I’ve always wanted to do a ride-along for a day to see what they go through on a day-to-day basis.
Because I know they see some absolutely crazy s**t day in and day out…
And today we’re going to hear from some cops about the saddest things they’ve ever heard people say on the job.
Let’s take a look.
1. Sad.
“I arrested a guy for attempted **rder once. I had met him before a few times, usually when he was a suspect.
He just said ”Even now, you’re still the closest thing I’ve got to a proper friend”.”
2. No hope.
“Speaking to a juvenile in the cells with a load of warrants for stealing cars and armed robberies.
Told me the only way he could get toys is if he stole them, and his parents would never help him with his homework but showed him what to say to get free McDonald’s and how to avoid getting caught shop lifting.
Some kids have no hope and are just going to end up in the system.”
3. Wow.
“I worked in a day program and a prevocational program.
My clients came from institutions and were doing program as part of their conditions of release. One of my groups ran a hotdogs cart and they profit shared… after cart expenses. They made very little, they were on assistance so it wasn’t an income supplement it was more of a perk.
Anyways I has this one woman, she had been a s** worker since she 12, she was in her 40s. Her first week was a nightmare. She was late. Struggled to cut the onions. Spilt everything. But she showed up each day late, frantic and crying to not be fired.
She worked for 1 hour each day. The following week when she came to pick up her pay, a whole whopping $11.50, she burst into tears. I thought it was because it was it was so little money. She acted as if I had given her a thousand dollars and an Oscar.
She clutched the little envelope and cried. She said “it’s the first money I ever made not on my back. Never thought I could”. We hugged she skipped off happily.
Then I sobbed in the bathroom for 5 minutes.”
4. Dispatch.
“I’m in dispatch, so I don’t usually hear what the suspects say, but I do hear what the victims say, especially in the moment when they’re still in the heat of it.
One night the phones hit hard at about 230, and lemme tell ya, nothing good happens after 2am. I take one, reports of g**fire… times are like that and some people don’t have constructive things to do other than pop off some rounds. As long as there’s no property damage and loss of life everything’s good, right?
I take another, same report, add it to the pile, take down their location to help triangulate.
Then I take a third, barely a whisper. “Nobody ever says it would be so hot”
I calm her as much as I can but shock is one hell of a drug, I get her location, let my coworkers know it’s go-time, and loop in ems for life saving instructions.
She was asleep, in her bed, and caught 3 bullets in the lower torso. I think she made it, but I’m just dispatch, I don’t always get closure…”
5. Hard times.
“I had this one girl who was about 16. Most actively s**cidal child I’ve ever seen. Her parents used to sell her to their drug dealers from about 2-3 years old.
She blocked most of it out but suffered from horrible PTSD and would wake often throughout the night in full blown panic attacks from flashback dreams. She’s literally wake up screaming, trying to strangle herself with her blanket or grabbing anything in arms reach to stab or choke herself with.
Any loud noise would send her spiraling out of control. Often she didn’t remember these episodes after she was medicated and calmed. She’s the only patient I’ve ever had that required 2 sitters at all times, even when she was sleeping.
She has serious physical, psychological and developmental problems from the years of s**ual, physical and drug a**se that she ensured from her parents and their scum bag dealers. The poor baby will never be able to live any semblance of a normal life outside of a mental hospital.”
6. Bad all around.
“After arresting him for child enticement. An online case where he was attempting to make a p&&n with my child (non existent 9y/o boy) and my girl (female undercover cop) in a hotel room.
I got him to confess to past crimes of sexually a**sing children dating back 15 years. He informed me that 2 of those children had committed s**cide and that’s all he would say.
My bosses (this went up to the Chief of Detectives) decided based on that information we should publicize him and this case: “if anyone recognizes this man please call TIP LINE #”
Having a tip line on a case, that’s a story in itself.
Nevertheless, I called a woman back, she said her son was s**ually a**sed by the man in the news story, he worked at the library in their town. I asked if she’d think her son would be able to speak with me, and that I’d make any arrangements and under whatever circumstances mom and son deemed best for them. She thanked me, then apologized because he’d k**led himself 3 years prior.
You SEE the worst things. Terrible things.
That phone call was one of the top worst moments I’ve ever had in my life. There was SO much pain in that woman’s voice.
I called back the next day, then next week and spoke with her husband. He cried on the phone and begged me for help and that the only reason his wife hadn’t k**led herself was because of their daughter. That older sister tired into a junkie because of her younger brother’s suicide.
This one POS, ruined so much.
As a cop / detective you figure out there are degrees of crimes. People don’t understand the degree of some victims.”
7. Baltimore.
“An investigation I completed in Baltimore was probably the saddest.
The store had a missing deposit. Approximately $15,000 was gone. It never made it to the bank. The likely suspects were the 4 managers who all had access to the safe. So that was a good place to start. I talked to the first 3 and felt pretty strong that none of them were involved.
The last, Assistant manager I needed to talk to arrived. The first thing she did was go the the bathroom and get sick. The Store Manager, kind of laughed. She said she’s been getting sick often. “We’re pretty sure she’s pregnant”.
I interview her and she ends up admitting to stealing the missing deposit. She also admits to previously stealing an additional $10,000.00. in cash and merchandise since she started working for us. She then talks about her drug addiction. She was always clean until about 6 months ago when her boyfriend talked her into trying heroin, “Just once”, he said. A few months later she was a complete addict.
I could tell from her physical appearance she wasn’t in a good place. She asked if I wanted to see something. She then showed me a few photos of just a year ago, when she was a high school cheerleader. She was very attractive and I couldn’t believe it was the same girl standing in front of me. She said she had good grades and never did any drugs at all before 6 months ago.
Her boyfriend who got her hooked had left her. So now she went to the worst crime, drug ridden area in Baltimore and bought the drugs on her own. She said she had another “addict friend” who would help look after her in such a tough area.
Just seeing how she had declined physically, and gotten herself in a very dark place it was very sad to see! I told her I would agree to reduced charges and diversion as long as she was getting help. I wanted to see proof that she get’s into rehab and some form of counseling within the next couple months.
If I came back in 2 months and she couldn’t provide proof to me she would be charged with Grand Theft a felony. I was able to follow up with her once but that was it. I wish I was confident she somehow was able to turn things around and get her life together. That this story has a happy ending but I’m not.”
8. A thin line.
“Pr**titute asked if I had a daughter & likely could tell by my face that I did before I could answer…. “tell her she’s two bad choices away.””
9. Stranger than fiction.
“I volunteered to implement self-improvement talks within a juvenile correctional facility In Mexico.
In Mexico you are considered an adult until you are 18, so everyone inside this correctional facility is under 18. The story that most impacted me and I still think about it from time to time, was told to me by a 16-year-old boy He was in jail for homicide, he was a thin boy, dark skinned, not very tall but not short either, very polite, he didn’t say many bad words and his friends described him as very hardworking and very friendly.
What I am describing to you is so that you feel a little what I felt at that moment. He told me that his father was an al**holic, and when he drank he beat him and his brothers and sisters apart from practically r**ing his mother, This situation was getting worse because it was more and more constant the days that his father arrived d**nk.
But the worst was when he started mixing drugs with al**hol, in his words they were the worst moments of his life the most v**lent thing I’ve ever seen. This story is how I remember it, it may not be 100% true but it is how I remember him telling it to me. The question I asked him is “how did you end up here?”
And he didn’t speak for a few minutes and I saw how tears fell, but after gathering courage he told me the following:
“One day my father arrived d**nk as usual, and hit us as usual, but something clicked in my head when I heard the screams of my little brothers and my mom, I had to do something! So I took a knife from the kitchen and waited for him to fall asleep, I remember that I didn’t have to wait long, I stood in front of him and watched him for a few seconds, I swallowed the fear and with all my strength I put the knife in his neck. He got up before he could stab him again but he bled out very quickly and didn’t last much longer.At that moment everyone got up from their beds and saw what happened and my mom was crying and yelling at me why?! Why?!, But at the same time she hugged me and we cried together until the police arrived. My mother turned herself in to the police saying that she was the one who k**led her husband but I told them the truth they locked us both up but when they did the investigation they released my mother. And that’s how I ended up here.”
And that story haunts me to this day. Sometimes reality is stranger than fiction.”
10. Horrible mess.
“I had to terminate an 18 year old “woman’s” parental rights to her newborn child because she admitted to s**ually abusing her little sister a few months before.
The two girls had been in the care of their uncle for years. He was a**sing both of them the whole time.
I put “woman” in quotes because she was of diminished mental capacity and 18 by only a couple months.
The baby’s father was the uncle.
The whole situation was a horrible mess.”
11. Terrible.
“Having to charge a person for a sex crime, when you investigated them as a child victim years before.
His mother had that same expression of despair each time.”
12. Messed up.
“I used to be a jailer. One time a guy came in for holding his mom and girlfriend hostage.
After a several hour standoff, he was brought in unharmed and extremely high on meth. I recognized his name in the call notes and immediately knew that it was a guy I had grown up with and knew since I was little. We played football in little league and high school and went to the same schools, but were never really friends. Just close enough to remember each other’s face and name years later.
He recognized me too and immediately started yelling at me. First it was the typical “f**k you, piece of s**t, etc etc etc.” that we get from every other person that comes in, but then it turned into something a lot different. He started saying that I was always mean to him in school and I b**lied him. He said I used to make fun of him for riding the short bus and because he couldn’t read.
I was extremely confused because my whole life I always remembered him as the a**hole. I remember getting b**lied by him in the football locker room in 9th grade. He was one of the biggest d**ches I had ever met and routinely b**lied this other ginger kid and posted a video to Facebook where they stripped him to his underwear, tied his arms up, kicked him, then made him run around the street for everyone to see. Still on Facebook to this day, I checked.
I was also never in any of his classes and never saw him read, never knew he couldn’t. Never knew he rode the short bus either. He then starts yelling that it was my fault that (another kid we both knew) k**led himself because I b**lied him so hard.
I never knew the other kid k**led himself so I looked him up and he’s still alive, perfectly healthy, married, and seems to be doing fine. At that point I realized that this guy is probably saying all of this for a few different reasons: 1. M**h influence; 2: Mental illness brought on by meth abuse; 3:
Maybe he’s just confusing me with someone else? And probably a bunch of other things. I told my dad about it, as my dad was one of our football coaches for several years, and he told me that this guy’s dad was extremely a**sive and and drug/al**hol addict.
This guy had been through absolute hell with no chances in life since he was just a little kid and now he’s sitting in my jail with multiple felonies and a destroyed brain. It was quite sad to see.
Extremely confusing too and I’d like to know who he may have confused me with. There wasn’t a whole lot I could say to him, I just watched him go crazy in his cell and tried to calm him down. He didn’t really want to talk to me so I just pulled up the camera in his cell and watched it for the rest of the night to make sure he was okay.”
What’s the saddest thing you ever heard someone say? Talk to us in the comments and let us know. Thanks in advance!
