He was just a kid, maybe 19 or 20. I listened, and he told me about how he was arrested and had escaped with the officer’s handcuffs. It was Skidmark’s escaped bad guy! My reaction wasn’t what he expected. The kid was all tense and edgy, and I think he expected to get hit or take a beating; instead, I started to laugh—and laugh hard!
“Really? That was you?” I asked.
He said that it was, and he recounted how Skidmark—he didn’t know it was Skidmark, of course; he called him “Officer Cheesedick” (quite funny, really)—made him angry talking down to him, so after he was left in the car, he felt it was his duty to try to escape. He also described how Skidmark had a distinctive odor, and was fat, and wheezed. The kid said, “I felt like a bitch going down without fighting this guy.”
I was laughing really hard by now at his descriptions, amazed that it reflected almost exactly how most of Skidmark’s fellow officers felt about him. His mother, however, wasn’t happy, and didn’t see the humor in it; she didn’t want her son to feel that this was acceptable behavior.
To hell with that. I explained that “Skidmark” was his nickname and that he was exactly what her son had described—and although I didn’t endorse his escape, I did understand it.
She asked, “What are you going to do now?”
I looked at the son and said, “Well, that’s up to you. I don’t wanna lose my cuffs. If you’re gonna run, have at it, man. Go!”
He didn’t move. I told him that if he went with me, he’d go willingly, then gave him my cuffs and told him to put them on. His jaw dropped. He asked if I was serious.
“Yeah man,” I said. “You put them on, then you can show me how you got out of Skidmark’s car.”
He liked that idea. He was proud of the fact that he’d escaped. He even put the cuffs on behind his back. I took him to the car, buckled him in, locked the door, and said, “Go!”
He was out in 15 seconds. I was seriously impressed with his method—which, for obvious reasons, I won’t reveal. I sat there with him and, with his help, figured out a way to thwart his escape. We then laughed and joked, talking and exchanging ideas.
Then I let him tell his mom goodbye, took him to jail, and booked him on the warrant of the escape charge against him. I told him that Skidmark was on duty that night. “He’s gonna want to come talk shit to you. The cuffs you took were his favorite set”, I said.
“You don’t still have them, do you?” I asked. He said no, that he’d cut them off and thrown them away.
I called Skidmark on the radio and told him that his escapee had been booked into jail. He replied that he was on his way to the jail; for him, this was personal.
I warned the kid about him being on his way, then left. Nothing ever came of it. Skidmark continued doing his thing; I just made a point of not working with him.
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ZACH FORTIER WAS A POLICE officer for over 30 years specializing in K-9, SWAT, gang, domestic violence, and sex crimes as an investigator. He has written three books about police work. The first book, CurbChek, is a case-by-case account of the streets as he worked them from the start of his career. The second book, Street Creds, details the time he spent in a gang task force and the cases that occurred. The third book, CurbChek Reload, is by far the most gritty. The author is dangerously damaged, suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome (PTSD) and the day-to-day violence of working the street. Hero To Zero, his fourth book, details the incredibly talented cops that he worked with but ended up going down in flames. Some ended up in prison and one on the FBI’s ten most wanted list.
If you are looking for gritty, true crime stories, be sure to check out all of Zach Fortier’s novels.
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Table of Contents
Praise For Hero To Zero
Title Page
Copyright Information
Also By Zach Fortier
One: Robert Suggs
Two: James Tucker
Three: Ray (Arnold) Fossum
Four: Billy Webster
Five: Lance Edwards
Six: Ray Zeller
Seven: Ed Mascarenas
Eight: The Preston Brothers
Nine: Paul Bailey
Ten: William Ross III
Eleven: Marcus Bilko
Twelve: Dan Arnold
Thirteen: Christopher Cope
Fourteen: LT. Jamal Ethan
Fifteen: Casey Davis
Sixteen: Greg Johnson
Seventeen: Tim Nelson
Eighteen: Larry Moravec
Nineteen: Randi Gibbs
Twenty: Johnny Heywood
Twenty-One: Alan Prevost
Twenty-Two: Reggie Stills
Twenty-Three: Roy Grey
Preview: CurbChek
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About The Author
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Hero To Zero 2nd edition Page 16