During my second year as a police officer I showed up for work one morning and, even before I could get into uniform, Michelle, one of our dispatchers, stuck her head into the squad room and asked me if I could take a phone call from a woman on line 1.
"What's it about?" I asked.
"I dunno, she didn't say," Michelle said over her shoulder as she walked back down the hall toward the dispatch center.
That annoyed me. The dispatchers were supposed to screen the calls and get more info before passing them onto us, but Michelle was new so I didn't make a big deal about it.
I shuffled over to my desk, grabbed a pad of paper and a pen, then picked up the phone and hit the button for line 1.
"This is Officer Tate."
The woman's voice, strained and cracking, said, "I have a little bit of an embarassing question."
"Okay, shoot," I said, feeling relieved because she had apparently not called to report a crime.
"Well, my husband, he's in Iraq, you know, with the army, and this morning I was looking at some stuff on the internet and a message popped up that said I was being investigated by the FBI."
I cut in, "What kind of stuff, Mam."
"Stuff?"
"Yeah. What kind of stuff were you looking at?"
"Well, you know, it was porn, but not like kiddy porn or anything. I mean...it was pretty nasty, but honestly I didn't think it was illegal."
"Well, I don't work for the FBI, Mam."
"Yeah, I know. But you think maybe?"
"I doubt it. It doesn't sound like what you were doing was illegal."
"Well how can I know for sure? It, like, really freaked me out?"
"I guess you could call the FBI if you want, but think about it, if you were really being investigated by the FBI they wouldn't want you to know that, right? They wouldn't want you to destroy evidence or change your behavior. That would ruin their investigation."
"That's true. I hadn't thought about that. Okay, thanks."
"You bet, and thanks for the sacrifice your family is making with your husband in Iraq and all."
"Oh, that's nice. Thanks. Have a good day."
"You too."
*click*
"MICHELLE!"
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1 comment:
Whoa.
Seriously, Michelle, you screened that like a sieve with ten inch holes. Time to get thorough! Nip THAT in the proverbial bud. Yikes.
I like that you had a pretty extensive, reasonable conversation with her, though. Guy deserves a second cup of coffee on a morning that begins with a porn-gone-awry call from a remarkably unintelligent lady.
Dude, stat counter. That's all she needs.
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