by Rick » Tue Feb 27, 2018 6:06 am
Was a rod-buster and general BS hand building a K-Mart in Coral Springs right after I got out of the service, thanks to a high school buddy working there, thanks to his father being a supervisor for the construction company/contractor with the contract. We were making extra money working a Sunday and being the only ones there may have had a buzz going when we took off for lunch and were stopped by a Coral Springs cop before we got off the job site.
Thought we were being cute by imitating a scene from a then popular movie and jumped out with our hands up yelling "Don't shoot! Don't Shoot!" And might have been lucky we weren't, as the cop either hadn't seen the movie or lacked our sense of humor and held us at gunpoint until backup arrived and we were cuffed. At that time (1972) Coral Springs required us to have work permits/IDs, which we did, but they still suspected us of stealing from the site, and while they searched our vehicle more and more police cars arrived until it appeared a major crime scene and someone with enough authority to decide our fate showed up to want to know who authorized our being there.
Don't know that anyone had, per se, but we frequently worked extra and that wouldn't have been a problem if my friend hadn't given them his father's name which was both four names long and kind of funny sounding - as well being exactly the same four as on his own license and ID. His dad was the second to be saddled with it and he the third, and though we'd long since figured out these guys were serious, they thought Ed was still clowning. Anyway, they did eventually contact his dad, we were un-cuffed and watched what seemed six or eight cop cars leave the site, least one come out behind us and pop us for "failure to assure" or some such when we got on the public road.
Then we hopped in Ed's car, and he put it in gear - and a joint rolled off the dash.
Know what's just happened in Coral Springs is the farthest thing from funny, but that's the memory "Coral Springs" will likely always evoke from me.