A Witness of Crimes!

Now a days undercover cops are not unusual to see. Around where I live, Frederick Md, they may even live in your quite, calm neighborhood, like in my case. They don't interest me in any type of way, specially after getting speeding tickets. But for some odd reason there's one that does, not in a weird manner, but his mysterious sirens at night in my court always made me wonder. His name his Robert Perkins, who wakes my brother and I up on random nights because his kids enjoy the ride around my court in his car.

I finally had the opportunity to ask loads of questions, so I made an appointment with Mr. Perkins for an interview Thursday afternoon. I walked over to his house, which is right across my court, that day, wearing the same clothes I wore to school that morning. I rang the doorbell and for the first time Mr.Perkins welcomed me into his house.Once inside he made it my choice weather to do the interview in the dining room, where a huge long window let us see daylight or at the breakfast table where his three year old boy sat watching T.V in the connected living room. I replied with saying, "where ever you like". As I followed him into the kitchen I noticed his attire was as I'm use to seeing him. A T-shirt, a pair of cargo shorts and white socks. He waited like a gentlemen for me to take a seat first and he started off by asking how my day was going so far, and I replied very well. Even though I knew that if I asked him the same question his answer was going to be, excited to leave to the beach tonight for the weekend, because that was the reason our appointment had no other choice then that day, I still asked. And shockingly responded how I expected. I continued by asking him what his daily routine was like, and found out very interesting things I had no idea of.

Mr. Perkins starts his day off usually going to court in the mornings, according to him there's no set time of when he will finish. But most of the time he's back home by the time his little girl, Katelyn, comes home from school, then is off to work. He's been working for the Germantown Special assignment team for fifteen years. Most people I know would want to change their career to something they truly want to do, not just for the money but because they enjoy it. When I asked Mr. Perkins if he would ever change his job, he with a smile on his face said, "no, I love doing this, I've been a cop for about fifteen years, and have been in the Plane Closed assignment for eight, my salary is great and if I wanted to, I could take off for half a year and still get paid." I have never seen someone explain their job, filled with enthusiasm and excitement before. And because he's been a cop for so long, I wondered how many horrible scenes he's witness, that he'd never imagined he would. I asked if he was disturbed by anything that he had seen, he stops and remembers all the dead bodies he seen, women that were raped or beaten, teens that were jumped by gangs, and says " I'm use to it all, you name it I've seen it".

Following that response I asked " have you ever witness a suicide" and he stood up and said "follow me" and I could see we were shifting rooms because " my three year old really doesn't need to know what daddy really does"he said. " I've had a young man die in my arms before," I gasped and couldn't believe it, he continued by telling me the story. "I was paged on my radio and headed to the house, as I called out to see if anyone else other the the one guy I could see lien on the floor was there, but no one answered", I could see the blood covering up his surroundings and the pain that was taking over him, I started connecting what I could see and it looked like a suicide. At first I thought he had shot himself in the mouth as I'm use to seeing, so I stuck my two fingers to give him an air way to breath. But then I saw that it wasn't his mouth it was his chest, he had shot himself with a shot gun, one where the bullet goes in then comes right back out. But this time the bullet stayed as a ping pong ball does inside, I started to press down his chest, and could hear it crack every time I did, but I could still feel the pulse on his neck and two or three pulses later they stopped." I had chills all over my body when he told me this, and my hands were covering my mouth, which is what I usually do as a habit when I'm in shock.

After all the exciting stories he told me, I said, " so how many awards do you have?", Mr. Perkins stood up and once again I followed. We were heading to room right by the door, "this is my wall of shame" he says, and we both laughed. Out of all four walls three were completely covered up top. He took the time and explained what a few of the were, I could see the proudness coming out now, he has recieved over twenty awards. One by the governer, a few by the community, one of the sniper investigation, which I thought was cool, and others from different cases he participated in.

Ending the interview I congratulated him of his fifteen years of success, and asked him the last question, " In six words, after all you've witness and been through how would you describe yourself, and he told me in seven "I try to do the right thing." He remarks, "I'm known in the office of not taking advantage of the police mask we all carry and doing the right thing". After you he said and followed me to the door, "thank you so much for your time and for sharing all the cool and detailed stories I said", No, thank you for choosing me, and if you need anything else just call me". As I walked back home I couldn't believe that someone like him could be six doors away from mine.