Celtics ☘️ Sentinel

 The car crash is in the rear view mirror, but the "impact" remains . This is a tale of staying alive and well when catastrophe strikes - how luck, both good and bad , plays a major role - and how "Earth Angels" can come to your rescue when things head south. My wife, Linda, and I were heading north from a winter getaway in South Carolina when tragedy struck. An ill-constructed, short, abrupt  highway merge on Route 95 in North Carolina sent our car into the path of a large box truck. The enormous impact sent our vehicle spinning into the middle of the busy highway, and I felt we may not survive the crash . The air bag had deployed - the car was demolished - the engine had stalled - and the car was facing south in the north-bound lane, facing oncoming traffic. But at least our strongly-constructed Honda CRV, the seatbelts and air bag had done their jobs. We didn't have a scratch. My mind raced faster than I can write about my thoughts . My 20 years as a ...

 During an awful time in our society's history - in which half-the-population loudly decries any type of law enforcement - let me state strongly that the world needs more cops like my late partner, and friend, Ken Beers. Officer Ken Beers (ret.) Ken and I started in law enforcement as auxilliary officers of the Pepperell (MA) Police Department. We received no pay for that, but were paid a whopping $2.50 per hour when appointed as Special Police Officers. The pay got better as we attained full-time status. Ken wasn't in it for the money. He loved being a cop, and so many in the small town loved and respected this fine individual. He practiced "Community Policing" before it had a name. And Ken was always there for me - assisting me on calls - calming a situation before it escalated - and on one fateful day , preventing me from being shot by a triple murderer on the run from the law. Despite my Chief not favoring 2-man cruisers, Ken chose to ride with me during...

 I was eating lunch when the call came in of an unkown "problem" at a gravel pit . Once in the pit, I spotted several heavy hauler trucks and their drivers -  who all were pointing to a distant location where a front-end loader sat unattended. I knew this was not going to be good. None of the drivers wanted to be near the site of the "problem". Once by the loader, I knew why . The dead body and the round wet spot on one of the enormous tires told part of the story. The man's head had been totally crushed by the machine , and his brains were strewed on the ground. Upon locating the loader operator, he told me that the deceased t ruck driver had jumped onto the loader in order to indicate what type of gravel he wanted to transport. As bad luck would have it, a tree started to fall in their direction from the top of the embankment. The loader operator quickly swerved his machine to try to protect the truck driver from harm. It failed . The truck driver, who...

 If you think you have an interesting story - maybe you do, but a veteran cop has many, many more. I spent 20-plus years as a cop, retiring as Lieutenant, and this is one of the many incidents that my brain cannot dispose of. The father came to the police station, reporting he had found his son dead . He was clearly distraught but lucid. My partner and I went with the father to the young man's home and found him deceased on his bed. It was a clear suicide - but an unusual one. The son had put a rope noose around his neck and tied the other end to the headboard of the bed . And he apparently worked his body towards the foot of the bed - thereby tightening the noose - which led to his death. The young man's dad told us that his son owned a handgun and did a lot of target shooting. We found the gun which was an expensive, Colt .45 ACP target pistol. The question arose - why did the son not take his life with the pistol . His dad answered that his offspring loved that weapon s...

 I remember it vividly. As a kid, I was in my basement conducting some new chemistry experiments, and a group of friends arrived - with one of them saying, "Tom's going to do better than any of us." It was uncharacteristic of my friend, Jack, to give me any such accolade, but I was pleasantly surprised. He died last year, and the rest of that small group have also left this earth. After 78 years, I am still here. As a runt of a kid, with some brain power - but little "conventional" drive - I envied most of my friends. I was a bit of a loner and not a diligent student. But I had a lot of interest in nature and the world around me. My home in Reading, Massachusetts was surrounded by woods, fields and a massive swamp. I loved the swamp! It teemed with life. I went to college, married and graduated as a chemical/plastics engineer. But it wasn't for me. After several years, I left to take a temporary job as a Massachusetts Game Warden - leased an acre of water fr...

 A true-and-suspenseful horror tale of haunting, homicides and the hunt for triple-murderer, Daniel Laplante - as told by the cops that were there By Lt. Thomas Lane (Ret.)  Daniel Laplante - cold, calm, clever, calculating- Photo: YouTube   Elm Street  surfaces on six (6) occasions in the Laplante saga: 1.) He  resided on Elm Street  in Townsend, Massachusetts  2.) He  kidnapped a woman  at gunpoint on  Elm Street, Pepperell , Massachusetts 3.) That kidnapped woman fled to the Gillogly residence on Elm Street after escaping from the armed fugitive, Laplante. 4.) He was arrested and transported to Massachusetts State Police Barracks on Elm Street in Concord . 5.) He was  tried, convicted   and sentenced for the murders at  Superior Court , corner of  Elm Stree t and Gorham Street, Lowell, Massachusetts. 6.) The author, Thomas Lane, lived on Elm Steet, Pepperell, Massachusetts while a police Sgt./Lt. for the t...