The last few nights have produced several very interesting cases. Last night I spent several hours working a case involving a counterfeit $100 bill that was passed at a local gas station. What a pain that turned into!

Within the last couple weeks, my team rotated back to the night shift. I love every minute of the night shift so much, I try not to miss one night of the action, even for sick time.

Probably the best case I have had recently is a good old fashion traffic stop. I was sitting with another officer, typing reports, when he pointed at a nearby vehicle and commented that if he was not so busy it would make for a good stop. His tone suggested to me that he was issuing me a challenge.

Up for the task, I immediately saw several violations. I pulled the vehicle over and began to speak to the driver, "Can I see your license, registration, and proof of insurance please?" He was so nervous that he had beads of sweat on his forehead. He said he'd forgotten his wallet and license at home and explained that the owner of the car is the female in the passenger seat. I explained that I would still need to see the paperwork for the vehicle. Just then the passenger gave me her ID card, which seemed a little strange, because I hadn't asked about it. Together the driver and the passenger began shuffling around the interior of the vehicle for the registration and insurance, but they were unable to find anything of interest to me.

I asked the passenger about the vehicle, hoping to verify the information. All of the sudden, she began screaming and bent over at the waist. She claimed to be having some sort of abdominal pain. She yelled and cried, saying that they were on the way to the hospital when I stopped them. I immediately pointed out the fact that they had just passed a hospital and were now going the wrong way. She replied that they were going to a "clinic" in a town north of here. I then explained that I was unaware of any clinic open at 4 in the morning. Now she screamed louder. I asked if she needed an ambulance and she agreed that might be best. Although, I was quite sure it was all a ploy, I did as she asked.

As we waited, I asked the driver to step out and stand with another officer. I then checked his information and found a photo on the State database. Although I wasn't positive, I didn't think the photo matched our guy.

The information on the female showed an NCIC hit out of California. She is wanted for felony possession of a stolen vehicle. Everything was going in my favor until I saw a small notation saying that California would not extradite. UGGHHHH.

I then put my attention on the driver. I asked again for his date of birth. He recited it perfectly. I then asked his age and noticed him pause and begin counting in his head. That was my first clue. I knew that he could recite the date of birth of anyone, but it was more difficult to know the age of that person because the age changes every year. I knew that he'd know his own age without counting it in his head. Then I asked for his social security number, but he stated that he's never learned that number. “That's it” I told him. EVERYONE in America over 18 knows their social security number.

A back-up officer then popped out of his patrol car and shouted "your not Patrick, your Christopher! And you have warrants for your arrest!" The man lowered his head in defeat. I arrested him and helped him into the patrol car.

By now the ambulance arrived and I explained to the guys that the lady appeared to be fine until the questions got thick. They understood and agreed to have an officer stay close and assist them to the hospital.

Inside the vehicle I found piles of receipts from local stores. All of them showed returned merchandise. Some showed several hundred dollars each. Also, I found the man's wallet, shoved between the cushions of the seats. Inside the wallet was three different drivers licenses. All had this mans photo, but different names and different numbers on the front. Each of the licenses appeared, at first glance, to be perfectly authentic. At a closer look, I could see some flaws.

I ran all of the licenses by name and then number, then found that none were valid.

On the way to the jail, the man admitted to a crime spree that he'd been doing with the fake Id's. The scheme was impressive, but obviously not perfect. After I booked him into the jail, I contacted each of the stores. With all of the evidence I gathered, we've forwarded several felony counts of theft by deception. Luckily, to help our case, each of the stores have great video cameras, and each had footage of this man and the lady in the act of thefts.

The case pointed us toward several other local bad guys that will likely solve some more crimes in the area.

Oh, by the way. Just in case you’ve been worried. The lady was immediately released from the hospital after no problems were found. It was an amazingly fast recovery to what seemed to be a life threatening illness. She didn’t admit to faking the pains, but it was quite obvious that she was attempting to cause a distraction when she realized her boyfriend was caught in the act.

After all was said and done, I looked at my back up officer and said "challenge me again!" He was so mad that he demanded me to never use that phrase again.