It was a Saturday or Sunday afternoon. Stanley Ziemelis and drove into the police lot at the same time. Stanley and I went to the police academy together and then worked as partners for four or five years. Admin split up because they needed senior officers to work with new officers, so we both went to days. The draw back of working days was that we all worked one-man patrols. We had the same days off, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, so we would spend our day following each other on calls so that we could back each other up in case there was trouble.
On this one day, since it was a weekend, Stanley pulled into the Dusenbury’s assigned parking place. Chief Dusenbury was not a nice or forgiving man. He get really upset if anyone dares to park in his spot. But it was a weekend day, no one would expect Chief Dusenbury to be using it that day. Just after Stanely pulled into the space and walked in the back door, Chief Dusenbury drove into the police parking lot.
He parked his car length wise behind Stanley’s Police Car. He got out his car and yelled “Who in the hell is parked in my space.” As we walked in the back door of the police building, he said, again at the top of his lungs, “He had better be here when I get back.”
I ran into the building and found Stanley in the report writing area and told him about Dusenbury angry that he had parked in his spot. We both went outside to see what we could do to save Stanely from Dusenbury’s rath. We could see that Dusenbury’s car was about three feet from the back of Stankey’s police car.
Being very careful, I guided Stanley as he back up the pulled forward about twenty times to maneuver his car out of Dusenbury’s spot. We had just gotten the car out of Dusenbury’s spot and parked elsewhere in the police parking lot when Dusenbury walked out of the back door.
I know he expected to see the poor officer waiting near his police car so that Dusenbury could ball him out for daring to park in a Deputy Chief’s parking space, but he was disappointed. When he walked out the back door and saw that the police car was gone, he stood with his hands on his hips and a look of disappointment on his face for about five seconds. Stanley and I walked passed him as if he had no idea there had been a problem, knowing we had dodged a bullet.
As remembered by Ski Ingram March 14, 2025
