The Wee Hours

Up late last night.....puttering around. Finally crashed about 3 a.m. (way too late, big mistake, tired today, etc. etc.) but not before I got a good LAPD caper followed by a quick-hit LAFD structure fire and a near-pursuit in Beverly Hills.

--About 2 a.m. a Devonshire Division two-man patrol unit picked up a pursuit. Can't really remember what the dude was wanted for (probably a stolen car: Code 37). He bolted and the primary unit lost sight of him, but luck and circumstance had the Air Unit overhead the whole time; so the helo never lost him.

Suspect takes off south and west towards West Valley Division and then TC's in a residential area. He foot bails and the Air Unit directs officers to a bunch of yards he was running through. The air unit officer starts to lose his cool as one officer starts fighting with the suspect in the yard and the other cops can't seem to find the right yard, even though the helo is lighting the place up like a sports stadium. At one point the dispatcher puts out the dreaded and rare "Help" call, but the dude was eventually cuffed by probably no less than a dozen cops.

Good pursuit and collar.

--A few minutes later over near South Boyle Heights, Engine 25 caught a structure fire. Station 25 is a pretty quiet house, but they caught a good burner with at least one exposure. Units from Battalion 2 got in there on a first alarm assignment and got a pretty quick knockdown--I think. I actually went to sleep in the middle of it. But not before locking into BHPD for a few minutes to hear the routine slew of late night traffic stops that always seem to focus on out-of-state plates.

--Right before I drifted off, however, a BHPD sergeant almost got the rare BHPD pursuit, when he lit up a car on 3rd Street heading out of the city. He called the T-Stop at 3rd & Sweetzer, well into LAPD Wilshire Division territory. Then he advised a "failure to yield" (precusor to full-blown pursuit). Vehicle finally pulled at 3rd & Crescent Heights, which is way deep into LA. A few BHPD backup units blasted over there because the car had at least one warrant (sounded felony), but they never requested LAPD. I'm betting someone went to jail, but I turned it off.