[BamaTrooper]

Yesterday, I was taking a break from doing yardwork. I was sitting in the den with my wife, having a glass of water and flipping through the channels.

We here about five or six shots, from what I assumed to be a medium caliber pistol, followed by one heavier report. I opened the back door and ran to the privacy fence. I climbed up the fence to look towards a nearby movie theater parking lot and apartment complex as it appeared that was where the shots came from. I didn't see anything so after about two minutes, I came back in.

My wife told me there was something wrong with me and my instincts were "*******ed" if I ran towards the shots. I told her I was looking to 1- make sure the situation wasn't heading our way and 2- trying to see if I could see a car or person fleeing the area in case it was the offender trying to get away.

We have been together 20 years and she still doesn't get that that response is part of what I do?

ETA- this is what caused the tumult. http://blog.al.com/live/2011/05/movi..._fires_sh.html

[wprebeck]

Nah, not really. Probably because she's been working patrol for almost eleven years.

[CJStudent]

No wife; problem solved!

[jms123]

I would have done the same thing, and I am just a civilian.
I hope you at least had your side arm with you.
Hate to think you ran towards a gun fight with just
a glass of water in your hand.
Keep up the good work..and be safe.

[A6Gator]

Bama, print this off and leave it on the table...maybe after she reads this she'll figure why you did that.

http://mwkworks.com/onsheepwolvesandsheepdogs.html

[Ross-in-Pa]

+1 on the " I am a civilian, and would have done the same thing."

Observing from a distance to verify the situation, and the direction of movement is a smart move. When there are gunshots close to home, you need to find out what is going on before a (bad) surprise comes to your door.

[Dragoon44]

No, if my wife had heard it and I hadn't she would come running ot me telling me I needed to go check it out.

[GunHo198]

Yep my wife's the same way.

[USAFE7]

Sadly....mine would have tripped me up so she could beat me out.

[CAcop]

My wife would have wanted me to check up but when I got the rifle or shotgun out she would be asking me why I would need such a big gun. I would be telling her there's no point in going out unless you got more than enough to get the job done. Then she would say I am weird. If I just grabbed a pistol she wouldn't even flinch. Either way she would follow me out the door with cellphone in hand to call it in if needed.

[Hack]

I was a soldier when I married. The funny part of it is that she still has to get used to the idea occasionally.

[volsbear]

Words from beyond the grave, as told by the friend of a LEO who was a LODD...

"There's so much evil in the world. Why would you want to run from it when you can go find it and destroy it."

[NyGlockcop]

Some dont realize that us in Law Enforcement arent like normal people. Normal people go "away" from shots fired, but we are of a different breed, we gravitate towards trouble. Several years ago on Valentine's Day my wife had to bring the church copier machine(very large) to a repair shop about 30 minutes away so I was off and said I'd go along for the ride and take her out to lunch, since it was Valentine's day. Well we picked up the copier in her new Toyota Sienna(V6 266 hp), seatbelt the copier in it. We're driving through a local city and we're stopped at a traffic light when 2 cars in front of us I see a passenger side door open the Yukon SUV starts to go forward and a female jumps out of the moving vehicle screaming,"help, help, call the police, help, she falls and hits her head. My wife says, " Are you gonna do something?" LOL, I start to get out to assist when the female jumps up and jumps into another vehicle with a bewildered driver ,lol. The Yukon takes off, the female takes off, I dont know what we got here, whether it was a domestic, an abduction or maybe an assault but something just isn't right. I get back into the Sienna and tell my wife who is driving,"Follow that Yukon!" While she is following it I immediately have the local PD on the phone, identify myself, tell them what occurred and our direction of travel. Dispatcher tells me to stay with the suspect vehicle. Ok, my wife is listening pretty good and is following the Yukon, the Yukon is going through parking lots, avoiding traffic lights, running traffic lights and we are safely behind it. Then the dispatcher wanted the plate #, so with my cop humor, "Honey, can you speed it up a bit so I can see the plate?" Now the Yukon finally realizes that we are following him and starts accelerating( but there was no way he was going to outrun that damn mini van,LOL), I'm still on the phone with the PD, we actually drove right past their HQ, still no marked units. Finally what seemed like eternity I can see the first unit coming up behind us, tell the dispatcher that we are just in front of it, we pull to the shoulder and let it by. PD unit does the stop, I assist the Sgt with the stop. Turns out it was a domestic, the BF had smacked the GF, the GF had jumped out, BF panicked because he was on probation and took off. 2nd unit arrived, I'm good to go, as I am walking back to the Sienna, my wife is on her cell phone talking to a co worker, practically hyper ventilating,lol, I hear her say, "And- he- told- me- to -go- faster!"lmao. Needless to say, she admitted that she doesnt know how I can do things like this, be calm like they are "normal" incidents. I explained they are normal things to a police officer, we help those who need help. Needless to say, it was a Valentine's Day that she will never forget. And the copier machine made it to the repair shop in one piece. lol

[tc2129]

Originally Posted by NyGlockcop

Some dont realize that us in Law Enforcement arent like normal people. Normal people go "away" from shots fired, but we are of a different breed, we gravitate towards trouble....

Not just law enforcement, but public safety in general. FF/paramedic here and I was at dinner with the girlfriend one night, when a kid in the table next to us starts choking on a mint. The kid is crying trying to cough up the mint, so I just kind of sat there watching him and his parents to see what they were doing. He was crying so I knew he was breathing.
Well, that didn't last long, he must have swallowed it and pushed it further down because he went quite. I get up to now do something, just as his mom is beating him on his back, causing the mint to dislodge. I tell them I am a medic and look him over real quick.
I go back to my table and continue with my meal, the gf looks like she has seen a ghost, is shaking and says she can't eat anymore.

[BushBond]

Originally Posted by NyGlockcop

Some dont realize that us in Law Enforcement arent like normal people. Normal people go "away" from shots fired, but we are of a different breed, we gravitate towards trouble. Several years ago on Valentine's Day my wife had to bring the church copier machine(very large) to a repair shop about 30 minutes away so I was off and said I'd go along for the ride and take her out to lunch, since it was Valentine's day. Well we picked up the copier in her new Toyota Sienna(V6 266 hp), seatbelt the copier in it. We're driving through a local city and we're stopped at a traffic light when 2 cars in front of us I see a passenger side door open the Yukon SUV starts to go forward and a female jumps out of the moving vehicle screaming,"help, help, call the police, help, she falls and hits her head. My wife says, " Are you gonna do something?" LOL, I start to get out to assist when the female jumps up and jumps into another vehicle with a bewildered driver ,lol. The Yukon takes off, the female takes off, I dont know what we got here, whether it was a domestic, an abduction or maybe an assault but something just isn't right. I get back into the Sienna and tell my wife who is driving,"Follow that Yukon!" While she is following it I immediately have the local PD on the phone, identify myself, tell them what occurred and our direction of travel. Dispatcher tells me to stay with the suspect vehicle. Ok, my wife is listening pretty good and is following the Yukon, the Yukon is going through parking lots, avoiding traffic lights, running traffic lights and we are safely behind it. Then the dispatcher wanted the plate #, so with my cop humor, "Honey, can you speed it up a bit so I can see the plate?" Now the Yukon finally realizes that we are following him and starts accelerating( but there was no way he was going to outrun that damn mini van,LOL), I'm still on the phone with the PD, we actually drove right past their HQ, still no marked units. Finally what seemed like eternity I can see the first unit coming up behind us, tell the dispatcher that we are just in front of it, we pull to the shoulder and let it by. PD unit does the stop, I assist the Sgt with the stop. Turns out it was a domestic, the BF had smacked the GF, the GF had jumped out, BF panicked because he was on probation and took off. 2nd unit arrived, I'm good to go, as I am walking back to the Sienna, my wife is on her cell phone talking to a co worker, practically hyper ventilating,lol, I hear her say, "And- he- told- me- to -go- faster!"lmao. Needless to say, she admitted that she doesnt know how I can do things like this, be calm like they are "normal" incidents. I explained they are normal things to a police officer, we help those who need help. Needless to say, it was a Valentine's Day that she will never forget. And the copier machine made it to the repair shop in one piece. lol

Having chased a stolen minivan of the same model, I have to agree, he wasnt going to outrun that thing. Surprisingly fast, and very capable off road. (that is, if you dont care about what happens to it at the end of the chase)

[OldCurlyWolf]

Originally Posted by NyGlockcop

Some dont realize that us in Law Enforcement arent like normal people. Normal people go "away" from shots fired, but we are of a different breed, we gravitate towards trouble. Several years ago on Valentine's Day my wife had to bring the church copier machine(very large) to a repair shop about 30 minutes away so I was off and said I'd go along for the ride and take her out to lunch, since it was Valentine's day. Well we picked up the copier in her new Toyota Sienna(V6 266 hp), seatbelt the copier in it. We're driving through a local city and we're stopped at a traffic light when 2 cars in front of us I see a passenger side door open the Yukon SUV starts to go forward and a female jumps out of the moving vehicle screaming,"help, help, call the police, help, she falls and hits her head. My wife says, " Are you gonna do something?" LOL, I start to get out to assist when the female jumps up and jumps into another vehicle with a bewildered driver ,lol. The Yukon takes off, the female takes off, I dont know what we got here, whether it was a domestic, an abduction or maybe an assault but something just isn't right. I get back into the Sienna and tell my wife who is driving,"Follow that Yukon!" While she is following it I immediately have the local PD on the phone, identify myself, tell them what occurred and our direction of travel. Dispatcher tells me to stay with the suspect vehicle. Ok, my wife is listening pretty good and is following the Yukon, the Yukon is going through parking lots, avoiding traffic lights, running traffic lights and we are safely behind it. Then the dispatcher wanted the plate #, so with my cop humor, "Honey, can you speed it up a bit so I can see the plate?" Now the Yukon finally realizes that we are following him and starts accelerating( but there was no way he was going to outrun that damn mini van,LOL), I'm still on the phone with the PD, we actually drove right past their HQ, still no marked units. Finally what seemed like eternity I can see the first unit coming up behind us, tell the dispatcher that we are just in front of it, we pull to the shoulder and let it by. PD unit does the stop, I assist the Sgt with the stop. Turns out it was a domestic, the BF had smacked the GF, the GF had jumped out, BF panicked because he was on probation and took off. 2nd unit arrived, I'm good to go, as I am walking back to the Sienna, my wife is on her cell phone talking to a co worker, practically hyper ventilating,lol, I hear her say, "And- he- told- me- to -go- faster!"lmao. Needless to say, she admitted that she doesnt know how I can do things like this, be calm like they are "normal" incidents. I explained they are normal things to a police officer, we help those who need help. Needless to say, it was a Valentine's Day that she will never forget. And the copier machine made it to the repair shop in one piece. lol

My wife didn't understand when I communicated this little story to her.

In 2002, while working in Irving, TX, I was taking a break from work and heard gunfire. Not a car backfiring, but real live rounds, gunfire, coming from the other side of a nearby building. So I take off to find out what is happening, being judiciously careful when approaching the corner of the building so I can discern what is going down. It seems that the Irving PD is conducting a live fire training session there. After considering what has happened, I later came to the conclusion that someone in Irving PD was nuts. That was too close to occupied housing.

About a month later that same department had a shooting that killed an officer in a supposedly "rubber gun" training exercise.

What my wife could not understand is why I didn't go inside and call the PD instead of checking myself. Hey I run to gunfire, not away.

[furioso2112]

my wife would bulldoze the house while I was outside, then say we needed to move because the crimes was getting so bad.

[msu_grad_121]

I'm with CJSTudent on the no wife thing, but by ex fiancee used to look at me all KINDS of cross eyed when something like this would go down. She never understood, which is fine, but it got to me when she'd tell me what an idiot I was being for running towards the problems while she stood there frozen. Never a clearer case for "you're either born with it or your not."

Then again, it could just have been because she's Canadian.

[Hack]

Originally Posted by msu_grad_121

I'm with CJSTudent on the no wife thing, but by ex fiancee used to look at me all KINDS of cross eyed when something like this would go down. She never understood, which is fine, but it got to me when she'd tell me what an idiot I was being for running towards the problems while she stood there frozen. Never a clearer case for "you're either born with it or your not."

Then again, it could just have been because she's Canadian.

You pick on the Canadians I am going to start picking on the Yankees.















Fuhgeddaboudit!

[BamaTrooper]

Originally Posted by Hack

You pick on the Canadians I am going to start picking on the Yankees.

Canadian is just a Yankee that talks funny(ier)

[msu_grad_121]

Originally Posted by BamaTrooper

Canadian is just a Yankee that talks funny(ier)

Oh yah, fer sure, eh?

And bring it on, Hack! You ain't got nothin I ain't heard before! Her friends HATED yanks. Not disliked, HATED! Can't imagine why it didn't work out...

[Hack]

Originally Posted by BamaTrooper

Canadian is just a Yankee that talks funny(ier)

[Pepper45]

My wife would follow me, carrying more ammo. She understands me.

[ClydeG19]

I remember one time my wife thought someone was in the backyard. She was in the bedroom when she said someone walked right up to one of the windows. We've got granite over most of the yard, so it's pretty easy to hear. I grabbed the nearest gun and cleared the yard. When I came back in, she was still standing in the exact same spot where she told me she thought someone was in the yard. After she calmed down, I had a talk with her about getting the phone, something to use as a weapon, etc, rather than just standing there.

[OldCurlyWolf]

I still run to the sound of gunfire and my wife still doesn't understand. But she doesn't get in the way or make snide remarks either.

Of course she had a 3rd degree Brown belt in Karate and can kick some serious a** on her own. She used to fight in full contact tournaments. Her daughter has a cadet Black and got into shute fighting a few years back. Not one to mess with either.