Border Patrol Stories
Triple Tandem
I came to work one fine morning and met the midnight shift who was finishing up. They told me about a load that busted on them out in Sonoita and that they could not locate the rest of the load. My trainee and I decided to go out and see what we could find. We were sitting at the intersection of Highway 82 and 83, just minding our own business when an obvious load van pulls up to the intersection coming from down south near Lochiel. He stops at the stop sign and hauls ass northbound. As I am cranking the patrol car, another load car pulls up and then yet a third! They all head northbound with your intrepid Border Patrol following closely behind. After several miles of chasing the tandem load northbound, they took a left turn on a dirt road that, to this day, I still do not know its name. All I remember is it was full of curves, hillside dropoffs and lots of dust. Luckily, there happened to be a Border Patrol aircraft in the area. Without his help we would have never been able to catch the entire group.
So, we caught up with the first car. It could not quite make the curve being as it was a land yacht. It was precariously tipping over the edge like it could go at any minute. We got the aliens out and secured in my vehicle. My trainee took the wheel and I stood on the bumper and we managed to get it back on the road. Trainee is now following me in the first load car. Using directions provided by the airplane, we eventually caught up with the middle car, loaded all of its passengers in my car and took off after the van. I have to admit that my driving was a bit scary (even for me). The aliens in the back of my unit were praying, crying and crossing themselves. By the time we caught up with the van, it had one or two flat tires and was looking sort of sickly. It rumbled to a halt and the driver bailed. The driver took off running and in my agitated state of mind, I pulled out my .357 and fired off a "PARATE!" shot. I will be the first to tell you that that does not usually work. It only makes them run faster. Well, this guy must have thought I was serious since he stuck both hands up straight in the air and started walking back to me. About this time, my trainee comes rolling up in the first load car. The unit I am driving has a flat, so I get a couple of illegals that I figure I can outrun if the need arose and had them change the tire.
I was curious as to why the rest of the van load did not bail and run as was customary. When I opened the door I saw the reason. They were kind of "woven" into the van. All sitting on the flat floor, they had their legs over the hips and legs of the person in front of them. This probably allowed the smugglers to squeeze in an extra body of two.
Only after I had the van driver cuffed and stuffed, the flat tire fixed and everything sort of settled down did it occur to me that when I fired off my PARATE round, there was a BP aircraft flying right above me. All the way back to Nogales, I was sweating bullets. Did I shoot a hole in his wings? Did he see me fire the round and is he going to rat me out? Nothing came of it and I was thanking my lucky stars. Speaking of thanking lucky stars, did I mention that we found an additional three aliens in the trunk of the load car my trainee was driving? Can you imagine what was going through THEIR minds?
So, we caught up with the first car. It could not quite make the curve being as it was a land yacht. It was precariously tipping over the edge like it could go at any minute. We got the aliens out and secured in my vehicle. My trainee took the wheel and I stood on the bumper and we managed to get it back on the road. Trainee is now following me in the first load car. Using directions provided by the airplane, we eventually caught up with the middle car, loaded all of its passengers in my car and took off after the van. I have to admit that my driving was a bit scary (even for me). The aliens in the back of my unit were praying, crying and crossing themselves. By the time we caught up with the van, it had one or two flat tires and was looking sort of sickly. It rumbled to a halt and the driver bailed. The driver took off running and in my agitated state of mind, I pulled out my .357 and fired off a "PARATE!" shot. I will be the first to tell you that that does not usually work. It only makes them run faster. Well, this guy must have thought I was serious since he stuck both hands up straight in the air and started walking back to me. About this time, my trainee comes rolling up in the first load car. The unit I am driving has a flat, so I get a couple of illegals that I figure I can outrun if the need arose and had them change the tire.
I was curious as to why the rest of the van load did not bail and run as was customary. When I opened the door I saw the reason. They were kind of "woven" into the van. All sitting on the flat floor, they had their legs over the hips and legs of the person in front of them. This probably allowed the smugglers to squeeze in an extra body of two.
Only after I had the van driver cuffed and stuffed, the flat tire fixed and everything sort of settled down did it occur to me that when I fired off my PARATE round, there was a BP aircraft flying right above me. All the way back to Nogales, I was sweating bullets. Did I shoot a hole in his wings? Did he see me fire the round and is he going to rat me out? Nothing came of it and I was thanking my lucky stars. Speaking of thanking lucky stars, did I mention that we found an additional three aliens in the trunk of the load car my trainee was driving? Can you imagine what was going through THEIR minds?
Triple Tandem
Help spread the word!
