Cops and Roofers!

Look what greeted me early this morning coming off an infrared roof scan on a commercial building.... One police officer asked me, "What kind of person gets up at 3am and takes pictures of roofs?"

On the radio I was described as a "large hispanic male".... REALLY? I found out what No CH means... "No Criminal History". Once they realized that I was not robbing the place or a bad guy, they were great!

These cops were professional! With all the drugees out there vandalizing roof top air conditioning units for the copper I couldn't blame them for stopping me, other than a new, clean truck, $13,000 IR camera and inspection equipment I could have been a bad guy. :)

The cop who posed for the picture was in good humor, he said, "I give that 10 minutes it will be on FaceBook."

Funny woody. I've noticed the same thing with their little club

In 1994, I had less than a month on a new pickup. I pulled up to a stop sign at a deserted intersection, didn't quite stop and rolled through the intersection. A guy I hadn't noticed threw a large rock and shattered my windshield, I pulled over and as I was getting out, I noticed he was throwing another rock at a catering truck. The truck stopped by me and the woman said she was on a tight schedule and had to go and I told her I would call the cops and wait for them and watch the guy.

I didn't want the guy throwing anything else at my new truck, so I kept my distance from him while I waited. I also stopped traffic headed in his direction and warned them. The guy went into a yard and took a hose and stretched it across the road to try and stop cars.

When the cop came, I pointed to the guy and the cop went up to him and ordered him to drop the hose. The guy went into a karate' stance facing the cop, still holding the hose. The cop repeatedly told him to drop the hose, but the guy wouldn't. The cop took his pepper spray and held it inches from the guy's face and ordered him again. When the guy still didn't comply, the cop gave him a full dose in the eyes.

The guy starts running blindly to the side of the road. He hits a waist-high chainlink fence and tumbles to the ground. By this time two more cops are there and they cuff him and put him in the back seat. Then the three cops are standing with me and start joking about the incident. Each of them says a couple of lines and the others laugh. I throw in punch line (I don't remember what, but I guarantee it was funnier than anything the cops were saying) and it gets silent. Three cops just staring at me like "You're not a cop. you can't joke with us, shut up." So I went over and started verbally abusing the suspect until they asked me to leave.

We did a lot of night work especially on busy malls and office complexes, however we informed the local authorities that we we would beworking at night We did not use an infrared scanner, most of out scanning and video production took place during the day time, for moisture scanning we used a Tramex Decscanner and then potted the moisture areas via modem directly to a HP plotter abd then nade several blue prints for the clients, the only problem that we had was a rare thing I was watching America's Most wanted and recognized one of our employees appearing on the program. I called him at home he was staying with my daughter, I spoke to him and said that I would make that call to the FBI he agreed and the next morning he surrendered, following that a camera crew and the FBI came to the office and conducted a whirlwind tour of the job sights that he worked on and wanted some more info any way the young man went to court served 10 years and today he has pulled his life together married 2 kids has a great job and still remains my friend today

The cops have a tough enough job without acting like Barney fife and pissing off all of the legit people. There are 10 times as many people per capita in jail or prison in the United States than in Europe. You could have very easily been added to that list, and had to spend thousands of dollars defending yourself for no reason. We live in a police state, and cops are getting more and more like the military of a foreign country rather than a force to "protect and defend"

I was walking home from a friends house just after dark one night when all the sudden about 8 police cars came out of no where, slid around and boxed me in. They jumped out with weapons drawn. Get on the ground! Get on the ground! Which I did of course. Fortunately I had my drivers license with me, they called it in and then they began leaving the scene one at a time pretty fast until there was only one left.

The last one had the door to his car open and was about to get in when he decided to turn around and then he said "well, I guess I should tell you what this was all about. A man was released from jail a short while ago on a public intoxication charge. After releasing him, we found out he had a murder warrant in another state and you fit the description that was radioed in to us." :blink:

The description was probably just so they'd get there w/ justice in mind. :)

About ten years ago I was running to the gym around midnight, a few blocks from my old place. This was during my time in college away from roofing (Gasp, I know)

Anyways, I see a car buzzing across the parking lot. I didn't think anything about it til I noticed that it was headed right for me. I kept watching it, and watching it, until I thought I was going to have to dodge it. He was pissed, and apparently they had somebody running on foot from a robbery nearby. Luckily, he didn't get too far w/ me before he realized I was legit.

Did they have you cuffed too? I get so sick of the cops around here. They will camp out and give you a ticket for going 5 miles over and at the same time there are drug deals and mugging going on and they don't have time for that.

I always wear my hardhat and safety glasses when I am on the roof or going to the roof and that will tell them that you are legitimate. I also normally wear work clothes and that helps too. If you were wearing the shorts maybe they should have some suspicions, but hey. If you went down to your truck with the ladders and the lettering on the side they should have let you go without the drama anyway.