I saved a few of my favorite dispatches from the night cops shift last month. Theme: Along with warmer weather, we begin to see the re-emergence of ice-cream trucks running amok.
March 4: Request for assistance from "any East Zone officer that knows how to start a stolen car."
March 8: "It's involving a white male with white hair. His pants are down around his ankles ... fighting with a white female in a stocking cap."
March 11: "Male party left in an ice-cream truck, intoxicated, threw gravel all over the calling party's vehicle."
March 15: "It's in regards to someone who was pulled off the bus for sniffing glue and causing a disturbance."
March 18: "...an unknown male in his underwear. He's standing on the calling party's porch, asking for money and refusing to leave."
March 19: "Four to five black males...they're driving the ice-cream truck, last seen northbound, and they're driving it very erratically... He said it looked like some juveniles...he was almost hit head-on by them."
March 20: Reported shooting (which turned out to be unfounded) at the Bunker Hills trailer park. "Calling party said one of his neighbors shot him about an hour ago." Police were supposed to look for the blue and white trailer with a wood-burning stove and a gold Mercedes in the yard. "The suspect, the one that's on morphine, is still armed, and he has an attack-pit bull."
| Sara Shepherd
This photo, of Kansas City children of a bygone era lining up for cool treats, is from our archives.
