Take a Brake

I was dispatched to a one-vehicle accident, where I found a small passenger car smashed around a utility pole. The juvenile driver explained that the brakes had gone out when he attempted to turn onto the street, causing him to lose control. The wide yaw mark and brake pedal lacking resistance suggested he was telling the truth.

As I asked him for all the appropriate paperwork he started evading my questions. I became suspicious when he couldn't tell me whose name appeared on the registration. I had him sit in the back of my car while I tried to contact the owner. A check of the license revealed that the car had been reported stolen the night before. I returned to my car and handcuffed the driver. He denied that the car was stolen and claimed that it was loaned to him to get home last night and he was trying to return it. When I contacted the owner, she told me that the car had no insurance on it because the brakes were gone and she was not driving it until it was fixed.

I went back and spoke to the driver. He was still stating his innocence when I issued him citations for no insurance, as well as defective brakes. At this time he made the one statement he wishes he could take back. "Man, how can you give me tickets for that? I didn't know the car's brakes were bad when I stole it!" Realizing he had just made a court admissible confession, he sat back and didn't say another word. He eventually took a plea bargain.

Richard Wegner
Patrolman
Pine Bluff Police Dept.
Pink Bluff, AR