Thanks again for another generously awesome karma. FF/EMT for 5 years now. Began late in life at the age of 45, but wished I had started 20 years earlier.

Few years ago, we were dispatched to a woman who had taken some pills & alcohol. Call was called in by her late teen/ early 20's children.

We arrived on scene to find this woman in the attic (this is June Georgia heat), buried in pink, blown, fiberglass insulation. She had wedged herself between two ceiling joists, and is kicking the roof decking with her feet. We were very concerned that she was going to go through the sheetrock. She was cussing out the PD and Paramedics that are already on scene. We crawl back to where she is, and she says she likes firefighters, and that we could stay, but she didn't want anyone else there.

It took us 30 min. with her flirting with us before the medications that she took to work enough to coax her out of that hole. I was completely soaking wet by the time we got her loaded on the stretcher.

Many other stories in which the outcomes aren't as well off.

Please include me. Going on 29 years as a LEO in S. Florida. Still out humping calls on midnites. Even with all this stuff going on, God do I love this job.

Thanks for the very generous Karma! Please count me in.

I am a CRNA (Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist), and since elective surgical cases are nonexistent, we are doing only emergent cases and also working as the COVID intubation team and vent management teams. Stay safe everyone!

25 years as an leo. Currently patrol working noons. As always thank you for the chance and your kindness and generosity.

Count me in, and thanks once again for your incredible generosity.

in my 27th year at my current LE agency, with a bunch of concurrent volunteer FF/EMT time as well.
Lots of stories. No good ones that I haven't already told come to mind just now, but when they do, I'll be back...

Q, as always thank you for your generosity. Please count me in.

I started as a paid-on-call firefighter/EMT in 2006. I started with my present department in 2010 as a part time firefighter/EMT and was in the right place/right time when they hired their first full time spots at the start of 2015 to deal with increasing call volume and part-time staff shortages. My home away from home is a suburb in the NW Twin Cities that has everything from commercial/business, new half million dollar houses to cramped section 8 ghettos, er low income apartment buildings plus several highways. While we don't do patient transport, we do run medical first response in addition to fire related calls which keeps us quite busy.

Like others, there has been bad stuff, good stuff and truly bizarre stuff over the years and there are some truths I can agree with. One is the people that are naked are not the ones you want to see naked, another is that some people have a high tolerance for pain and some don't. The ones that don't usually are way more vocal. Its been about 5 weeks since we really ramped up changes due to COVID19. We are doing okay for PPE, doing a good job at disinfecting our trucks and equipment a few times a day and implemented some social distancing on the part of briefings and training to protect the crews. We also scaled back some of the EMS runs we go on for the time being to further reduce the risk of being exposed.

I have been thinking about stories to share and can think of a house fire we had in the summer of 2017. Because of our low staffing, two of our stations got toned out for a car fire in the afternoon that day. I was not at those stations but we all have access to the dispatch notes with an app on our phone. In it, it said there was a lawnmower on fire. It happens, but I had never seen it coded that way. Units from those stations plus our supervising chief started to go enroute and my partner and I went back to what we were doing. Another call for a medical came in though that we now had to take due to the other stations being unavailable.

What still is not clear to us to this day is who failed to mention that the lawnmower was parked under a wood deck (which caught fire quickly) that was attached to a house (which also eventually caught fire).

As units got into the area, the large black column of smoke was a giveaway that something was amiss. My chief quickly requested the call be changed to a house fire and my partner and I diverted from the medical and responded. The first units to arrive were greeted with a fire that was going like a blow torch through the split level family room downstairs into kitchen and dining room upstairs due to a little wind and how both patio doors on each level had failed. We arrived and went to work and were eventually able to knock it down enough to enter the home and were greeted by our next surprise, the occupants were hoarders!

All of us worked a couple cycles before finally getting some relief from neighboring departments and eventually got the fire out. While some areas of the home had heavy damage, the fire never got into the bedrooms or garage so those areas only had smoke damage. After things had calmed down and before leaving the scene, we found out that the reason we were alone so long at the beginning was because the neighboring department that borders our city had been sent on a goose chase due to someone calling in the smoke from our fire as plane crash. Their jurisdiction has a small airport in it, and this house was located only a few blocks away.

As is usually my custom I took a few minutes to walk around the house before we left the scene and encountered my chief, our assistant chief and our investigator in the backyard. It was very easy to see how the fire spread from the lawnmower which was a rider to the deck and over to the house. Enough of the rear of the rider was present though that we could make out the tell-tale green and yellow and were able to determine it had been a John Deere. I quipped that I guess nothing burns like a Deere either and everyone got a good laugh out of it.

Despite all the surprises that we had on this fire, none of the occupants were hurt and all of us got to go home which is always a win for us. The house is still un-occupied to this day even though work was started on it. I am guessing the hoarding condition probably has something to do with that.

Thanks again Q and I hope everyone else stays safe with all the Covid Craziness!

Awesome and generous karma. Please count me out. I've not been here long enough to enter, and I'm leaving law enforcement due to head trauma. There are others here who need it more.

But, have a story. Some years ago, I was dispatched to an RV, along with CPS. Everything was fine, we didn't need to take the kids. After that, I was that lady's favorite deputy. Any problem she had could wait until I was on duty.

One day, I had checked a STEN MK2 out of evidence for testing. On my way to the range, I was given her number to call. "Travis, Travis, come kill this big ugly snake before it bites one of my kids!" I had a great on scene time, as I was just about to pass her place when I called.

I arrive, and get out with the SMG. Her husband asks what it is, I tell him it's for removing snakes. They point to a tree by a pond as the location of the snake. I look, and it's the biggest cotton mouth I've ever seen! It strikes at me, so I gave it the entire magazine.

She never called me again.

Incredibly generous karma! I'm an RN, have been for past 8-9 years. I've worked in the ER and County Jails. Our ER was in Indianapolis but not a major trauma hospital. Any GSW I saw was a dump and run, so the trauma typically missed us.
Since we were attached to one of the biggest psych units in the state we got a ton of behavioral/mental health issues. Being one of the only guys on night shift you can guess who got the "noncompliant" patients.
Since I've worked in county jails. In my current role I've had the opportunity to go to nearly 50 jails over the last 8 months. In all honest I feel safer in all of those jails than I ever felt in that hospital. The CO's never get enough credit.
Thanks for the very generous opportunity.

Very generous offer from you. After 30+ years on the road and various spots, I sort of retired but stayed on as part time working as courthouse security/court bailiff.
One day not long ago, after taking a guy into custody from the court room, we got him over to the jail and were standing by while the detention guys did there search etc. When they did their usual strip search for contraband, he was found to have a baggie full of crack up his butt. he immediately cried out..."that's not mine"

"Not In" As I am retired. But as always you come through for your fellow members. Thanks for what you do.

I work at a gov agency, but my clinic is shut down and I've been tasked out to screenings at the ED, as well as follow up with high risk patients.

It has been interesting and I've been able to help a few patients get some of the meds they need without being exposed to any virus factors, got to deal with employees that have been exposed to the C19 d/t others not knowing, and patients lying about their symptoms. Always take the scrubs off before I get home.

Please count me in your karma if this counts.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Augen,

Please count me in! Thank you for the very generous Karma!! Here's my story...

Cool fall night about 12 years ago. 2 Deputies working in our 1900 square mile county. Back then we had a "fire bar" for one of the fire departments in the county. Basically this was a telephone number that the public called for fire or ambulance and when it rang the phone call went over the scanner/police radio.

Anyway's, the fire bar goes off and there's some dude screaming into the phone that someone has been stabbed at pub out in BFE. He's giving out suspect descriptions, vehicle, direction of travel etc... and I realize who the dudes likely are and where they're going. I also know I can cut them off. Problem is I'm 5 minutes away, my back-up is at least 25 minutes out.

I took the route where I had best chance of catching them, and sure enough I found them. I whipped a u-turn and initiated the stop. I had to, they were close to their destination.

Much to my surprise they stopped; right in the middle of the lane. I stepped out, gun drawn and called out the most intimidating felony traffic stop commands I could muster. At this point in my career I had probably only done this one time outside of training.

3 of the 4 exited the SUV and proned out on the highway without issue. The last guy was giving me problems and wouldn't get off his phone. His body language had me super nervous and I could tell that something bad was about to happen. Finally the guy puts the phone down, stares through me for what seemed like an hour, and finally goes down and prones out.

My back up is still a good 10 minutes out. I keep telling them not to move, but it's snowing and the pavement is probably about 20 degrees. The one dude starts to get up again and it takes a few more minutes to get him back down. This happened one more time before I heard the sirens coming. The cover unit gets there and we get everyone cuffed, searched and secured in cars.

The guy who got stabbed almost died, he took a helicopter ride to a trauma unit and required a rather extensive surgery.

Later when the Investigator interviewed the suspects, the one suspect who was giving me all the problems confessed to the Investigator that he had told his girlfriend goodbye on the phone and he was working up the courage to rush me thinking that would get me to kill him.

When the Investigator told me about the confession later, I wasn't too surprised hearing it at first, but watching the video later and seeing how close it was made me a bit more scared about what happened.

Oh, well. Everyone pled guilty and it never went to trial. Turned out the guy giving me issues was one of the main stabbers, he's the only one still still locked up.

Police officer for 25 years.
I worked for a really small agency with only 9 officers for the first 4 years of my career. It was in the town I grew up in so naturally I knew everyone.
I was working 2nd shift, 1430 to 2230, when a woman walked in the PD with tears running down her face. She said someone had stolen her grandmother's ring. I asked where and when it happened. She said today while people were paying their respects to the grandmother. Yes, someone stole the ring from poor, dead grandma's finger.
I went through the guest register with the family and identified a likely suspect with a history of incarceration. She was the dead womans relative. A quick check of nearby pawnshops showed the turd had pawned a ring that very day. The family showed up to identify it and sign an affidavit.
I presented my report to the DA who had a hard time finding the appropriate charge as she had never seen a case like this.
The turd was charged with "violation of a casket holding human remains" and arrested the next day at home. She served time in state prison for the theft.

Do us ”Just a Dispatchers” count?

Lots of stories over the years. Worst are the ones where kids get hurt, best are the ones where someone decides not to kill themself or you get the cops there in time to catch the folks causing trouble before things get worse.

Having taken multiple tips in my early years, one of the most satisfying transmissions was being at work the day “One in custody” came over the air for Gary Ridgway (Green River Killer)

Dispatcher here too, and former EMT/FF. In if it counts, if not that's ok. I've got a good story though.

I was on a fire call one day when a guy decided to start shooting at us because we were putting out his fire. We turned a 2 1/2 inch hose on him and knocked him back into his house. That's where the deputies found him, and all his illegal plant leaves. He did about 10 years, I think it was. More for the shooting at us than the pot.

Hello,

I work at a hospital. I’m a social worker. I work side-by-side with nurses and doctors everyday. I have seen a huge increase in the number of patients I see for counseling due to the COVID19. Most are anxious about the way it impacting them and they are afraid. I wear a mask throughout my 10-hour shifts and I support almost as many staff everyday as I do patients.

Although my discipline is not on your list, I would like to be entered as I am a front line worker.

Thank you,

Jim

Q, thank you for your continued support of first responders!

A quick story:

One night my partner and I were on patrol when a missing person call came in on the radio. We took the call and were only a few blocks away. The missing person was a white male in his 70s who left the home sometime in the night. His wife was confused because he left his shoes and wallet in the house. One of the first things police do at missing persons calls is to check and double check the residence. Just in case the family member didnt look hard enough before calling for help and also to look for signs of foul play. So my partner went inside the house and I said that I would check out back, and look in the unattached garage. Well, as I'm walking up to the garage, it hits me. The strong smell of fumes from a car running in the garage. I radio to my partner to come out back. I approach the door and try the handle. Its locked. I knock hard and yell "POLICE!" out of habit. I take a peek through the small 1ox10" window and can see a tan car in the garage, and a small shop light on. Just then, like something you would see in a cheesy horror movie, the old guy's face is inches away from mine on the other side of the glass. I take a quick step back and yell to open the (expletive) door. He yells back something, but I couldn't hear all that well. He opens the door, we pull him out by the arm, and we hit the garage door button that is just inside the man door. The fumes were amazing. I dont know how this guy was upright in those conditions. I ask him, "How long have you been in there?" He looks at me with a kind of depressed, confused, and beaten look and says, "A quarter tank." I quickly turned around and walked away so this poor guy didnt see or hear me laugh. Obviously he was going through a hard time, and he didnt need me to be laughing at him. It was one of the funniest things I had heard a guy say on the job. Luckily my partner missed it and just kept talking to him. Poor guy had cancer, said his wife was a bit**, and he was tired of it. Once we got back in the car, my partner asked what was up with my quick exit. I said, "you didn't hear what he said?!" He said that he had not, so I told him. He busted out laughing harder than I had. For the next year or so, we would constantly relate times to our fuel tank. "We have a half-a-tank left in the shift."

We had to go back to the guys house a few more times after that for different things, mostly domestic arguments, but he got some mental help that night. I doubt he is still alive, but who knows.... sure did make me laugh though. Its strange that humor can be found in even the most depressing situations. Its the survival mechanism of first responders.

EMT with our local VFD, rural Hills. Strangely has been slow here! Usually picks up with tourist traffic and Sturgis, but will see how it goes as the season goes this season year? Fire season was going pretty good already but recent snows slowed that down. Wife is EMT also, and this karma is great, so please include me!

LEO/EMT. Thanks again Q for your generosity. Ill give this one a chance! This is interesting because this gun has my # and a partner who passed #.

An incident not story, was qualifying the new rookie recently and his Glock 23 kept jamming so upon inspecting, I found the reason.. he loaded it with 9mm ammo.. twice.

Winner = RNshooter

Congratulations! I'll get in touch with you later. Thanks, everyone.