Destruction of County Property

In order for this to make sense you might need to refer back to "True Confessions" written on June 10, 2008.

I received a call from my niece Kristin almost 2 hours ago and she said my stop sign incident reminded her of something she had done about 10 years ago and has been feeling guilty about it all this time. Apparently, at the Institute, if the parking lot is full, Kristin learned from another friend that if you go across to street to another parking lot which has a gate like you see in the picture, you can drive your car up to the gate and nudge it until it opens, then park for free! Well, when Kristin tried it, she must have nudged it too hard and it broke off and fell to the ground!

After 10 years she was still feeling guilty about it, so she called the UTEP Police and spoke to a detective. After a long dreaded silence, the detective broke into laughter and told her it had been so long ago that it would be impossible to research the "offense," and she could just forget about it.

So after she called me and told me what she had done, I became all guilty again about the stop sign incident that happened when Patti and I were coming home from Colonia Juárez. I got to thinking on the way to the bank and decided to call the Doña Ana Sheriff's Department. I first spoke to the dispatcher who, after I finished my story, asked me how much I had to drink, then started laughing, and said he was kidding. So I told him "Nothing! I'm a Mormon, I don't drink." He continued to laugh, but said he would turn it over to an officer who would call me back.

By now I'm really nervous because they have my name and cell phone number! Officer Ontiveros called about an hour later and listened to my story and laughed most of the way thru it! I offered to pay for the cost of righting the stop sign, but didn't think I should be arrested, because I really didn't think it was that big of a deal. That probably wasn't what he wanted to hear, but he said, through his laughter, that all they did was stick the stop sign back in the sand and it was no big deal. He also said I was the only person he could remember who had ever called to report anything like this!

So all is well, and I really have been forgiven for this unfortunate, ugly incident. Patti on the other hand, drove the get-a-way car.......