Click here to download the catalog as a PDF file. To view this site you need Adobe Flash Player and your browser must allow javaScripts. Go here to get the latest Flash Player. Commander Gilmore Snoozing Sentinel Snags Safety Success he English might really be onto something here. On an accident-plagued main road in Northampton, local authorities placed a boldly marked surveillance-camera van in an unusual position, apparently designed to slow traffic down. OK, maybe even the driver didn’t intend to park half in the roadway and half off, creating a significant obstruction and forcing traffic to a standstill, but that’s what dozens of angry motorists called in to complain about. And we’re thinking the traffic officer may not have even been fully awake when he rolled to a stop there. Before other officers arrived, the calls changed, now reporting crowds of people on foot swirling around the van. Some were taking photos and videos, and some shouting at the driver. He was sound asleep, reclined back in the seat with his mouth jacked open, windows up and doors locked. The best part? The foot-high legend in bright blue on the side of the van: “Reducing Road Casualties in Northamptonshire.” One commentator pointed out, “Maybe they’re onto something here. No one was killed in traffic accidents while he was blocking traffic. If nobody moves, nobody dies.” We’re sure that with several millions in funding and a massive bureaucracy to administer it, the “Sleeping Cop Safety Program” might be a big success. T Illustration by Nick Petrosino “I got a degree in criminal justice to do this?” Cops across the country send me snippets from their dispatch logs and crime blotters to be reprinted in our sister publication, American COP. Usually, they sorta answer the question, “Just how boring or silly can my job sometimes be?” Here are a couple of the winners: 2:01 a.m.: A man reportedly “texted” a friend on Christmas and said he wanted to kill himself. The worried friend called the Sheriff’s Department. Deputies contacted the man, who told them he didn’t really want to kill himself, he just had a bad cold and felt miserable. 1538 hours: Unknown party called to report they saw two suspicious-looking young men walking slowly and making snowballs. (Horrors! A walk-by snowballing may occur at any moment!) 5:51 a.m.: Someone called in from C###d Drive to say they heard a noisy animal, either a barking dog or honking goose, coming from the cemetery. No dogs or geese were found, only quiet dead people. 20 AUGUST 2008 Important Calls 1:17 p.m.: A woman called the Sheriff’s Department to complain that a woman she had borrowed money from won’t stop calling asking her to pay it back. It was suggested that if she repaid her debt, the calls might stop. 1733 hours: A vicious woman threw her husband to the ground and bit him four times. (Not rabid, just VICIOUS!) Police officers in Indianapolis thought it was a little unusual, but not unimaginable, when they rolled on a report that a homeowner had grappled with a “hot prowl” burglar, beaten him to the floor and was holding him at knifepoint. When they got there and realized the homeowner was blind, well, that got their attention. Allan Kieta, 49, has never let his blindness stop him from almost any form of activity, and that includes fighting and selfdefense. Kieta explained to officers that when the family dog acted nervous and barked at something, he got up, opened his bedroom door and literally ran into a suspect later identified as 25-year-old Alvaro A Blind Beating Castro. Kieta instantly grabbed Castro and began kicking and punching him, forcing Castro into the tiny laundry room. Kieta figured if the burglar couldn’t break free and get more than an arm’s length away, blindness was not a handicap. What the burglar couldn’t have known is that his blind opponent had been a Kentucky high school state wrestling champion in the 145-pound class in 1976, or that Kieta’s father was a career Marine who taught him self-defense tactics all through his childhood. Kieta kept punching, pounding and squeezing Castro until he went limp, semiconscious from shock. Kieta then hooked Castro by the belt, dragged him into the kitchen, took a knife from a drawer and held it to Castro’s throat. Then, using his left hand, Kieta dialed 911 and reported the incident. An Indianapolis police official called it “one of the most incredible tales of citizen self-defense” he had heard in years. We call it justice. Imagine what Castro’s life “upstate” is gonna be like when the word gets out that he got whupped an’ beatdown by a blind guy twice his age. 9 www.shootingindustry.com