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CHAPTER ONE - ALMOST HOME

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 In the early months of 2017 I had a couple of episodes with my heart. I was averaging about 2 or three a year and I got to where I hated the routine of going to the ER and having to wait in an exam room for hours at a time. Usually, my heart would convert on it's own. My heart has only been shocked once to get it back in rhythm. So after a while when it would go out of rhythm I started hanging out at the house instead of running to the ER. After a few hours my heart would convert on it's own. Most of my episodes happened after I went to sleep at night. A few occurred while I was awake and it seemed to be related to how late I ate supper and the kind of food that I ate. Foods high in sodium or spicy foods seemed to be the worst for me. The doctor told me that my heart was showing some signs of enlargement. Nothing to really worry about in the short term but in the long term it could lead to heart failure. My heart rhythm specialist told me a few years ago about a heart procedur...
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CHAPTER TEN- HEADING FOR THE FINISH LINE

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   The following incident gave me an up close and personal look at media bias and fake news. We had another incident that illustrates the difference between the leftist media and conservative media. I got a call from an officer one night that he had asked a woman that was wearing a shirt with profanity written on it to turn her shirt inside out or to cover it up with something. He said that she was very cooperative and agreed to do it. About 30 minutes later he saw the same woman and she was still wearing the shirt. She was with a man and this time my officer told her to leave the mall because she had not complied. The man spoke up and said that she wasn't leaving the mall because she had a 1st Amendment right to wear it. I told my officer to  call the police and have her removed.   This couple, who were man and wife, bombarded Twitter with posts saying that they were forced to leave the mall because they were wearing Trump MAGA hats. Until these Twitter posts I...
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CHAPTER NINE - HEADING FOR THE FINISH LINE

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  I am working for my fifth security company since I came to work at the mall in June 2010. Management had asked me numerous times to become the site supervisor since then but I declined for two reasons. The first reason is that I considered this job to be my retirement job and I did not want the stress of management. Second, I couldn't even if I wanted the job because from the age of 62 when I began drawing my social security, until the age of 66, I was only able to work 32 hours or less each week. I had a yearly wage cap that averaged 15,000 a year.   When Allied-Barton took over the contract I was asked to be a site supervisor but instead I agreed to be a Lieutenant, or the assistant site supervisor. During this time I had several supervisors that I was able to get along with okay, and was happy not to have that responsibility. Two of my supervisors were no more than 19 or twenty 20 years old but I actually enjoyed working for them. My daughter Misty, to my delight, be...
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CHAPTER EIGHT - HEADING FOR THE FINISH LINE

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     I have always resisted the temptation to profile and stereotype people. This job, however; has made me realize just how quickly many black people are willing to stereotype me. To many, I am just a racist old white guy in a uniform. In my opinion, most black people do not hold that opinion but far too many do. One of my favorite lines from the movie, Remember The Titans, is when Denzel Washington says "I don't dance unless I hear music". In other words my suspicions are not aroused until you give me a reason to be suspicious. If I see anyone acting suspicious, or I have been told that a person is trying to steal, I will respond and follow the people involved at a safe distance. Again, my job is to detect, deter, observe and report. When a person violates mall rules I will say something to them, or follow them, and I could care less if you are black, white, hispanic, asian, homosexual, transsexual, straight or have tentacles growing out of your head. I have been calle...
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CHAPTER SEVEN - HEADING FOR THE FINISH LINE

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We have had our share of drug overdoses which have happened primarily in the parking lot. I didn't see this happen but we had a woman run naked through the mall high on drugs one morning. On another occasion I got a call that a man was acting crazy and when I got there he was dancing in the middle of the road having himself a good ole time. Another time a man pointed out a woman that was slumped over her steering wheel. Upon further investigation I realized she was the mother of my niece which was an awkward situation for me. She was so drunk that she didn't recognize me.   One night I got a call that two men were slumped over in a car near Shoe Carnival. I called our on site police officer and he arrived on scene a little before I did. When he first arrived he thought they were dead. After I arrived he was talking to a man on the passenger side that was just starting to gain consciousness. We spotted syringes right out in the open and the officer told me to call 911 in order ...
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CHAPTER SIX - HEADING FOR THE FINISH LINE

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  Occasionally we run into someone having sex in and around the mall. Or an occasion we have sexual perverts and predators causing problems. One Christmas holiday season I got a call from a tenant that he noticed a nearby photo booth rocking back and forth. He thought something weird was going on inside the photo booth. When I arrived it was obvious that something was happening. I stealthily approached the booth and threw back the curtain which revealed a 14 year old boy being serviced orally by a 14 year old girl. The photo booth was out of order and I guess they thought this would give them some privacy. On another occasion I got a call that something was going on in the east parking lot over by Sears. When I arrived on scene there was a car and all the windows were fogged up. I tapped on the window and it was obvious that a teenage girl was orally servicing a teenage boy in the front seat while a girl was filming it on her cell phone in the backseat.  One day I got a call t...
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CHAPTER FIVE - HEADING FOR THE FINISH LINE

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    To this date I have only had to make physical contact with two people in my 11 years at the mall. In both cases I was assisting a police officer in making an arrest. One night in September 2013 I received a call from the manager of one of our clothing stores that a lady carrying a large number of shopping bags had stolen several children's jackets. I called our on site police officer and we both arrived on scene at the same time. The manager was standing in front of his store when we arrived. He pointed the lady out to us who was in the store next to his. She was looking at something on the far wall with her back to us.   I asked the manager if he wanted to confront her and he said that he did. I told him that we would be there to back him up if things went south. As we walked through the door she spotted us and immediately became defensive. She was loudly saying that she hadn't done anything and to leave her alone before we even got close to her. The manager tol...
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