Marine park was a great place, you never knew just what you'd see there. fishermen, lovers, stolen cars being stripped... I pulled in one day, noticed a car sitting in an open spot, noting suspicious about it, and came out about 15 minutes later to find the thing was stripped clean! Anything that could be removed had been removed--and the thieves were gone.
One morning I saw a young fellow trying to load about a half-dozen burlap bags onto his bicycle..not an easy thing. As I got closer, I found that he was soaking wet as he'd been wading in the shallows plucking mussels off the bottom. As shellfish, mussels can only be taken from certified water, and since this was certainly not certified water, they were illegal, no matter why he was taking them. He swore that they were going to a bait shop, though he was unable to tell me where the shop was or who owned it. I suspected they were going to some local restaurant. I signed him up for a trip to see the captain for a stipulation.
One morning I drove into the park and saw someone acting strangely in the phragmites (similar to cat-tails) along the shore line. I parked and found a good vantage point to watch him. There was a small flock of Canada Geese swimming toward him. He stood up, raised his bow, fired an arrow...and missed. The geese flew away and, much to my surprise my unlucky hunter went swimming--fully clothed--to recover his arrow. He emerged to find me holding his bow. Signed him up also.
Probably the scariest case I ever had there was the day I was walking a trail toward the water's edge when I heard a subdued "POP" and then heard a projectile whizzing through the phragmites several feet from me. I ran back to my car and started looking for source of the shot. Soon I found two kids, one about 15 and the other about 17, with a muzzle loading pistol and all the components. Searching them, I found one of them to be carrying a loaded flare pistol which, though not specifically a weapon would put an awful hurt on someone, tucked into his waistband.
I arrested these guys and headed off to the local precinct. Due to the age, the younger one was released to his parents who, though pleasant to me and the other officers in the station, had some rather unkind things to say about their son's friend. He was processed to go into the juvenile justice system. For the other one, I got my first trip to Brooklyn's Central Booking--a crazy experience for one who had never been there before. I spent about 4 hours there before I had the paperwork done and got to go home. I was fortunate to find an Assistant District Attorney who actually had some knowledge of just what an ECO was and did. He helped me get through the process much more quickly. I never heard anything from the court, so I assume the kid plead out to some charge. I'll always wonder if that was his last brush with the law. He was from a tough part of the borough, so I suspect that he was reacting to the violence he'd become accustomed to and arming himself.
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