Semper Fi

Reflections of a mysterious former cop known to us only as Richie.

Burglary; T:17a 401 MSRA, is generally defined as entering a premises with the intent to commit a crime therein. Theft, T:17a 353 (generally, amongst other selections) is defined as unauthorised taking.

A number of years ago I was serving as a Lewiston PD Detective on the Burglary / Theft Squad. Many PDs call this squad by different names; “Safe and Loft” comes to mind . There isn’t much glamour to it, and B&T squaddies usually carry very heavy caseloads. During my tenure, my partner and I carried about 70 cases each, on average. We’d sometimes trade them back and forth if we were working a series and the other case fit that. One thing is for sure, though, you learn patience when working B&T; since burglars never do just one crime; they’ll always go out and do another - because they can . But every now and again a simple burglary can unravel a whole skein of different foolishness; sometimes crimes going back over years.

One particular case involved a burglary in a residence out in the old racetrack trailer park. Someone had busted into the guys house and taken a bunch of stuff including some rifles.

Wasn’t much evidence to go on; and it wasn’t all that big a deal (on the scale of B & T’s) other than we were concerned about the firearms. So, we worked it for a while, but the case went cold; until one night Dave and I are working as Night Shift Detectives. We get a call; and as luck has it, I answer. I’ve got a mope on the other end who says he knows someone who knows where the guns are from my burglary ! OK ! So we chat, and I realise, it’s my caller who knows where the guns are. How do I get him to tell me ? Chat a little mor . . . hmm. “. . .You know where the guns are” I say, ” . . . and I know you know where the guns are . . .”; I continue “. . . and you know I know you know where the guns are ! . . . .” By now Dave is looking over at me like I’m crazy; so I continue “. . . and I know you know I know you know where the guns are ! . . . “. Well, even I’m starting to get confused; and if I go too much further I’ll have to arrest myself. Anyways, I conclude the call, and my caller says he’ll get back to me. He wouldn’t ID himself to me; and I really didn’t think he’d call back; it was just one of those things. Well, by now Dave is laughing hysterically, just about peeing himself at my foolishness. I explained to him what it was all about, but, no, he just keeps laughing. Oh well.

Anyways, about 5 minutes later, the mope calls back; this time speaks to Dave (it was his turn to answer the phone). Well, turns out Dave knows the mope from his days in Patrol. Goes with the moniker of “Idiot J****”. “Hey, Detective, he says, your partners’ been shadowing me !” He whispers it into the phone, like as if I can hear him or something. Well, Dave starts laughing again only now he’s trying to stifle it. He agrees to meet up with us, only because I’ve been “shadowing” him. We go out to Tall Pines and meet up with the mope & put him in our CID car. Sure enough, he takes us to where the guns are and we make a full recovery. We chat him up, and it doesn’t take long for us to figure out he isn’t the “good citizen” others might think. We get him downtown & grill him and he gives it up.

Turns out he’s part of a big ring of teens and adult-teens doing Burglaries, Thefts, Crim. Mischief all over the outer Main Street area ! We tracked down a gun theft from years before when Dave was a Patrol Officer in the Pines area ! One of our stolen guns turned out to have been recovered in Boston after being used in a homicide. The stolen guns led to all sorts of other crimes and a surprisingly large drug involvement; and by the time we were done with this we were charging something like 20 different people with all sorts of assorted crimes. Our youngest criminal was about 12 yrs old (and over the years she’s been a real hardcore criminal too, really !) and the oldest was in her 70’s (she knowingly transported stolen property with the intent to help her grandson trade stolen property for drugs). We ended up interviewing and charging one kid who was also a crazy. He had a stolen shotgun; that he cut the barrel off of. He would practise shooting it into a wood pile in his basement when his mother was at work. His favorite activity was to hop a train and ride up north sitting on a boxcar; shooting the shotgun at things as the train rolled along. He’d get to Bangor or where ever; jump off, and catch a train ride back to Lewiston.

In the end, I wound up getting the only Personnel Complaint (unfounded) I ever got while I was in CID. Didn’t matter. We cleared a lot of cases, charged a truck full of mopes, and made a bunch of people move out of town. All in all, it was a good job well done !

So, while Burglary / Theft Squad might not be glamorous, it sure was different ! I surely do miss those days.

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Biography:

“Richie” is a pseudonym for a retired Lewiston Police Officer. Served over 25yrs in a number of roles; his most favourite being Dispatcher (back when LPD ran its’ own radio) and Burglary / Theft Detective. He is still employed by the LPD in a civilian capacity. Originally from Niagara Falls, NY; “Richie” married a girl from Caribou while he was stationed at Loring AFB. After living in Massachusetts for 7 yrs they moved back to Maine when “Richie” joined the Lewiston P.D. “Richie” is still married to that girl from Caribou, has 4 adult kids and 4 grandchildren. He has an extensive library; with concentrations in Medieval History and WW-II (German) Military History. He also has a huge sci-fi collection. Matter of fact, like his dad used to say, if toilet paper had printing on it “Richie” would read it.