"Welcome to Indianapolis"
That wasn’t a greeting to our fair city. That was the comeback the IPD detective gave me in response to me shaking my head after he told me the damsel in distress I just rescued from an armed felon was a hooker. It shouldn’t have come as a complete surprise; after all I was at 10th and Rural! That area is hooker heaven, what was I doing there? I sure as hell wasn’t looking for professional company. I was running my route in a service van rescuing homeowners from broken down refrigerators and such.
It was broad daylight and I turned the corner heading west on east 10th, looked just ahead and saw there was some type of ruckus right in the middle of the street. Some guy was grabbing a woman and she was doing everything possible to get away, as I got closer trying to evaluate the situation the guy gave her one hell of a right hook to the jaw and she went flying. She is laid out on the street and he goes after her, I gunned it honking the horn and pointed the van between the two. I had the impression this guy wanted to kill this woman. When I blocked him he tried to walk in front of my van so I nudged the van forward like I was going to run him over if he tried. Then he walked toward the back of the van, I guess this dumbass didn’t know I had a reverse. As I’m shifting to R, I’m also dialing 911, although I have a concealed weapon permit, the company I work for will terminate you if you have a weapon on you during work or in the van, so I used the only weapon I had and that was the van. So this jackass is trying to get around the back of my van I’m in reverse getting ready to run scumbag over while I’m pushing 911 send on the cell, suddenly another van coming the opposite direction stops beside me; a male and a female undercover cop jump out of their plain blue van and pull their guns on the guy and order him to the ground. I’m sitting there staring at the cell wondering if this was some sort of magic phone. I had just hit send and instantly two cops with guns drawn appeared from nowhere. With my backup here, I jumped out of the van and started yelling at the guy spread eagled on the street. “YOU CHICKEN SHIT M****** F*****!, YOU MUST BE A BIG PUSSY HITTING A WOMAN LIKE THAT!” I yelled. The guy looked at me and said, “I know my rights”. I flipped him the bird and continued my tirade “F*** YOU M****** F*****!”. The female cop was standing right next to me, never taking her eyes or her aim off the guy on the ground and firmly told me “sir we got this, please get back I the van and pull in the lot so we can get your statement”. I decided not to press my luck and let the cops do their job. In short order there were cops everywhere and they had him cuffed and stuffed in no time. A little later the female cop came over and talked to me, she was smiling and friendly. She asked me” did you call that guy a m***** f*****?” I said yeah I did, she busted out laughing, I guess she felt the same way about him. I asked her “ where the hell did you guys come from? I was still dialing 911 and you guys were there”. She told me her and her partner were just down the street surveilling something else and saw the whole thing go down. I told her it sure was a lucky for me they were and I appreciated what her and her partner do for a living. She told me to sit tight and wait for the detective to take my statement. When he came, I gave him the rundown of what I saw. He asked me if I saw the guy pull a gun. I asked him “ you mean that guy was armed?” ” yes” the detective said “and he is a known felon”. I just kind of stared off and remembering that he walked within a foot of me when he was trying to get around the van. Man he could have just popped me so easy. I told the detective, that he may have had the gun pulled but I didn’t see it, if I had I probably would have tried to run him down. I asked about the woman and he told me she was a known prostitute; I just looked down and just shook my head; that’s when the detective gave me the “welcome to Indianapolis” line. I know the city all too well, running calls in Indy many years, I’ve had to park next to crack dealers, dodge bums asking for booze or drug money and have seen plenty of hookers plying their trade. I gave my statement and agreed to testify in court if needed. The detective thanked me and walked off.
Indianapolis is a great city, but like all big towns, it has a dark side too. Looking back later that day, when I had time to process everything that had happened and why I stuck my neck out for someone I didn’t know. I sure as hell am no hero; I just reacted to a situation that happened right in front of me. I didn’t know she was a hooker, but as I told the detective, I didn’t care what she was, no woman deserved to be beat like that. The prosecutor’ office kept in touch with me the next few months with the final call letting me know the crook had plead out; he was going back to prison for another 8 years. The dumbass had just gotten out; I guess some idiots never learn.
That goes for me to, because a few years after that incident I got involved in a similar event right down the street from my house, I’ll have to share that event sometime down the road. It’s blog worthy I think. At least to me it was another life lesson.
I know I look down my nose sometimes at those people in that state of human disrepair, but I can’t forget the look on that woman’s face as she was on one side of the van with her attacker on the other. She was slapping her hands against my windshield, pleading with me to protect her. I also can’t forget the look on his face as he walked by my window, never looking directly at me, he just had the 1000 mile stare going, but I could see the rage, almost feel the rage coming from him. He wanted her dead and had the means to do it and nothing in the world to lose.
Every now and then I wonder if creep is still in prison. His 8-year stretch should be almost up, I figure he probably screwed up again and is still doing time. I wonder about the hooker and hope maybe that was her wakeup call, just maybe she took stock of her wretched life and realized she’s not Julia Roberts in the Pretty Woman movie. Maybe she got clean and found herself a little corner of life that she could be comfortable in.
That’s what I’d like to think, but the truth is, people seldom turn their life around once they slide that far down into the cesspool. She didn’t look a thing like Julia Roberts and Richard Gear was nowhere in sight.
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