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Doc's New Qweegle Bungee Cord - Make Life Easy!


Doc

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Fred,

Do you still live on Normal?  I need another Field Tester.  My records show you have a Swingy Thingy, but not an Ultra Swingy Thingy, is that correct?

JW,

That car reminds me of a story that gives me chills every time I think of it.  Not related to gold unfortunately, still a valuable, "look before you leap" lesson to be learned.

So the time frame is 1971.  I was a police officer in a town in Illinois. Second in crime rate in the State of Illinois only to Chicago.  We had a nice size police department, 185 sworn officers.  Small enough to know everyone, large enough that we weren't Mayberry PD with Barney Fife and Andy Griffith.

My first assignment was as an undercover narcotics officer.  I was undercover for 6 months.  I was a real young looking kid, I could have passed for being a high school student, so they threw me to the wolves early.  I had just come out from undercover and had been assigned to patrol and to a Field Training Officer, after all I was still a rookie.  While I had earned an Associate Degree in Police Science and actually had done two semesters of internships on the same Police Department, you learn real police work on the job.

So I had the misfortune to be assigned to the absolute most arrogant, burned out cop on the job as my Field Training Officer.  This guy drank on the job, left me sitting in the squad car while he ran into his girlfriend's house for a quickie, this guy was a shining example of everything you did not want to be as a cop.  Anything  I learned was from observing other Field Training Officers teaching their assigned rookies proper procedures.

So this town in Illinois sits on a river.  A pretty substantial waterway that feeds into the Mississippi.  Taking the squad car down by the river between calls was a standard thing to do.  The cooler air coming in off the water was nice, as you sat in your squad car trying to catch up on writing reports.  I would write reports while my partner would sleep.

The river area was devoid of any significant buildings because the river would flood every spring.  So it was littered with all kinds of crap that had been dumped, abandoned cars, old tires, dumped refrigerators, stolen bikes, rats and dead bodies.  There were actually some remnants of an old marijuana field that was down there from the 40's when there was a hemp rope factory near by.  We'd catch kids down there every once in a while trying to harvest the Marijuana, apparently they wanted to make rope to get a Boy Scout merit badge or something.  ?

In 1971 the Movie Dirty Harry was released.  Good ol' "Make My Day" Harry Callaghan.  Well every hot shot cop had to have a 6.5 inch 44 Magnum gun like Dirty Harry after that movie.  Our duty gun was an M&P model 10 (I believe) with a 4 inch barrel .38 caliber.  You had to carry that gun.  You could carry a longer barrel, but you could not carry anything larger than a .38 caliber.  Now while that was the rule, there was nothing that said you could not carry a backup gun, and there was no specifics as to what that backup gun could be.  (Mine was a 5 shot .38 caliber feather weight S&W snub nose that I carried in an ankle holster)  My idiot partner's backup was a Dirty Harry Special that he carried in a shoulder holster.  So this nitwit is carrying his duty gun in a standard issue SAM BROWN holster rig, and a 44 magnum 6.5 inch, in a shoulder holster while wearing a police uniform.  He looked retarded.

So he says to me, hey kid, let's go down to the river for some target practice, I got some new "hot loads" I re-loaded myself and I want to see how well they work.

So we go down to the river and he jumps out of the Black and White, and without any warning fires a round into the door of a rusted out abandoned car.  That particular car had been there for years.  It totally caught me off guard as his quick action was as if he was trying to practice exiting the squad and firing at a suspect who was firing back.  I pooped my pants a little.

I don't know if you have ever fired a .44 magnum, but let me tell you those rounds are loud, and that gun has a pretty good recoil.  Well because he had reloaded these rounds with extra powder his first shot was absolutely deafening and the recoil almost sent the weapon back into his forehead.  It was such a violent explosion that it sort of stopped my partner in his tracks to reassess whether firing anymore of his homemade rounds was prudent.  He said,  "I think I'm going to try the regular factory rounds to see what the difference is.  He proceeded to dump his homemade miniature metal sticks of dynamite onto the hood of the squad car, and reload with factory rounds.

I took that opportunity to go check the car, as I had a really bad feeling about the lack of common sense my partner had exhibited.  As I approached the car, somewhat shocked at the huge hole in the car door left by the round he had fired, my eyes fell upon a body of a man lying in the back seat right behind that door.  I yelled at my partner, "You idiot, stop what you are doing and get your ass over here."  As he approached the car and he saw what I was looking at. I saw the blood drain from his face,  "Jesus Christ, what the f--k?  Why didn't you tell me there was someone in the car before I began shooting?"

WHAT?  Now it was my fault that you acted like a mental patient on meth with a gun, jumping out of the squad before I had barely stopped and fired a round before checking the area?

The bullet had passed though the passenger side rear door and exited the driver side rear door.  But!  Had it passed through the body of the person in the back seat?  I'm shaking this guy, obviously some homeless drunk trying to sleep it off, yelling wake up, are you OK?  At the same time looking for any signs that he had been shot, looking for blood, any signs of life.  No movement for like 3 minutes.  Meanwhile my partner is outside the junker puking his guts out, lamenting that his career is over, interspersed with a really insane commentary about how, "WE" could just throw the body in the river.  I'm thinking, oh no buddy, this one's on you.  My next radio call is to dispatch to give me a duty lieutenant, the crime scene unit, and have an ambulance on the way.

Midway into my partner's really well thought out plan on how to handle his stupidity...  which I believe I heard included shoving rocks and stones inside the bum's pants so he would sink in the river.  The bum started to groan and wake up.

That bullet had passed about 3 inches above his head as he was passed out in the back seat of that abandoned car.  He was oblivious to what had happened.  He was also alive, and unharmed.  I checked him over to make sure he had not caught a stray fragment, he was good.  There were some metal pieces from the door that were stuck in his old stinky padded jacket.  God protected this poor guy from what would have been certain death.

I contacted dispatch and had them send the paddy wagon to transport the "luckiest man in the world" to the drunk tank where he would be fed allowed to sober up, given a shower and clean clothes and released in the morning.

My partner was busy thanking God, Jesus, Buddha, the Dalai Lama, St. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, all the Angels and Saints, all the omnipotent soother sayers, knowers of all, Lord High Masters of the Univererse and Captain Kirk, Commander of the Star Ship Enterprise.

He begged me, "Partner you can never tell anyone about this.  It was an accident, you can see that right?" (Oh now I was his partner, not a shite eating no nothing who could only hope to become half the cop he was.  He had to be kidding?  I wanted to become an alcoholic, burned out embarrassment of a cop? ) 
 
"No, here's what I can see.  This wasn't an accident, this was sheer stupidity on your part.  And it just adds to the list of stupid things I see you do every day.  You don't want anyone to know about this?  OK, here's my conditions, take 'em or leave 'em.  You're going to get your head out of your ass.  You're going to start going back to your AA meetings.  If I ever see you take a drink again, I tell everything.  You're going to start acting like the "great cop" you claim you are or more accurately were.  You're going to stop sleeping on the job, f--king your girlfriend on duty, and you're going to teach me to be a cop.  You're going to teach me everything you know about how to stay safe and alive, and how to be ethical and a real asset to this community.  If you don't think you can do that, then you need to resign as a Field Training Officer so I can find someone who will train me.  Otherwise, I write the report that will most certainly result in a board of inquiry, and your possible dismissal.

"I know what you're thinking. Is he bluffing or would he really turn me in?  Well to tell you the truth, in all this excitement, I'm not really sure myself, it's sort of a blur.   But being this incident could have resulted in the death of an innocent person because of your stupidity and carelessness and would most certainly blow your police career off the face of the earth, you have to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?' Well do ya, punk?  MAKE MY DAY!"

OK, I didn't really say that, but damn it, if I had the presence of mind to have said it, that would have been EPIC.

Bottom line, was from that day forward, my partner did change.  He went back to AA, he got himself sober, and he was like a totally different person.  He actually was a good cop.  He had a lot of knowledge, a lot of common sense street smarts, and he went above and beyond.   We became one of the best police partner teams the department had.  I don't know what the circumstances were that led him to being an I don't give a damn burn out.  More than anything I think it was the hopelessness that comes from being an alcoholic.  I went on to become a Field Training Officer myself.  Then I was promoted to the detective bureau.  From that fateful day at the river, until the day I resigned from the police department to go to polygraph school, I never saw my former partner take a drink  I never saw him exhibit that "burned out cop persona" that I had previously known.


So the moral of the story, is always Be Careful Out there.  Sometimes in the excitement of the moment of looking for or finding gold, we throw caution to the wind.  Not worth hurrying back to an old patch with a new coil if you get rattle snake bit on the way, or roll your quad and get injured.  I speak from experience.  I have had a torn rotator cuff, and smashed elbow, that led to them cutting the head of my radius bone off.  I have rolled my Toyota Tacoma.  All this and I was trying to be careful and still there are dangers out there.

I have seen guys out on the gold fields of the U.S. carrying their guns, which is fine, I carry mine as well.  But before you discharge it, make damn sure you know where that bullet is going.  Sometimes it's hard to remember we are not the only ones out there.  God forbid, your round would hit a detectorist in a gully 10 ridges away that you didn't see.

Sorry for the long story on a mostly off-topic issue, but I have been carrying around about 200 stories in my head that sometimes I have to share just for the sake of my own sanity.

Doc

 

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Hi, Doc;

yes, still on Normal Av...

I do have the original Swingy and the next one you made-much better support; but warmer...

I would love to see your improved version. However, I am not very active at the moment. I will be back to gold hunting when the weather cools...not sure how much or how long.

In other words, I doubt you would get your money's worth right now.

PS. I know you go to Coronado Beach from time to time...feel free to stop by.

Great Story!!!

fred

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Dear Fred,

The one after the Swingy Thingy is the Ultra Swingy Thingy.  But I thought I would send you the new bungee when I get them in.  We are all waiting for it to get cooler, trust me.

I have never been to Colorado Beach in my life.  I don't even know where that is.  In fact I have not been through Colorado since before 1983.  Only time I was in Colorado was when we lived in Illinois and would go to California on vacation and travel back through Colorado.

So it isn't me.  But if I ever do get up that way I will look you up.

Doc

 

 

 

 

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Coronado

 

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4 minutes ago, mn90403 said:

Coronado

 

OMG -LOL ?  Oh hell no, I'm not old.  Can't see, can't hear, OBVIOUSLY I can't read.

Yes we used to go to Imperial Beach down the way from Coronado every year.  Sorry about that.  I feel like Roseanne Rosanna Dana.  On the old SNL she would go on an on about some subject, "What's all this non-sense about "ENDANGERED  FECES."  How can Feces be endangered?  There is plenty of feces to go around." She would go on a 5 minute rant until Chevy Chase would say, "Rosanna, it's not endangered feces, it's endangered species."   Oh, well, then. never mind!

Doc

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Doc,

  Great story, thanks for sharing.... I enjoy reading your adventures... also like your new adjustable bungy design, will have to get one.

Dave.

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4 hours ago, fredmason said:

Hi, Doc;

received the bungy and will be giving it a swing this coming week...it certainly looks good.

I will get back to you in a while

fred

Dear Fred,

I would play with the positioning of the adjustment piece with the strap before using the 3M adhesive patch.  I prefer to tilt the adjustment slightly to the side, towards the hand I use to make the adjustments.  So as you can see from the picture I have it mounted slightly to the left.
314072132_QuiggleBungeeShaftmounttoside.jpg.23258fa3cf906b3908ff5d15d300559c.jpg

The strap on the rod adjustment piece is really long to accommodate some of the weird detector shafts out there.  That Garrett ATX Deepseeker Pulse Induction machine has an upper rod the size of a baseball bat.  You can deal with the excess strap, by cutting it to size and putting a little Elmer's glue in between the velcro and the strap at the end to seal it up.  Or, you can use the small velcro strip I have supplied and double over the strap back on itself and secure it with the small velcro strip.

427908534_QuiggleBungeeShaftthinVelcro.jpg.0202f52736b2ded6edb67454bebbc54f.jpg

Let me know how it works for you.  Interested in pictures and your assessment.

Thank you,

Doc

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Hi Doc; my plans did not work out, so, I have not been prospecting with my GPZ or 800 yet.

I have put the new Bungee on the 800 and swung it for a while at the beach and in the Park. 

I think your new design is super!  The clip is much easier to use and the loop at the end is a great idea...

If I get out Monday I will get some pic's....otherwise it will be late October or November...

I send you a check...

thanks

fred

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