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I have decided to skip ahead a few days and catch up. No one really cares that I went back to work for a week. I had gone back to Rayford where Stella was with the trailer on Sunday night. Rick and Brenda were off on Monday and wanted to get together. We all decided to ride over to Camping World in Katy. They wanted to look for a new motorhome and we wanted to look again at the Bighorn 3370 that Joe French was trying to sell us. He came up with a much lower price, which he negotiated through his corporate office and with participatation from Heartland.

While driving over, Chief Garcia called me on my cell phone, asking about a particular video tape that I couldn't find. He made me come into the office to find the tape and copy it for the DA's office. I told him where the tape could be found, but he made me come in to copy it because the Capt. was off sick. I went in and found the tape exactly where I had told him it was and verified the tape was not the correct one and told him. We wasted about an hour and a half with no good results. We went over to CW and looked and really liked the trailer but had to call Joe back and tell him that I would have had to retire earlier than I wanted to in order to buy the trailer. We don't want a note, so I was going to make a one-time withdrawal of funds from my pension, but would have to retire at the same time. Since I had told Manvel that I would stay until August, we decided to let the trailer go. Stella said that she wanted me to go on and retire, but I had given my word and was going to try to do it.

Rick and Brenda had also found a motorhome that they liked very much, but they, like us, did not want that much of a payment so they passed also.

After spending all day long at CW, we decided to stay all day Tuesday and leave for home on Wednesday which we did. Rick and Dee and Tommy and Susan had decided to fix spaghetti and meatballs on Tuesday night, so it was a very nice night sitting around with good friends after eating a wonderful meal.

We got up Wednesday morning and packed up everything and drove home. Actually we did well, having everything done and leaving by 10:30. We got home just before noon and I had plenty of time to shower and dress for work. This was to be my last full week on patrol before returning to investigations on Monday.

I went into the office and immediately found my laptop missing. Knowing there was going to be trouble over the missing tape, I looked at my door to make sure my name was still on the office, which it was, and went into dispatch to talk to Dedra. After talking with her, I went looking for Captain Bell and my missing computer. I found him in the IT office where the video tape storage cabinet is. He immediately began yelling at me about the tape, and showed me where it had been found. I knew immediately how I had made my mistake but he kept on yelling and screaming at me. I asked him to stop screaming at me but he continued and actually made a threatening move toward me. When I heard enough, I took out my identification card and threw it on the desk. Then he began yelling for me to turn in everything, my badge, gun everything! I went into my office and took off my gunbelt to remove the holster and he followed me in to keep yelling at me. I asked if I could drive home in the Expedition to get the rest of my gear, but he said "hell no, it's not yours any more", so I called Stella to come pick me up. While waiting for her, I prepared a one sentence resignation/retirement letter and went into the Chief's office to give it to him. He told me to go home and think about it before making a hasty decision. I told him that I was not going to be talked to like that. Stella came and got me and we drove home with me shaking with anger and frustration. I could not believe that I had been treated like this by a supervisor and someone who totally lost control of his emotions.

When we got home, I took off my uniform and we went to vote. I found it kind of odd that the early voting location had been changed to the Community Center at 27th and hwy. 3 which is squarely in the middle of the Moore's addition in Dickinson.

Stella and I talked my situation over and decided to go ahead and retire now. Since it is obvious that I was being forced into doing something that while I was not prepared to do now, it was the best thing for all if I did it. I typed up the letter and the next day went in and told the Chief of my decision to retire on November 23rd. He just simply took the letter, dated it and put it into my file in one of his desk drawers. This just backed up what I had known all along, that he and Capt. Bell were ready for me to leave. I had made a serious error in judgement by telling them of my retirement plans so early. When I did that, I signed my walking papers with the Manvel Police Dept.

I agreed to work my last day on patrol in uniform on Friday October 31st (Halloween night) and worked the rest of the weekend in BDU's and my pullover shirt.