February 26, 2021 - My partner and I were on patrol that summer evening in 1973. We were checking on events in the northern part of Harris County and strangely, things were rather quiet. We turned East on FM525, which we routinely identified as “five and a quarter” when talking on the police radio. We were having some difficulty with our radio as it would go off and back on. My partner, the driver, decided that we were suffering from a loose connection at the base of the radio unit which was located in the trunk of the car.
We pulled over on the shoulder of the busy road to investigate our problem. He put the trunk key in the slot and opened the trunk to reveal the radio and a number of other things unique to police work. In the 1970s most cars had two keys, one for the ignition and one for the trunk and glove box.
After checking all the wire connections to the radio unit, *Jim decided that our problem was now solved. He slammed the truck lid shut and we got back into our patrol car. “Neal, do you have the keys?” Jim asked as he checked his own pockets. “No, Jim, I never had them. Are they missing?” I queried. I was getting a little concerned when Jim began checking all around the front seat and found no keys. “Dang, surely I did not lock them inside the trunk …” his voice trailing off in deep thought.
“I know what happened,” Jim opined. “I must have dropped them on the ground getting back into the car.” We both grabbed our flashlights and began to search for them in the gravel and grass on the roadside. No luck. The truth was becoming obvious … he had left the keys inside the trunk and we were now stranded.
There are some things that officers just do not want to transmit on the radio for thousands of people in scanner land to hear. It is rather embarrassing to transmit that you have gotten stuck, or that you have hit the curb too hard and have a flat tire. But this transmission would be over the top … it might go something like this:
Deputy: Unit 414 to SO..
Dispatcher: Unit 414, go head with your transmission.
Deputy: Unit 414, need you to send a locksmith to our location on five and a quarter ASAP.
Dispatcher: Unit 414, that’s 10/4. Who needs the locksmith?
Deputy: Well, SO, that would be us.
Dispatcher: Unit 414, why do you need a locksmith?
Deputy: Well, SO, we were stupid enough to lock our car keys in the trunk. Need help in getting them out as we have no tools.
Now, that bit of communication needs to be avoided at all cost. Just think of the embarrassment it would cause to two of Harris County’s finest. Had that happened today we would have called the dispatcher on our cell phone and confessed what had happened, no one else would know. But there were no cell phones in 1973.
Jim had a revelation. “I know what to do. Let’s take the back seat out and then see if we can get the top half out so we can retrieve the keys from inside the car.” That sounded good to me, so we began working toward that end. After taking the back seat out it became obvious that we would need some tools to get the back rest out. We shined our lights through a crack and saw the keys lying near the radio but were unreachable.
Then a United Gas vehicle stopped and pulled off the roadway in front of our patrol car. The service man walked up and asked if we were having mechanical problems. We confessed what we had done, and he stated that he had the necessary tools in his truck.
After a short time, this good Samaritan had removed the upper portion of the back seat. Then we could reach inside the trunk and grab the elusive car keys. What a sigh of relief we made. After replacing the car seats the service man shook our hands and headed for his truck. “Can we pay you something for your trouble?” Jim asked. “No way,” came the reply, “just happy to be able to help you guys out.” With that, he drove away.
Now we were back in service and no one else was the wiser. We decided that this event would remain just between the two of us. I have never revealed it until now, as the statute of limitations must have expired. As Jack Webb used to say, “There are a million stories in the city, and this is one of them.”
* Name Changed
