charlie sherrill
Member
I've been driving this one for the last four years. I'll be turning it in tomorrow along with some of the stuff they issued me. I'm finally pulling the plug. I'm retiring. Stick a fork in me I'm done...and any other thing I can say about retiring. I got my AR, my 870, and my little .410 snake gun out of the car and oiled them and found out I didn't have any more room in the safe. I'll work that out later. I gave my bright yellow raincoat to my daughter. She wanted something to wear around the yard while feeding her critters in the rain. I piled all of my old uniforms in the trunk. They're too large for most of the guys down there, but maybe someone can use them. I found about 100 ball point pens that I've picked up over the last few years. I put them in my desk. I kept my cold weather jacket. It'll do nicely around here after I remove the badge and patches. The boots I bought myself. I can always wear the BDU's for something. The Smokey Bear hat really looks nice on the deer mount in my living room. I'll put my badges and brass in a shadow box and hang it on the wall like I did with the last two departments I worked for. They gave me my issue Glock 22. I had to pay a dollar for it to make it legal. I'm going to get my name and department engraved on the slide. I don't think it will hurt the collector value any.
I started as a LEO July 1, 1969 as a 21 year old rookie. I was the youngest officer on the department then. I'm the oldest now. I turned 65 in December. I started out looking for adventure. I found some. I also found out there is a lot of people that need help that can't help themselves. The older I got the more I got into helping folks. I learned early that all problems are not solved by writing tickets and puting people in jail. Sometimes you have to but most of the time there were alternatives that actually worked better. I wish I had a dollar for every person I let go with a warning or traded a minor charge for something really good. I could afford that new boat. I always enjoyed a big felony bust, especially if it was something I actually had to figure out. Think like a crook to catch a crook. I love solving burglaries and thefts. I never liked traffic work. Six months on a Harley cured me of that. I can glance at a car and tell you within 90% of what is going on in that car. It's something you learn after a lot of years. I was successful in solving several armed robberies in my career. I got two bullet holes in my cruiser back in the earlier 70's from a robber who obviously needed some range time. A change of underwear was in order. By the time we found out who the perp was he had fled to Chicago and was killed by one of his own. I was hoping he would at least fixed the car. There were many more.
I hate juvenile work. You waste a lot of time in court and nothing happens except wasting a lot of time...usually on your off day or after a night shift. I was once admonished by a youth court judge for sleeping in his courtroom. It's amazing how many of these kids quit being stupid when they turn 18. The rest are going to prison anyway. Adult felony courts are different. If you're stupid enough not to plead and you're found guilty you're going away for a long time. The prosecutors ain't gonna take you to trial if they don't think they can win. Misdemeanor court is fun. Lot's of crazy stuff here. I've represented more defendants in misdemeanor courts that any lawyer around here, and got them a better deal...even if I was the arresting officer. One of my snitches recently got word to me from the jail that she needed my help in court. Her charges? Public drunkeness and fishing without a license. I wasn't there but I would liked to have seen it. I got her off with time served after she told me where a stolen gun was.
Three of my friends and my wife and the mother of my kids were killed in the line of duty over the years. I came close a few times but I guess it wasn't my time. I made a lot of friends and a few enemies. The friends I won't forget and the pistol in my pocket is for the enemies who haven't forgotten me. I've delivered babies (somewhere around here is a woman named Charlene that I delivered in the back seat of a 58 Ford in 1972) and I've delivered death messages. I've been around a lot of death and a lot of joy. I've worked when everybody else was off and I haven't had a lot of vacations, only one for more than a week that I can remember. Tomorrow is the last day of my career and I'm gonna stay just long enough to turn my stuff in and eat lunch in the jail. My daughter is going to deliver my first grandson next month. After that she and I are going to write a book. I'm taking notes from some of the flashbacks. People are asking what I'm going to do. "Any damn thing I want to" is my reply. The deer are out there, the fish are biting, there's a gunshow nearly every weekend somewhere, I'm doubling the size of my garden, stuff needs fixing, my dog loves me, and I've got grandkids to spoil. Someone asked me this morning "if you had it to do all over again would you do it?" Yep.
I started as a LEO July 1, 1969 as a 21 year old rookie. I was the youngest officer on the department then. I'm the oldest now. I turned 65 in December. I started out looking for adventure. I found some. I also found out there is a lot of people that need help that can't help themselves. The older I got the more I got into helping folks. I learned early that all problems are not solved by writing tickets and puting people in jail. Sometimes you have to but most of the time there were alternatives that actually worked better. I wish I had a dollar for every person I let go with a warning or traded a minor charge for something really good. I could afford that new boat. I always enjoyed a big felony bust, especially if it was something I actually had to figure out. Think like a crook to catch a crook. I love solving burglaries and thefts. I never liked traffic work. Six months on a Harley cured me of that. I can glance at a car and tell you within 90% of what is going on in that car. It's something you learn after a lot of years. I was successful in solving several armed robberies in my career. I got two bullet holes in my cruiser back in the earlier 70's from a robber who obviously needed some range time. A change of underwear was in order. By the time we found out who the perp was he had fled to Chicago and was killed by one of his own. I was hoping he would at least fixed the car. There were many more.
I hate juvenile work. You waste a lot of time in court and nothing happens except wasting a lot of time...usually on your off day or after a night shift. I was once admonished by a youth court judge for sleeping in his courtroom. It's amazing how many of these kids quit being stupid when they turn 18. The rest are going to prison anyway. Adult felony courts are different. If you're stupid enough not to plead and you're found guilty you're going away for a long time. The prosecutors ain't gonna take you to trial if they don't think they can win. Misdemeanor court is fun. Lot's of crazy stuff here. I've represented more defendants in misdemeanor courts that any lawyer around here, and got them a better deal...even if I was the arresting officer. One of my snitches recently got word to me from the jail that she needed my help in court. Her charges? Public drunkeness and fishing without a license. I wasn't there but I would liked to have seen it. I got her off with time served after she told me where a stolen gun was.
Three of my friends and my wife and the mother of my kids were killed in the line of duty over the years. I came close a few times but I guess it wasn't my time. I made a lot of friends and a few enemies. The friends I won't forget and the pistol in my pocket is for the enemies who haven't forgotten me. I've delivered babies (somewhere around here is a woman named Charlene that I delivered in the back seat of a 58 Ford in 1972) and I've delivered death messages. I've been around a lot of death and a lot of joy. I've worked when everybody else was off and I haven't had a lot of vacations, only one for more than a week that I can remember. Tomorrow is the last day of my career and I'm gonna stay just long enough to turn my stuff in and eat lunch in the jail. My daughter is going to deliver my first grandson next month. After that she and I are going to write a book. I'm taking notes from some of the flashbacks. People are asking what I'm going to do. "Any damn thing I want to" is my reply. The deer are out there, the fish are biting, there's a gunshow nearly every weekend somewhere, I'm doubling the size of my garden, stuff needs fixing, my dog loves me, and I've got grandkids to spoil. Someone asked me this morning "if you had it to do all over again would you do it?" Yep.
