Several weeks later I was again called back to Rodney’s house. When I arrived Rodney was outside waiting for me. He walked over yelling “officer, my neighbor is harassing me and it needs to stop.” Rodney then pointed to the house right next door to his.. I shook my head and asked “What happened Man?” Given Rodney’s personality, I already knew it was going to be something pretty silly. “My neighbor keeps calling the cops on me!” Rodney yelled while pointing at the neighbor’s house and turning back to me. “This needs to stop!” I sighed again and said “give me a second.” I went to my patrol vehicle and was able to see all the times the neighbor called the police on Rodney. Most of the calls were simple noise complaints. Except for the most recent call which actually happened the shift before I started. Someone was arrested for being in possession of drugs. I went back to Rodney and said “yeah we aren’t going to tell her to stop.” Rodney looked at me confused and asked why?. “Well it turns out that she keeps calling on you because you are being too loud. That’s a valid reason to call the police. Also you are just trying to get back at her because one of your friends got locked up.”
Rodney looked at angrily and said “well I want a report.” I didn’t know why he needed a report but it was in his rights to ask for one and I exasperatedly agreed. I then asked Rodney for his license so that I could correctly enter his information. I went to my vehicle to do the data entry and the system reported back that Rodney had a warrant for his arrest from a small town in Georgia.
I went back to Rodney and told him about the warrant. He huffed at me and said “I know. I know. I had it for a while but I live too far away and they aren’t going to come get me.” That sounded like a legitimate reason but of course that’s the excuse used by many individuals with warrants.. So I had Rodney wait with me while we checked the warrant with the issuing police department and roughly 5 minutes later they informed us that Rodney would be let go. Rodney looked at me and yelled “I can’t believe you guys … why are you out here to get me?.” With zero emotion in my voice I said; “Rodney you called us and you knew you had a warrant.” Rodney thought that over for a second and said “oh… yeah.” He then turned around and walked off. I went back to my cruiser knowing that we would probably meet again.
First Published at [https://ourstoriesfrombehindthebadge.wordpress.com/2022/01/27/rodneys-love-story-part-2/]
