.
He does have a soothing voice. He does he does
face for radio. Yeah, he does have a good voice
for radio.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
Well, obviously you guys have a little camaraderie built up
between you, you.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
Know, the Academy days. I heard some old man told
me this one time, and that did not resonate two
years later. It says, you know, the Academy is a
million dollar experience. I would not pay it down to
do again. And when he said it, I was like, Oh,
that sounds cool, dude. And then like years later, I'm like,
to that old man knew he was talking about because
I was thirty two, thirty three when I hit the
(06:36):
Academy and some of these guys were in their early twenties.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
I was twenty two.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
Started here you go, I had ten years on els Man,
and these guys would just work circles around me.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
So wait that, which takes me back to a previous
episode that you mentioned the Academy and something about doing
pull ups or chin ups and if you couldn't then you.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
Had to do the levee. Yeah, so they would they
were like front, try be cool with you, Like, if
you can't do the pull ups left. The instructor know,
we'll find another thing that you can do, another calistenic
or wherever. So you go up and he's like, sir,
I can't do a pull up. He's like, can you
do one? Like, no, I don't think I can't. He goes,
all right, no worry about it, run the levee. And
then after like two or three times of doing that,
you realize, yes, sir, I'll try to do one. Because
(07:16):
the levee was I don't know how tall that thing is,
but it was a monster.
Speaker 7 (07:20):
It was.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
It was like a mountain to us.
Speaker 5 (07:23):
Yes, which is kind of weird because running the levee
doesn't make you better at doing pull ups.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
It does not, it does not, but it makes you.
It makes you reflect why you can't do pull ups,
especially when they say run up the levee backwards. Man.
That was just all roll down the levee.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
Yes, the pencil rolls and this is the levee for
the Trinity River there and yes, and you guys were
at the old Academy building right. Yes, we've done Academy
downtown for word, just north of downtown there.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
So yeah, that's yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
Our academy was not as boogy as the new one
is like ours only had one plat toilet paper that
was it. If you pushed too hard, a finger went
through and promise you. So you had to you had
to be ye, had to be gentle. You learn it.
It taught you lessons.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
Well, you know, there were certain things brought in whenever
the Police in Fire training center was put together the
whole complex, they brought some of the luxury of the
fireside over to the police side and that's way oh yeah, yeah,
that's you know, firemen, they're not going to go with
one play, no, so yeah, you combine your police and
fire training facility that you know, It's just.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
I never thought of that added benefit.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
Now officers are going to get at least two play.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
Yeah, they get like separate showers and everything. So yeah,
oh man. But I do remember our very first day
of academy. That was one of the stories I wanted
to start with. Uh So, in our academy, we had
to go to some kind of orientation a couple of
days before, which was was rather that was comical in itself.
I can probably talk about that, but I remember one
of the things that they impressed upon you was until
(08:45):
you're an officer. You do not use the front door.
You use the side door. And there's a special parking lot.
You're a parking lot is across the street and around
the corner or whatever. You don't park in the regular
parking lot. So our very first day of academy, of course,
everybody you know, is just on. They're all amped up.
We're all wanted to make sure that we make a
very good impression. We're all in slacks and dressed up nice.
(09:07):
And you know you might have on the first day
of school where you have your supplies, but you know
it's like then you set it over here, it's like
a bag or something, and yeah, and so of course
it's like, you know, we started at seven sharp, I believe.
I don't know what time it was. It was, no,
it was November first, twenty ten, I remember that. And
we're all standing there, lined up down the hallway, and
of course here's our instructors. They're walking up up and
(09:27):
down like their sharks. Man. They're like, good God, pict
your damn uniform out to there. You picked those slacks
up for you or you know, they would just stay
stay stupid stuff like that, trying to throw you off,
like you know, like, man, those slacks are three sizes
too small, so just to see if they can get
you amped up. And we've been standing there for probably
an hour forty five minutes and we're still missing people.
They're like, you know, what happened to so and so?
(09:47):
What happens to so and so? We can't find this person.
Do you all remember who the very last person was
to show up. It was Jesse Williams. He showed up
in the gatorskin boots. There you go, a rolling su
He come walking up in like purple pants, like a
green shirt, alligator shoes and had a roll luggage with them.
(10:08):
Carry yes, I a carry on, like this guy was
going to df W.
Speaker 3 (10:12):
You know.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
It looked like he was going to df W for
a pastor's convention, Okay, is what he looked like he
was doing. And of course he walks in and the
instructors like, oh, fresh meat, here we go. And I
think that was the very first time we hit the levee.
I mean, as soon as we got out there, he's like, everybody,
dropped your room and get on the levee right now.
And we're running slacks and nice shirts and least were
wearing boots.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
We were just in.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
Regular dockors, you know, and we're running the levee and
I remember, I mean this guy and I'll say his name,
because he did not make it their academy. He was
the first person that dropped our academy. The actually fired
him out of our academy. But I remember when Jesse
woked up, I was like, yeah, this guy didn't get
the memo and what And I forgot to say he
walked right through the front door like he owned the place.
Because I don't know if you just do what the
listening or what. But I remember that that impressed me
(10:56):
that whole day. That was the one thing I remembered.
It was like this one guy, one guy didn't get
the memo and us.
Speaker 5 (11:03):
Yeah, and I had just come out of I was
in the army, so I've just come out of the army,
and I kind of expected, you know, this to be
you know, I didn't expect it to be easy by
any means, but I expected to be a little bit
more relaxed. And that was such a wake up call
when he pulled up and we get smoked day one
right then and there in our in our nice dress clothes.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
I was like, oh man, this is he was military.
Wasn't gonna have nine months. We don't count those guys,
and I wasn't militaries.
Speaker 4 (11:30):
I don't know either, but he kept he kept bringing
that up. I remember that.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
I don't know how many push ups and miles he
ran because of his career.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
Well, do y'all remember, do y'all remember us being out there?
We were running up and down the levee, and of
course he's sandbagging, and so then I don't know who
the structure was, maybe Jamie. He's like, hey, ity, by
stop that, by stop, we're gonna grab this pole. As
we had to grab a telephone pole, we all died
to pick it up. And so as we're doing it,
of course we have guys that are so short they're
not even touching the pole. We have Van Brus put
van Brunt in the middle. He's holding the pole. And
(12:00):
what do they do. They go, Jesse, no, no, no, no, Jesse,
we're gonna give you a ride. And so they put
Jesse on top of this thing. And we had to
carry him from the Trinity River all the way up
over the levee, down down the parking lot, down the
hill and to give him a ride. And this guy
was a professional sweater. This dude was like raining. I mean,
you're underneath them. Was like he's like you could feel
his sweat just coming off you. Uh, I know they
(12:22):
call it training juice, but that was just horrible.
Speaker 4 (12:24):
He had the biggest grint on his face the whole time.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
Yeah, yeah, he thought it was he thought that he
was being uh, you know, put up on a pedestal
for what he did.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
It's like, no, no, you're being seeing that buddy, blanket
parties coming later. Oh yeah, Now, Mitchell, did you think, Hey,
I'm out of the military, I'm good to go, and
then all of a sudden, crap, I'm back into a.
Speaker 5 (12:45):
Huge wake up call. I mean, and then and then
you realize, like this is going to be nine months
of this, you know. So it was just it's, uh,
it's for anybody who's thinking about joining a police cattery.
It's a long it's a long process, you know, and
it's it's obviously it gets a little easy or later
on you get into the academy. But I would say
the first half was until we got through the range,
(13:05):
it was it was a beating every day.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
I was exhausted, every day when I came home.
Speaker 1 (13:11):
Yeah, I mean it's definitely a commitment. But but you
know it's it's a commitment that's worth it.
Speaker 3 (13:16):
Oh, it's worth it.
Speaker 5 (13:16):
And there's so there's so much pride when you come out.
You know, you walk across the stage and and you're officially,
you know, a police officer. Now, I mean there's there's
a tremendous amount of accomplishment and pride that comes with that. So, uh,
it was it was definitely a worthwhile experience.
Speaker 4 (13:31):
Now, I.
Speaker 1 (13:33):
I'm gonna brag just just one second. When I graduated
my academy, I graduated the salutatorian. The funny thing behind this,
I mean I had just been through college and had
all the classes, penal, coach, CCP, all that kind of stuff.
So the academy was just review on the academic side.
We had one fireman in our class because he was
gonna be an arson investigator, so he had to get
(13:54):
I had to get Helios certified. Time. He was our
valedictorian because he beat me by a tenth of a point. Like, okay,
this supposed to be a police academy of fireman just
came in here and beat us.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
But was there three in those class. I was just ouch.
I'm just a second.
Speaker 4 (14:13):
There was two.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
I just remember because I was so proud. It's like, okay, yeah,
I'm salutatory. And and then I got to my first
trade officer. He said that, I mean.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
Crap, Yeah, the fireman beat you. I can you get
a mustache? I never talked with the mustache, never thought
about that by a hair. This is Offbeat, the light
side of law enforcement. Check us out online at offbeatcopshow
dot com.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
Let's welcome Daniel Cook from Cook DFW Roofing and Restoration
into the studio the number eight three three Cook DFW,
the website cookdfw dot com. Anything new in your world, Daniel.
Speaker 4 (14:59):
Steve We just in busy, busy man.
Speaker 7 (15:01):
We are trying to stay on top of everything.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
Well, and it seems like this time of year a
lot of folks are busy. It's that time when the
kids go back to school and a lot of people
are are focused on that. But it's also a good
time to make sure everything is in order with your home.
Speaker 7 (15:20):
Yeah, we always see a big influx this time of year.
You know, parents are hectically trying to get their kids
ready for the summertime. We always see that in that
you know, May timeframe, and that's just just coincides basically
with the end of our major storm season. And so
sometimes your home gets put off because life gets hectic,
and that's normal. So a lot of times, you know,
(15:41):
families are trying to get ready for vacations, they're getting
their kids. They got to get them in the road
and camps and programs and stuff like that, and so
the home trying of becomes a secondary issue. So, but
what we don't want to happen is something down the
road when we get you know, believe it or not,
falls around around the corner and we're going to start
getting more rain, and then all of a sudden, you're
gonna start get leaks because from the storms that you
(16:02):
had six or seven months ago, now they're going to
rise up and show you that they're still there. And
so that's why it's important after the kid, you know,
you got the kids getting bad to go back to school,
Let's give us a call. Let's come out. We can
then do it once over on the roof the property,
make sure and see what happened earlier in the year.
If you have some issues, we can address those show
(16:23):
you what you need to have done. Just prepare you
for you know, I believe it or not. Winter is
here almost and fall will be here before you know it.
So let us come out. We want to protect your home.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
Bring on, bring on the winter thing that you just
mentioned right there. Let's uh, let's get past the heat.
Let's let's cool this place off. But again, Daniel, you've
mentioned many times you've told me that, hey, you have
someone come out, have a professional come out check out
your home. Make sure that there's no issues. You You
might see an obvious issue and that and that's what
(16:55):
prompts you to call someone to come take a look
at it. But sometimes there's underlying issues that you I
not notice. And it costs nothing to h to give
you know, to have Daniel and have cook gift to
be come out, take a look at your property, inspect
your property and just make sure that everything is set
and like you said, back to school time, Hey, that's
(17:15):
a good time to mark everything off that checklist. Just
make sure you're in good shape. If you're in need
of a new roof, repair, remodeling, or restoration, thank you
might have a problem. Don't know if you have a
problem or if you do know that you have a problem.
GIF Daniel Lacall at Cook Giftw Roofing and Restoration. The
numbers eight three three Cook DFW again, that's eight three
(17:38):
three Cook DFW. The website cookdfw dot com. Make sure
you check them out on Facebook and Instagram and be
sure to ask them about their free first responder upgrade.
Speaker 8 (17:50):
Hi, this is Joanne Jackson, My husband Dallas Polase office at.
Brian Jackson gave his life serving the city of Dallas
in two thousand and five. The RMS Treehouse Listeners Foundation
supports the families of Dallas and Fort Worth area police
officers and firefighters who have selflessly fallen in the line
of duty. To donate, please visit Offbeatcopshow dot com or
(18:11):
Treehouse on Air dot com and click on the link.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
And we're back back to more Offbeat the light side
of law enforcement. Steve here co host for today Detective
Curtis Hadley. Glad to be here and we're joining with
two guests in the studio. We've got retired Officer Mitchell
Ellis and Officer Josh Van Bruynt. Now this segment Offbeat
(18:47):
sponsor by are good friends at Alexander Financial Management. If
you have questions about retirement planning, investment strategies, life insurance,
or estate planning, check out Alexander Financial Management at.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
Alex f M dot com. Again, that's alex f M
dot com actually says dot com dot com, dot com,
dot dot dot love dot com dot dot M.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
Curtis, you should get you should get paid, uh, to
be a dot com guy for.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
Multiple that's pretty good. And he practices out in the
mirror before he comes. Well, he's dot com dot com
dot com.
Speaker 4 (19:35):
That's all I heard on the way up here from
Fort Worth.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
To how's the sound man? It's okay, that's not my
real voice.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
That's Curtis sounds enough twinkle in my voice. Okay, now again,
you guys are all academy classmates, uh, and have have
several different stories, you know, well you two have several
different stories since Mitchell quit two years ago. I mean
y'all have more than yeah right, yeah, Well.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
I will admit he was a corporal when he left,
so I mean he did, he did, he did some
cool stuff when he was there. But hey, good for
him that he was able to get out with you know,
most of his fingers. Yeah, but I used to fly helicopters.
Now yeah, yeah, his life is just so rough now.
He's like, I don't know, I know, I get up
in the morning, I'm not sure if I'm a fly
helicopter or getting my jet or Yeah. I'm nothing but
(20:26):
proud and jealous of them.
Speaker 3 (20:27):
So I appreciate it absolutely.
Speaker 1 (20:29):
But Mitchell, during your during your time in law enforcement,
obviously you you experienced quite a bit. And he had
several stories and one of those stories you mentioned was
about her right along.
Speaker 4 (20:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (20:42):
So I met my wife on a right along so Kimmy, Uh,
just a little back history her her dad was a
Dallas police officer. He was killed in the lan of
duty when she was four years old. So fast forward.
We did not know each other, but we had a
mutual friend and another guy that I worked with, and uh,
(21:03):
and she was talking to him one day about her
dad and just his life and stuff and just kind
of curious about police life. And he's like, well, you know,
why don't you just come on a ride along? And
and so she shows up at the sector one day
and I see her. I'm like, man, I hope I
hope she rides along with.
Speaker 4 (21:19):
Me, you know.
Speaker 3 (21:21):
But she didn't. She ended up runing with another guy
and uh, and so at the end of the night,
we make this call. I don't know it was. It
was kind of a crazy night. There was a shooting.
Speaker 5 (21:30):
This guy got shot in the butt running away from
some drug deal. And then at the end of the night,
our last call, we get this, you know, domestic disturbance
at this house on kind of South Central and uh,
and we walk up to this house and there's a
guy sitting on a couch and he looks naked at first,
like no shirt, doesn't look like he has pants on.
(21:51):
We're like, what is this dude doing, you know, and
so we start talking to him. Finally he stands up
and he's in his tidy whities and so this in
this domestic dispute.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
This this guy had like thrown his girlfriend's keys out
in the yard and that's what she called.
Speaker 3 (22:07):
And so we're talking.
Speaker 5 (22:08):
This guy turns around, biggest skid marks on this guy's
whitey tidy So that that was just hilarious. But uh,
my wife and I have actually been together since that day.
So uh, she exchanged numbers that night and started dating
and married shortly later. So that was pretty special. But
was it the skid marks that really just you know,
(22:29):
grove it home. I feel like that, you know, she
there was love, love at first skid mark, you know.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
Skid mark handle anything man.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
Well, yeah, okay, that's yeah, that's a good test. But
you know, I do have to ask you this, Mitchell
did Did she fall in love in the back of
a squad car?
Speaker 2 (22:45):
No?
Speaker 3 (22:46):
No, I have another story about that.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
All yeah, I'm not even sure we can go there.
Speaker 5 (22:54):
But that was kind of a segue into and later on.
So she loved coming on right along, So we're kind
of restrict on how often you could come on a
ride along back. Then you know, what's over six months.
You've got to get approval from your supervisor. They've got
to fill out this form. So she'd she'd done it
a few different times. We've probably been married, you know,
three or four years at this time. It was kind
of towards the end of my patrol career, before I
went on to some tactical stuff. But you know, she
(23:17):
would come to dinner, and it was always a struggle
because you know, you planned dinner, right, You're like, hey,
meet me at seven or eight o'clock, and it never
you know, right, you're on the way to dinner and
you get a call and you're like, hey, it's going
to be a little while. So it was one of
those nights we'd we'd planned dinner out. I don't think
I got off this call until like, you know, nine thirty,
ten o'clock. So finally we sit down, we have dinner,
(23:39):
we finish up at like eleven, and and you know,
she's We're enjoying each other's company, right, We're having a
good time. And I was like, well, don't like, I'm
not going to do anything the rest of the night.
You know, I've had a long day. I think I'm
just gonna she's gonna ride out the rest of the night.
Why don't you just jump in with me? So so
she jumps in the car, and, uh, you know, obviously
(24:00):
this is this is not not an approved ride along.
But I had a super cool sergeant at the time.
I didn't think you would mind, even even if even
if he knew. But anyway, so, so right, we're not
We're just gonna chill, right, We're not gonna do anything.
We're just gonna hang out. So that's that's how it goes, right,
That's how it starts. So yeah, we we we pull
out of the restaurant. We go sit in this neighborhood.
A couple of other officers come up and we're hanging out,
(24:22):
just talking. You know, we're pulled up in this in
this dark neighborhood, and uh, you know, you got guys
that ride around bikes sometimes with no lights and and
that's completely unacceptable, right, I just can't let that.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
Happen in my neighborhood. You're not going to ride a
bike out of light, you know.
Speaker 5 (24:42):
So we see this guy on a bicycle coming towards
us at a high rate of speed with no light,
and you know, three guys we're all just like, hey,
let's let's stop that guy. So one guy jumps out
of the car and he's gonna just like halt, and
so he jumps out. Well, this guy's going to fast,
like like too fast for a bicycle, right, And he
(25:04):
gets closer and I hear something and then he's and
we realize he's got like this little fifty c C
motor on his bicycle and he just blasts past us. Well,
one guy's like running on foot like he's gonna catch
this guy. Well, then I do like the coolest move ever,
you know. So I put the car in a verse
and I do the jay turn and my wife's in
(25:24):
the car, right, so this is like, I'm I'm super cool.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
Right, he's got some points there, buddy.
Speaker 3 (25:29):
Almost I did almost hit a building when I did
the jab.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
Thankfully what you did, so I still count count.
Speaker 5 (25:34):
So we're we're we're like following this guy from a
safe distance, right, we don't want to make too big
of a deal about this. And uh so we were
following him, you know, he kind of goes to the neighborhood.
He's making you know, turning left turn and right and
uh and finally we get up to him and he
he's gonna bail, right, So now it's turning into a
foot chase, and uh so we jump out of the car. Well,
(25:56):
we realize he's he's at his house or at a
house that he that he knows of, and he's going
to try to get inside this house. And so I
jump out of the car and I just like latch
onto this guy's back. He goes down to the ground
and by that by that time, my buddies are there.
We're trying to get this guy in custody. Well, you know,
he's a big guy, and you know, sometimes really hard
to get their arms behind their back, and so we're
(26:17):
we're really struggling to get his arms while we hear, oh,
his shoulder puffs out of place for putting them in handcuffs. Well,
right about the time we're getting this guy in handcuffs,
well this lady comes out of the front of the
house and she's not happy with what's going on in
her front yard.
Speaker 3 (26:34):
Turns out it's his wife.
Speaker 5 (26:36):
And she starts screaming and yelling and we're like, man,
stay back, stay back, stay back.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
Well she's not listening. She's she's coming at us.
Speaker 5 (26:43):
She wants she wants to fight, and so we end
up taking her to the ground, putting her in handcuffs,
arresting her for interference. And now we've got this guy's
got a motorized bicycle. It's evading in a motor vehicle now,
and then we've got interfering with interfering with official police
duties on the wife. So now this is this has
turned from me not doing anything for the rest of
(27:03):
the night to a pretty big call. And so we're
sitting there. We've got we've had we've got a use
of force incidents. So we've got to call our supervisor.
My wife's in the car, so I'm like, oh, this
is not good, and so I go. I go back
to the car. My lights were on and I was like, hey,
I turn the lights off. She's like, no, no, no,
leave the lights on. I don't want anybody to know
(27:24):
that I'm in here. I'm like okay. So next thing
I know, Big Serge pulls up to the call and
we're we're giving him the lowdown on what just happened
and uh. And while we're sitting there talking to him,
he's like, he's like, man, those those lights are bright. Man,
oh gosh, I can't see you can't can't hear you, guys.
The light lights are too bright. So overhead lights referring
(27:45):
to my overhead lights. So he walks over to my
driver door, pops it open, and there's Kimmy and he's like, whoa, whoa, whoa.
Speaker 3 (27:53):
Guys.
Speaker 5 (27:54):
It's like, you gotta start locking your doors. You got
to stow away. Somebody just got somebody just jumped into
your car. You guys, you guys gotta be more careful.
Speaker 3 (28:05):
And that was the end of it. I never heard
anything else. About it so.
Speaker 6 (28:11):
Well.
Speaker 2 (28:11):
On your defense, no one knew that it was a
swin Supersport. You just thought it was about one of
the best parts of the story.
Speaker 5 (28:18):
We called we called a flatbed record and we put
that motorized bicycle on a record and pound.
Speaker 2 (28:24):
And also, in just a small note, homage to all
those police wives that have set in an eye hop
for hours waiting for their husband to come in to
do with prop. I can't tell you how many times
I've done with my wife, and I was like, it
means a lot from them that they put up with
our junk. But then they sit there hour after hour
like sweetheart, sorry, one more cope out there, and it
never it always dominoes into something.
Speaker 1 (28:43):
Well, that's it. Had you not planned to meet her
for dinner, you would normally fine. Yeah, but if you
had plans.
Speaker 2 (28:50):
Then yeah, absolutely, anytime you set a time in a day,
it's not gonna happen.
Speaker 1 (28:54):
Yew Josh, you had told me earlier. You you know,
you've had to deal with some difficult people out there,
and you know you had somebody playing name games with you.
I think we all have, but elaborate on that a
little bit.
Speaker 6 (29:06):
Okay, So in patrol. That was like my favorite thing
to do. We would set up, you know, make a
stop on somebody. You get somebody lying to you about
who they are, and it's always fun to try to
get their true identity out of them. Our old report
system was really good. We could search a lot of different, uh,
different things, and you know, we get information we get
(29:26):
from them, you know, address as friends, look them up
as an associate. Our new report system's not that good.
But in patrol it was so much fun. And I
we used to like to set up over in the
neighborhood down the south called the you know, they called
it the fish Bowl, and everybody would go set up
down the you know, set outside the fish bowl and
(29:47):
wait for a car to leave. Nine times out of
ten cars leaving the fish Bowl, if they didn't register
to an address there they were, they had to dope
in them because the dope houses were down there. And
uh so we were sitting up there just fishing, and
we caught a car, that's really what it was. And
(30:07):
you just sat there, you said, there very long till
you got a bite. And so we're, uh, we're sitting
there and me have a buddy and he was driving
I was a passenger that day.
Speaker 4 (30:16):
So we see a car leaving. They I don't know,
didn't signal turning leaving. I don't know.
Speaker 6 (30:20):
I don't knowmber what the PC was. But they pulled out.
We made a traffic stop shortly after they left the
fish bowl, and so my partner goes up to the
driver's side and he's talking to the driver, and I
go to the passenger side. Of course it's occupied, two
or three times just looking at the passengers, and of
course the front passenger doesn't have a seat belt. So
I'm like, awesome, I get to identify this guy. So
(30:41):
I tap on the window, get him to open the
door or hroll the window down, excuse me, and uh,
asking for his ID, and of course I don't have
an ID on me. You had a driver's license. I
don't have a driver's license, or I think he told
me he did have a driver's license, but he didn't
have it on him. So I'm like, okay, well give
me your name and data birth and so he gives
me a name of data birth standard things, and so
(31:03):
I get the driver's license from the driver from my buddy,
and I go back to the car to run everything
run the driver, run the information from the passenger, and
I get a driver's license return and I start looking
through it. And you know, anybody that's running driver's license
in Texas, you get the admin status. It says it's
eligible or not eligible. This one's deceased.
Speaker 2 (31:22):
That could be a problem.
Speaker 4 (31:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:24):
So I'm like, sir, how long have you been deceased?
Speaker 4 (31:27):
So I'm like, good guy. I'm like, this is going
to be fun. Here we go. You know, this came on.
So I go back up, tell my buddy. I'm like, hey,
driver's goods deceased.
Speaker 3 (31:39):
So much.
Speaker 6 (31:40):
So I go back, you know, and do the usual
things that we would do. I'm like, hey, man, let
me make sure I got your name right, you know.
I'm like, spell that for me, you know, and he
spells the name for me in data birth. I'm like, okay,
this is you. Yeah, okay, you got anything else that
I can check? I said, because your driver's license is
not it's not right. He goes, no, man, that's me.
I'm like, okay, well, why don't you step out of
(32:01):
the car for me? Why I gotta step out? I'm like,
because STEP's not matching up. I'm like to step out
and talk to me, and he steps out, and as
he turned out, padded him down real fast, because you know,
all these things are adding up. There's something going on here.
So when he turns around, I look him up and
down and it was I busted up laughing because I
got the clue that I needed. And his T shirt
(32:23):
that he was wearing had a picture on it had
a name matched the name he gave me, and it
had a dated birth and a date of death, so
it was his buddies death. It was his buddies like
rest in peace memorial shirt. He's wearing it, and he
gave me that information and I was like, I just
started laughing.
Speaker 4 (32:39):
My buddy.
Speaker 6 (32:40):
He was like, what's going on. I'm like, this is
the info he gave me, and I showed him the notepad.
I'm like, you notice anything, and he just started laughing too,
or like okay, dudeje's up.
Speaker 4 (32:50):
Yeah. I'm like, what do you you know? You got
what kind of warrants do you have that you're lying
about this?
Speaker 1 (32:54):
And he's like, you know, just hangs his head and
was like the deep sigh, just like the first thing
that came to his mind. You ask you, man, what's
your name? He just like looks down his shirt so
and so so and so.
Speaker 6 (33:05):
Apparently, I don't know, I caught I guess I caught
him off guard and he didn't have time to make
up something else. But you know that that was one
of the funnier ones. I mean, because I mean we've
played that game time and time again, and you go
back and forth multiple times, you know, Okay, give me
this little bit of information, you go search that and
you go back and forth. But this one, I mean,
it only took one time.
Speaker 1 (33:25):
And is this the first time you ever had to
do a pat down on a dead guy?
Speaker 4 (33:29):
It was the first time pat down a dead guy? Yeah,
oh man.
Speaker 2 (33:32):
You always think of that one kernel of truth that
they give you.
Speaker 4 (33:35):
Yeah, down the pathway, you ask all those questions.
Speaker 6 (33:38):
They can't they can't lie about everything, you know, they
always throw some little nugget of truth. And that was
what was That was the fun part, was trying to
dig out, you know, Okay, which part of this is true?
And how do I find this guy's real identity? And
I mean that one was really quick.
Speaker 2 (33:51):
And it's the first time I thought you could say
you got ahead like no legs or something as well.
I thought you were going to say. I was like,
maybe maybe they thought he was diseased, he had that
attached you know here or something. They also was a
dead giveaway. And some guys give us some weird name.
And also they get out and go, why does your
chest say ortis you just gave me you know, Smith
or whatever is your last name? Because they always put
their last that's always their last name, but assume on their.
Speaker 3 (34:13):
Chest or their backs. You should have just checked his pulse,
like not.
Speaker 2 (34:17):
You you're alive. It should be in a hearse in
a Cadillac man, start me.
Speaker 6 (34:21):
In an ambulance because I've got a dead guy here,
you know, Yeah, send a yeah send They said he
was deceased, but.
Speaker 1 (34:32):
So yeah, send a send a priest or somebody, because
I'm talking to a dead guy and he's talking back.
Speaker 4 (34:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (34:37):
Now over And for warth p D.
Speaker 4 (34:39):
I know you guys.
Speaker 1 (34:40):
We we've we've had several several for worth guys on
the show before, and we've heard a lot of stories
about nicknames and stuff, and I I understand, Uh, Mitchell,
you used to work with a gentleman in the nickname
of Radar Radar.
Speaker 5 (34:54):
Yeah, Signal sixty nine signal sixty nine. So radar, he
was a class clown for sure. I mean, never had
a bad day, always in a good mood, always cracking jokes,
you know, community communal shower time after pet was always
hilarious because he's doing something stupid in the shower.
Speaker 2 (35:11):
So yeah, yeah, yeah, no, y'all can hold on. But anyway,
so he uh, he's we make it to and he's
just eager, right.
Speaker 5 (35:20):
So he's one of those guys that just he loves
his job, he wants to do it well, he wants
to move up, and his dream was to be in narcotics, right,
so that's all good stuff. He wants to be a
narcotic and and he was really good at it, Honestly,
he was. He was a great officer. And uh, and
so but we are we are fresh cut, loose, like
I mean, this is like first month out of out
(35:42):
of field training when we're out on the street and
so none of us had really had a pursuit yet
or anything super excited. So we're all just kind of
waiting for that moment when something cool happens and uh,
and we get to jump in and do something, and
so we're we're just I'm just cruising around one day
and I somebody get on the radio with one on
the ground. But it's it's a very high pitch. You know,
(36:04):
nobody wants to be that guy on the radio that's
like screaming. But when you're running and chasing somebody, sometimes
you get you just get excited. Well, he's so excited
that the pitch of his voice goes so high, like.
Speaker 4 (36:18):
Central one on the ground.
Speaker 5 (36:21):
So he's just screaming, you know, like I knew what
he said, I knew who it was. But dispatcher, you know,
dispatchers are pretty good about recognizing call signs and voices
and things like that, but totally threw the dispatcher off
and uh and her response to his I got one
on the ground is is there anybody or are there
any units to to assist this female officer with So
(36:42):
I'm driving as fast as I can to worry he's out,
But at the same time, I'm crying, laughing so hard, crying,
laughing so hard, like about to crash out because I'm
laughing so hard at this coming Sally.
Speaker 8 (36:58):
You're listening to Offbeat the Light Side of Law Enforcement.
Visit us online at Offbeecopshow dot com.
Speaker 9 (37:05):
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Speaker 1 (38:14):
Welcome back, Welcome back to Offbeat the Light Side of
Law Enforcement. Got two guests joined us today. We've got
retired Officer Mitchell Ellis and we are also joining with
by officer Josh Van Brunt.
Speaker 2 (38:31):
Is there something can help that female?
Speaker 1 (38:32):
The host there? Wow, I can't take you anywhere, man,
I'm sorry.
Speaker 2 (38:44):
Go ahead stay?
Speaker 1 (38:45):
Okay, where were we were? Check out the website if
you haven't been there yet, guys, Offbeatcopshow dot com Again,
Offbeatcopshow dot com. There on the website you can listen
to all episodes all oh yeah, and its entirety in
(39:07):
their entirety. But also at the top of the website
there is a link there you can click on that
is for the RMS Treehouse Listeners Foundation. Go ahead and
click on the link. Check out the foundation. Foundation, established
many years ago to provide monetary donation to the families
of our fallen police and firefighters here in the Dallas
Fort Worth area, covers ten counties. So very very good
(39:33):
cause I hate that we've got it, but I'm glad
that it's there. Hate that we have a reason, right,
but yeah, glad the foundation exists. So yes, if you
feel so lad, I would encourage you to make a
donation there to the foundation. Also on the website, there's
a little button microphone on it you can click on
that you can share a story with us, leave us
a message, whatever. So yeah, if you've got a funny
(39:56):
story and you want to leave your name and where
you're from in the store, go ahead and do so.
You can be anonymous, or you can use Curtis's name
if you want, absolutely, doesn't matter. Doesn't matter to me.
Speaker 2 (40:09):
Make sure you spell it s T E v E
here it has I own a couple.
Speaker 1 (40:17):
Wow Okay, And also, uh, check us out on Facebook
and Instagram. If you're listening to the show, I just
know you can watch it also on YouTube. And if
you are watching on YouTube, go ahead and click that
subscribe button. Give us thumbs up on there, so like, share, follow, subscribe,
all that mess now, Curtis, you you were telling me that,
(40:39):
I mean, these guys in studio today, Sincy, we're your
academy classmates. You guys got a lot of stories together,
and you told me that you you've got one that
you would like to share with everybody and kind of
make me nervous with this one. But I think we're
going to give you a shot.
Speaker 2 (40:53):
At this okay. So our academy was was unique in
a lot of different ways. One of the main things
that was unique about our academy is that we did
not have a senior class. Most time you have a
senior in junior class. So we came into the academy,
we didn't have a class ahead of us that could
RaSE us or give us, because that's usually what your
job is once the junior class comes in and you're
gonna mess with them a little bit and do a
(41:13):
little pranks to you know, welcome them in. We didn't
have one of those, but we did have a junior
class come in. I don't know when it was, guys,
but it was what halfway through our academy whatever, one
twenty eight came in and one twenty eight, So up
to that point when it was time to get released
to the showers, it was just us twenty something guys
going there and getting showers. You know, it's the same thing.
You're all standing there with the towler over your shoulder.
You know, we're men. We don't mind stand around naked.
Speaker 3 (41:35):
It is what it is.
Speaker 2 (41:36):
And this one time, after the other class had started.
I don't know how the schedule got discombobulated. Somehow they
released us all at the same time. They go into
the bathroom and this is the old academy guy like
sixty guys, And this bathroom's pretty small, and it's it's
literally like only like two steps up from where they
shot saw. I mean, it's like the old tile. There's
(41:57):
pipes on the ground, there's there's mold. I mean, it
was a nasty bathroom. And there's only like six rate heads.
So you've got accustomed to having to share a shower
head with another guy because you had to get back
out there for inspection. Well, this one day, somehow, you
know what, guys to this day, I probably think it's
by design that they did this. And so they released
all six Davis in this bathroom. And we're in there
(42:18):
and we're all standing alone, and we got our towels
on our shoulder. Well, Radar is our our or class clown.
And Radar is just running around like a kid in
a candy story. He's popping people with his towel, he's
jumping around, he's making fun of people. Well, of course,
but we know Radar the entire time, Like, yeah, we
know Radar, we know what he's doing with this. Yes,
(42:38):
this new class had no idea who this was, right,
And so I remember he's running around. He turns around
so fast. Now I'm not certain if it was the
towel or part of his menzel Genner tealia that slapped
another guy in the butt. And the fight was on.
And I remember the first thing I did is I
look up and I'm trying to find the smallest guy.
(43:00):
I thought, if I'm gonna take one, if I gotta
take one, I'm taking the small guy, you know. And
we're all a puzz faces were yelling each other. We're
I mean, cussboards are coming out, mom insults are coming out.
And luckily our two class uh sergeant arms step up.
They were both staunch Marines, got into their faces and
got it all calmed down. And I remember, like I
was sitting there, I was like, how am I gonna
(43:20):
explain to my wife that I got fired in a
naked fight in the in the in the in the
locker room of our academy, you know. And I be
to this day. I mean, I remember we we walked out,
no one spoke a word of that. I mean, the
whole day, I was like, somebody's gonna come in and
somebody saw this. Somebody had to see what happened because
we were loud. I mean no punches were thrown, but
(43:40):
there was a lot of yelling and screaming. And the
rest of the day we're all like on pins and needles,
like drinking our coffee. Like, okay, I don't think I
don't think anybody heard that, you know, and I have
never told that story until today. I have never told anybody.
Speaker 3 (43:53):
You left out one.
Speaker 2 (43:54):
What did I do?
Speaker 3 (43:55):
The important detail?
Speaker 5 (43:57):
What's the Serial Killer movie where they guy stands in
front of the mirror put.
Speaker 3 (44:05):
On the skin. Yeah, you know he does the tuck.
Speaker 5 (44:08):
Oh my god, I forgot about so while radars dancing
around popping people with howels, he's doing the tuck.
Speaker 3 (44:16):
Yeah, and so I think that might have been a factor.
Speaker 6 (44:21):
Responsibly ran into one of the physically ran into one
of their people.
Speaker 2 (44:27):
Oh that was why the tuck came to an untucked
And that's what happened. That was that was when, as
I said, I would hit the fanny, because he ran
into from behind you like like bumped into guys. I
knew that. See more ees, you have more perspectives. I
(44:48):
was still scared. I wish I didn't have a Yeah,
I wish I hadn't seen that.
Speaker 1 (44:53):
See, there is trauma and law enforcements. There's stuff that
you can't get out of.
Speaker 3 (44:57):
I talked about it with accounts.
Speaker 2 (44:58):
Yeah, it's training scars will.
Speaker 1 (45:00):
All those look guys were scarred for the beginning.
Speaker 4 (45:04):
We didn't even get on the street.
Speaker 2 (45:07):
Thank you Radar.
Speaker 1 (45:09):
All right, guys, that's what we've got for today's show. Mitchell, Josh,
thanks for joining us today.
Speaker 3 (45:14):
For having us guys.
Speaker 1 (45:16):
Until next time, keep it real, keep it funny, stay
safe and watch each other.
Speaker 2 (45:21):
Six
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