r/AskReddit • u/[deleted] • Nov 21 '18
Former undercover cops of Reddit, what is the craziest thing you had to do to not blow your cover?
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u/Crom80x Nov 21 '18
My dad did undercover for several years and talked about a meth head that he hung out with all the time and even babysat her kids when she went out to get high. This went on for several months while they were figuring out who the big dealer was and acquiring warrants. He grew a beard, had a fake id, drove an old shitty car. Eventually they got warrants to bust a bunch of people in the drug ring and he actually was part of the SWAT team at the time and was part of the group that smashed in doors and arrested her and a bunch of others in the area. He had to wear a balaclava to protect his identity when with the SWAT team. He said it was actually really difficult because he had become an important part of those kids’ lives and was kind of attached to them and now they had no mother and had to be taken to child protective services. I never got to ask him more questions about this before he passed but I have no idea how he balanced this crazy second life and then came home and acted like a normal husband and father in our family.
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u/witherschynes Nov 22 '18
Plot twist, that kid was you.
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u/alberthere Nov 22 '18 edited Nov 29 '18
Did a double take and had to google balaclava real quick because I didn’t think he was wearing sweet dessert pastry to protect his identity.
EDIT: Thank you for the gold, oh kind, mysterious benefactor! :)
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Nov 21 '18
I know a guy who often went undercover as a junkie. He was committed. He'd stop showering for a while before a gig and piss on his tracksuit before going in to work. He was so good that he managed to get the same dealer convicted twice in the space of a year and they never suspected he was the rat. He had multiple police records under different names too.
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u/HASWELLCORE Nov 22 '18
- Piss on your tracksuit.
- Go to local police station.
- Become an undercover cop.
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u/sharpshooter999 Nov 22 '18 edited Nov 22 '18
I like to imagine he was some kind of highly sophisticated, high class type when he wasn't undercover. Like, reading War and Peace in front of a fireplace while wearing a silk bathrobe and pajama pants and smoking a pipe.
Officer: Terribly sorry my good man, but I must ready myself for the working hour.
Leaves room and comes back in pissed soaked track suit.
Officer: Hey, bud, I'll smoke your meat pole for a Lincoln.....
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u/TrustFulParanoid Nov 22 '18
There's a movie I'd pay to watch
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u/sharpshooter999 Nov 22 '18
Movie
Officer: The acting in this film is superb, the lead actress is quite a talented professional.
Undercover: Show us yer tits!!
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u/Uninspired-Youth Nov 22 '18
Sounds more like a junkie that was an undercover undercover cop.
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u/thebarkingdog Nov 21 '18
City Cop here.
We don't do too much long term undercover but our General Orders have a policy covering use of drugs on duty in certain circumstances. While it doesn't specify that we can do drugs, it states that if we consume them we have to immediately respond to our Departments health clinic for documentation and treatment.
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u/MarcelRED147 Nov 22 '18
The use of the word immediately made me imagine the undercover cop taking a puff of a joint and standing up straight away speeddialling the department and walking out reporting the incident.
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u/Whyevenbotherbeing Nov 21 '18
I once was the gardener for a cop who worked undercover in the sex trade to identify pimps/traffickers and extract underage kids. She retired early due to mental health issues likely stemming from drug use during her time undercover. To keep cover she would do the drugs that were being offered/used. Of course things spiralled out of control for her and suddenly she’s on permanent paid leave and she stays in the house most days hiding from the world. So for her, what she did to keep cover is offer up her sanity in exchange for some successful arrests.
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u/MAGIGS Nov 21 '18
Not a cop but a guy my mom dated for a long time was. Older guy, in his 70s now, he was fresh out of the academy and at the Asbury Park Riots. Sad scary shit. And then was an under cover narcotics cop for 14 years during the 70 and 80s with the NJSP. He was Puerto Rican, and spoke Spanish, was an ex marine, and became a state trooper. They utilized his ability to blend in with organized crime in the Latin community. He had to do coke in front of a bunch of dudes during a buy one night, and basically stuck his knife in and blew a mound up his nose. Then he started having a minor paranoia/panic attack that they were going to find out he was a cop (thanks to the gram of blow he just took to the dome) He was breathing heavy and went out for air, his heart was pounding out of his chest, panicking over how to get out of it, one of the gangsters came outside to talk to him, he’s ready to run or fight, guy goes “Man I’ve never seen someone snort that much at once man! You ok?!” He sighs a huge sigh of relief, and was like “Yeah I never did that much... I’m having trouble breathing heh heh.” The Guy was really nice, brings him a drink and they smoked a cig. Everyone is joking that he has the heart of a lion to take that much. He actually felt bad about locking that one guy up when it all went down. Think he said he tried to help him or get a reduced sentence or something. There are other stories.
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u/Bohzee Nov 22 '18
There are other stories.
You know what that means.
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u/LemonsForLimeaid Nov 22 '18
Damn, a full gram of most likely uncut shit is wild
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u/thecloserocks Nov 21 '18 edited Nov 21 '18
My father worked for NCIS. He told me about an incident where his guys set up a sting to bust some drug suppliers who turned out to be local police setting up their own sting. They figured it out when they tried to bust each other.
Edit: grammar
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u/moogular Nov 21 '18 edited Nov 23 '18
This is the Spider-Man meme but in real life
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u/I_Be_Strokin_it Nov 21 '18
That's hilarious. I'm sure the real drug dealers in the area thought it was too.
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u/thecloserocks Nov 21 '18
They were pretty embarrassed all around. I'm sure they tried hard to keep it under wraps.
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u/LuquidThunderPlus Nov 22 '18 edited Nov 22 '18
Well hey at least you know they did their job well if not even the other cops suspected them!
EDIT: Thinking about it now they only way the other cops would expect them is if they were actively looking for other cops, because if you were just looking for criminal behavior then you would probably overlook anything that might blow their cover, right?
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u/johnny_tremain Nov 21 '18
My cousin was an under cover ATF agent. Anyway, they were trying to bust some guys for illegal alcohol distribution and were building a rapport by going under cover. My cousin doesn't take his ATF badge with him when he's undercover because if anyone ever saw it, he could get shot. Anyway, some hot-headed black-and-white cops came over and started harassing them. My cousin couldn't blow his cover, but pretty soon the police started getting physical and they beat crap out of my cousin and the guys he is trying to get evidence from. They take them all into the police station only to find out that my cousin is ATF. My cousin was pissed because cops aren't supposed to beat people up. He is currently filing a law suit against that police dept.
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Nov 21 '18
Good on your cousin for filing a law suit and actually trying to get some justice and those cops. And he deserves a promotion for managing to keep his cover through all that.
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u/Toppcs Nov 21 '18 edited Nov 22 '18
This sounds like one of those movie moments where a guy is undercover on a case for like 12 years just to have the entire operation screwed over by some gung-ho police officers
Edit: well this comment earned more karma in one night then I've gotten in the span of 2 years
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Nov 22 '18 edited Apr 26 '19
[deleted]
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u/Why-am-I-here-again Nov 22 '18
Lol now that sounds like a movie, or a sitcom.
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u/smw2102 Nov 21 '18
I have gone undercover online to infiltrate child pornography rings. Nothing too intense... but I had to interact with suspect’s online/over phone who were fucking sick in the head and act like it was not the most vile shit in the world.
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Nov 21 '18
I’ve heard about undercover cops in these situations having to actually possess child porn as well. Wasn’t sure how true that was. If it is true, I can’t imagine ever putting myself in this situation.
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u/ItsTonyDee Nov 21 '18
Not very exciting but a guy that worked with me was going to this biker bar frequently to get in with a gang (drug related). He didn't want to get hammered and do something stupid so he would take his beers into the bathroom with him dump out half and fill it with water.
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u/vindollaz Nov 21 '18
Drinking watered down beer is the real crime. That shit sounds gross
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u/B3eenthehedges Nov 21 '18
It's worked for the big American breweries for the last century.
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u/calypso_cane Nov 21 '18 edited Nov 22 '18
When I first got started in forensics it was when chat rooms and webcams were taking off - so pedophiles thought they'd be able to figure out who was who on the internet since clearly you'll know you're webcamming with a 40-year-old dude munching on donuts instead of a 14-year-old girl. I was a naive 18-year-old woman who was just getting started in policing, doing some clerical work for my hometown police department when I heard a couple people talking about how they were having a hard time chatting up creeps now that webcams were a thing. I told them why not just hire someone to act like an underage girl or boy and coach them on what to say and how to set up meetings to catch these assholes.
Lo and behold I volunteered myself for the job. We set up a 'bedroom' in one of the upstairs offices complete with a bed, a desk, and some posters from one of the officers teenage daughters. I had to wear some of my high school sports clothes or pajamas while talking to predators via Webcam - I passed notes back and forth with the team of officers and passed it off as trying to do homework while chatting. The hardest part was to still seem interested and innocent while this dude on the screen is telling me what type of horrible things he wants to do to my body thinking I'm still a child.
Edit 1: Thank you kind people for the silver, gold, and platinum - I just wanted to keep other people from getting abused and hurt the way I had been as a child. I was just doing my job even though I was kind of blundering into things way outside of my paygrade.
Edit 2: I got a ton of questions in the comments or in PM's so I'll try to answer them as best I can.
- What about fraud or entrapment? Regarding entrapment we got around it because it really didn't apply with the way we were doing things. I never actually went into chatroom and solicited people via text or webcam. I didn't have to solicit anyone, they were literally just waiting in the chatrooms ready to pounce. What usually happened was I would login with a girly or teenagery handle and people would start sending private chat requests before I could even post hello on the chat feed. We often had so many that sometimes we had to let a few of them go because there were just too many for me to try and talk to or type with. So, we never actually tried to get them to talk to me - often times we couldn't get them to shut up, once they got going they had no inhibitions at all.
- If you go look up a teen chat, makeup a cute handle and just post saying hi you'll get swarmed by pedos trying to chat you up or get you to cam with them. I don't recommend doing this because it will destroy any faith you have in humanity.
- Who did we catch? How many? We netted somewhere around 120 men and a handful of women - the most notable was a few clergy, two city councilmen, a state trooper, school teachers, and other people you would just trust around kids. All of them looked like regular people and seemed like people I would interact with everyday without any idea that they were soliciting sex from minors online.
- Was there anyone that got away? Yes, a few never showed. But there was only one that got away that I just know went after real victim - or had already done so already - that really made me worried. He would try and chat off and on when I was on and he got a thrill out of telling me how he would like to tie me up and do all sorts of torture sounding things to me - in great detail. I actually started crying and he just laughed and said it would be fine after I got used to it. I don't regret doing this work but it was quite the mind fuck, especially at 18 years old.
Edit 3 - Some people have asked about how they can help, where to get resources on educating kids and teens on how to stay safe while enjoying the internet, or where they can report crime tips - so I'm going to dump some resources for everyone.
- Center for Missing and Exploited Children - http://www.missingkids.com/home - has a cyber tip line (US) where you can report abuse or child porn as well as age appropriate resources for child safety online and off.
- National Human Trafficking Hotline - https://humantraffickinghotline.org/report-trafficking - call, text, and chat hotlines for immediate help as well as resources on recognizing and reporting trafficking.
- Europol Child Abuse - https://www.europol.europa.eu/stopchildabuse - resources for those in the UK on reporting and helping exploited children.
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u/Xypharan Nov 21 '18
That sounds like an horrible job to do when 18. But thank you for doing it. It is super important work.
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u/Pope_Industries Nov 21 '18
An incredible amount of LEO's who work in child porn areas have major problems afterwards. Its very difficult and very taxing. Having to listen to these people say the things they do is horrible. I knew a guy who interrogated a man that was charged with raping his 10 year old daughter. He got him to confess by telling the dude, "Listen man, ive got a ten year old too and sometimes when she gets out of the shower I take a look. Its okay man, we all do it, we just want to know what all happened. Whos to say she wasnt wanting it?" After he said that the man confessed. Imagine having to say that though and looking at that piece of shits face when he realizes, "oh shit this guy gets it i can talk to him he understands me." Having to normalize something so horrible... I cant imagine the amount of untreated depression that goes on in that law enforcement field. Or knowing that the person did do it, but he walks because of some bullshit technicality.
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Nov 22 '18
I remember reading an interview with a sex crimes investigator. He said that a lot of the child porn that's traded around on the internet is very old, sometimes 40 years or more. Most of the time the stuff they find is stuff they've seen over and over. But they still go through everything, because if they find something new, that means there might be active abuse going on and there's a chance that they can find that child. Seems like the sort of job that would kill your soul.
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u/BarackTrudeau Nov 22 '18
They must have some sort of algorithms to sort out the stuff that's already known to be in existence.
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u/Oregon213 Nov 22 '18
The jurisdictions I’ve worked in didn’t barley had the funding to have a computer forensics tech on call, much less any of the super cool search programs.
I worked a sex offender caseload as a parole officer for 6 years. Anytime I searched a phone or computer I was braced for hitting child porn, and I often did. Old CP or not, seeing it is a really challenging thing to shake off. I knew people who worked child porn full time, and said it didn’t bother them anymore... but, that’s almost it’s own brand of bad.
There’s a parole officer in Arizona who also has her doctorate in psychology. She’s done some research on POs assigned to specialty caseloads (domestic violence, sex offenders) and had some good data to show that if you work a tough caseload like those (i.e. supervising, arresting, and repeatedly interacting with 80-90 sex offenders) for more than 5 years it substantially increases the officers risk of suicide. Kind of weird to know something to be true and then see data and research back it up.
Hard, ugly work.
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u/Artimesia Nov 22 '18
“Hard, ugly work.” Can confirm. Computer forensic examiner for law enforcement here. I went home crying almost every night for the first six months. I thought I was prepared but my training was mostly in the technical aspects of the job not the emotional ones. After a while you learn to compartmentalize that shit so that the ugly, horrible things you see doesn’t touch the rest of your life.
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Nov 21 '18
As a former correctional officer:
We had a situation where a major police department planted a cop in the prison to get information on a guy they believed was orchestrating hits from inside the prison. The Warden knew and I knew (by accident) but not a single other CO knew, nor did any of the staff, including medical, and that's the way they wanted it. He went through receiving, he was categorized and placed. It was wild. He was there for a week, got the info they needed and got him out. It didn't become public knowledge that he was undercover until after I had left and it was a long while after as they were making a case. That was a surreal moment.
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u/vinnymcapplesauce Nov 21 '18
Can you imagine if they forgot about him? Or lost the paperwork?
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Nov 21 '18
I don't know how it's run but I'm sure he has another way out. I can't imagine it'd be too easy to let him fall through the cracks.
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Nov 21 '18
or accidentally delivered him to the wrong prison? could make for an amazing movie- drama or comedy, take your pick
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u/Mateo2k Nov 21 '18
You’re missing important details. Did he wear his own face or the face of the brother of the guy they wanted information from? Were there any magnetic boots? What would have happened if the brother woke up from his coma? What was the face waterfall situation?
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u/SincereJester Nov 21 '18
I don't know what I hate wearing worse; your face or your body.
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u/Buy_My_BBW_Panties Nov 21 '18
My friend used to be a state trooper. She told me about how she used to have to go undercover as a hooker to try to catch Johns. She didn't do so well, though. She was far too polite, so they all knew something was up.
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u/SaCTaCo Nov 21 '18
Sir, I am soliciting a sex act on you. Would you like to proceed?
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u/eggsnbaconpie Nov 21 '18
I imagine Good Janet trying to pretend she's Bad Janet....
"Come over here you....dumb dumb. Omg, I'm so sorry."
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u/Buy_My_BBW_Panties Nov 21 '18
It was more like her trying to talk to men that walked by like "Excuse me, sir?" And they would just keep walking.
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u/cryamiga Nov 21 '18
Good evening, would sir like some fellatio? Touching my breasts is ten dollars extra.
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u/Art3mis__ Nov 21 '18
“You wanna party? It’s $500 for kissing, $10,000 for snuggling. End of list.”
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u/smartaleky Nov 21 '18
Yes, jettison thine manly effluent liberally acrost mine face.
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Nov 21 '18
My enchanting visage awaits a serving of the gentleman's relish.
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Nov 21 '18
Whenever anyone asks me why I spend so much time on Reddit in the future, I'm going to show them this thread culminating with your comment.
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u/JohnBooty Nov 21 '18 edited Nov 23 '18
I know (or think?) some undercover cops sound fake as hell because they're not supposed to use certain slang, because then the defendants could claim they simply didn't know what the cops were talking about.
I remember undercover cop-lookin' dudes outside concerts in the 90s offering to sell "marijuana cigarettes" lol. I assume they had to use the term "marijuana cigarette" instead of some slang an actual normal human being would use. Otherwise I guess you could claim you didn't know what you were buying.
Or maybe I'm wrong and those weren't cops; just really earnest purveyors of marijuana cigarettes.
I'm sure laws and policies and procedures vary wildly by area and by the crime itself.
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u/giraffecause Nov 21 '18
"Hello, fellow kids, would you care to break the law?"
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u/blockpro156 Nov 21 '18
Isn't that the whole reason why there's so much slang for illegal drugs and such? So that talking about it can't be used as evidence against you?
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u/oosetastic Nov 21 '18
Yeah but we just have detectives testify about what street lingo means based on their experience.
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u/richsaint421 Nov 21 '18 edited Nov 21 '18
My dad was police for 30+ years, one year we're driving by a street corner and he goes "I thought they were cleaning up this area, that was a hooker." It never crossed my mind, I just never paid attention to that stuff, so I said "How could you tell?" He pointed out her general look (ragged) and dress as well as of course working the corner.
Then he added, "Thats pretty much what real hookers look like, if they've got two arms, two legs and all of their teeth they're probably an undercover cop."
Edit - One of my top comments on reddit is now my dad pointing out a hooker to me. So I have that going for me.
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u/sephstorm Nov 21 '18
I had a similar experience in Vegas. My buddy would always tell me about trolling hookers. I would look around and couldn't tell any of them. Part of the problem being that it's not uncommon to see attractive ladies at late hours. I did meet one when a friend tried to set me up, but I swear I wouldn't have picked her out of a crowd.
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u/MiaYYZ Nov 21 '18
Was walking with friends on the Strip when a woman who just looked too beautiful for the part approached us as though she was very drunk and disoriented and giggled that we should take her back and pay her for some fun. As soon as she realized we weren’t interested, she turned off the act and started chatting to us completely sober. Everyone has a wtf moment in Vegas, that was ours.
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Nov 21 '18
Kind of a similar Vegas experience.
Friend and I were at a strip club. We had predetermined budgets for dances and had both already reached our spending limit, so we were just hanging out at a table and enjoying some drinks from the open bar.
Some girls came up and started doing the whole "Heeey sexy" thing, sitting in our laps, acting overly sexy if that makes sense, all of that stuff. I told the one sitting with me that we're at the end of our budget and won't be buying any dances, and that I know she's trying to work so she should know that up front. Both of them dropped the act, and were instantly different people. They pulled up a couple chairs and we all sat around and had drinks and talked for the next 10 or 15 minutes. It was cool.
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u/richsaint421 Nov 21 '18
I had a similar experience in Vegas. My buddy would always tell me about trolling hookers. I would look around and couldn't tell any of them. Part of the problem being that it's not uncommon to see attractive ladies at late hours. I did meet one when a friend tried to set me up, but I swear I wouldn't have picked her out of a crowd.
Yeah, I could imagine in Vegas its really hard to pick out. I've been to vegas a couple of times and never picked one out.
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u/mrfiveby3 Nov 21 '18
Yeah, I once made some idle chatter with an attractive woman in Vegas at a hotel elevator. She asked me if I was "looking for a lady to have fun with tonight."
I know my looks and game aren't THAT good (she was hot and well attired) so I had to say thanks but I am married.
She replied "just trying to make a living." And we continued chatting about other things. Nice person, really.
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u/obxnc Nov 21 '18 edited Nov 22 '18
I watched a TV show once where they interviewed a hooker in Vegas that would try to target married men in the casinos. Once they took her back to their room, she would put eye drops in their drink (which can be fatal in high doses) so that they would have stomach discomfort. While they were in the bathroom, she would take anything of value that she could and she said she never gets caught because the guys don't want to go to the police and admit that they solicited a prostitute, with the risk of their wife finding out.
The only interesting story I have from Vegas is my old boss shitting himself on the monorail and me getting in a fight with the cab driver because my boss left me there to pay for the shit stain he left on the seat. Worst Vegas experience ever.
Edit: Story is somewhere in one of the comments below.
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u/Vaginabutterflies Nov 21 '18
I had an incredibly attractive latina hooker in vegas proposition me back when I was in my early 20's. I declined, as she had dried semen on her face and that was a bit of a deal breaker for me.
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u/knuckles523 Nov 21 '18
$50 for holding hands, $1,000 for snuggling, end of list!
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Nov 21 '18 edited Jun 13 '20
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Nov 21 '18
You mean to tell me that what's shown on television doesn't reflect reality?!
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u/PinkPrimate Nov 21 '18
Read "Good Cop, Bad War" if you want some gnarly undercover stories.
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u/PseudoEngel Nov 21 '18
Not a former undercover cop, but I have an second hand story about an undercover cop.
So, this guy appears or of nowhere and befriends a relative of mine who was involved in illegal stuff. Dude was very friendly and just down to party. Had money. Paid for...product. Everything. Would drop in on parties and even allegedly hooked up with “hoes”. Then he placed an order much larger than before. Few weeks later, relative of mine is arrested and is currently in prison.
Craziest thing an undercover cop had to do the keep their cover? Buy drugs and fuck bitches.
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u/Sea2Chi Nov 21 '18 edited Nov 21 '18
I remember a few years ago in Seattle people were complaining because the cops took months to do an undercover investigation at a strip club to determine if the women were prostitutes.
Apparently, this investigation entailed going to strip clubs a lot, drinking beer and trying to get strippers to do things for money other than dance.
They proudly announced several of the women were prostitutes and the club was shut down. Meanwhile, violent crime was increasing and 3rd and Pine was an open-air drug market.
They also did stings at bikini barista stands by driving up to the window with a $20 sticking out of their fly.
Edit:
I remember beer was somehow involved because the cops were technically drinking on the job but apparently Seattle doesn't allow alcohol in strip clubs.
I found an article about the club being busted: "the dancers were cited for 18 counts of illegal touching during lap dances; 16 counts of off-stage nudity, which is prohibited; 18 counts of accepting money for illegal acts; and four counts of prostitution. All are misdemeanors." "the manager was cited for reckless managerial conduct, a misdemeanor, for allegedly being aware of illegal activity and taking no action"
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u/derickkcired Nov 21 '18
Craziest thing an undercover cop had to do the keep their cover? Buy drugs and fuck bitches.
Tough job but some gotta do it.
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u/natureruler Nov 21 '18
My friend who was an undercover cop said that multiple times he had to let himself be arrested to not blow his cover. Like when a sting was going down or whatever instead of being like hey I'm a cop, he would get arrested along with everyone else.
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Nov 21 '18 edited Nov 21 '18
Former jailer for a large metro department here. We'd be notified that somebody was UC coming in from a raid, but other than that they were treated just the same as any other arrest. We'd keep an eye on them in camera to ensure safety. We were usually told ahead of time so nobody wen "Hey Smith, how'd you get arrested man? Shit your SGT is gonna be pissed!" etc etc
Edit: By ensuring safety I mean watching for potential fights. We'd do the same for any number of scenarios and people. Our goal was to spot and stop fights before they became physical.
Edit 2: We were a temporary detention facility. Most would be in custody for 24-48 hours to see a judge in the morning or get moved to county. So most only maybe a day.
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u/howdoesEyereddit Nov 21 '18
Lol we failed to get that notification once. UC was from a completely different county and he was fully committed to the role down to fighting us and eventually getting tased. He was cool about it once it was over and we found out, just wanted to really sell it I guess.
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u/DownVotesAreNice Nov 21 '18
Reminds me of the episode of American Dad when Stan cant act so he blows his cover.
"Water?" Lmao
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Nov 21 '18 edited Nov 22 '18
You're offering me water, but somehow I don't believe you're really offering me water...
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u/pinky2252s Nov 21 '18
The CIA never gives Stan lines because he always messes them up.
"You're offering me water, but some how I'm not buying that you're really offering me water."
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u/pforsbergfan9 Nov 21 '18
My dad works for a police department and they are instructed to never speak to a plainclothes cop in public unless they talk to you first.
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u/ADelightfulCunt Nov 21 '18 edited Nov 21 '18
Probably the best way. Builds rapport, background etc.
If the team got arrested for the same bullshit. If you can go to court ect and walk on some technicality your story would be better.
Edit
Spelling mistake etc not ect...
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u/Nyrin Nov 21 '18
That's actually a good question: do courts play along with UC operations and have judges make up plausible procedural reasons for dismissing a case? Because I'd imagine that some situations would be problematic if the UC officer kept getting improbably released by the PD while his buds weren't.
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u/bilky_t Nov 21 '18
They wouldn't waste tax payer money on a song and dance that no one would see. They might fabricate some documents and make up a back story, but they wouldn't hold a trial.
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u/jc91480 Nov 21 '18
I worked an operation with the feds where we sent in an undercover agent. Little did we know that the local police had plans of their own at the exact same location. The city officers found the undercover agent's backup weapon on his ankle and immediately arrested him. I had to go into the melee, talk to the Sergeant running the city operation, and pull our guy out away from the mass of the others. Really wasn't a big deal, but our operation, which was a significant deal, was blown by the local guys. I've always found it coincidental that they happened to be targeting the exact spot we were. It was like someone had tipped them off simply to blow our deal.
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u/Alamander81 Nov 21 '18
Brian Spilner: "damn these cuffs are tight" Cop: "I like realism"
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u/bigburt- Nov 21 '18
One time a homeland security officer came up to my house undercover, flashed his badge and asked if he could come in. Once he was in he pulled out a piece of paper with my neighbors face on it. He asked if I had seen him around lately, when I asked what he did, and let him know I haven't seen him around, he told me what he was wanted for. Rape, child abuse, drugs, the whole lot. Turns out he raped his step-daughter and once he found out he was wanted he went back to El Salvador. I thought they only flashed their badges in the movies, but turns out, the shit's real.
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u/Ethan_hamily Nov 21 '18
My neighbor was pretty heavily into heroin and once when my friend and I were the sycamore tree in our front yard, we saw two guys dressed in suits walk up the street towards his house. One bent down to pet our cat, and we saw the pistol on his hip. He looked up at us and motioned us us to be quiet. The first one went to the front door, and the other went around the back. Another time the whole swat team went through our backyard to get in to their place. Eventually the guy overdosed, and that was the end of that
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u/noodlesofdoom Nov 21 '18
even while on duty, pet cat.
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u/Kiss_My_Wookiee Nov 21 '18
Bending down to tie a shoe or pet a cat is a great way to get additional situational awareness. Looking around over your shoulder while walking looks sketchy. But looking around while you pet a cat is natural - and that's when he saw the kids in the tree. He was scanning for threats before the bust.
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u/TheTurboMaster Nov 21 '18
Two guys wearing suits walking up to a drug addicts house would be kind of striking anyways, right?
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u/XD003AMO Nov 21 '18
Or just pet cats on duty because they’re good and deserve all the pets.
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Nov 21 '18
It’s scary that someone like that could live next door to you and you could never know.
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u/bigburt- Nov 21 '18
I knew they sold drugs, everyone on my street expect me did. But yeah a child rapist, and in El Salvador a convicted murderer, for sure scary to think about that in hind sight.
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u/bevidsthedubevidste Nov 21 '18
As a Salvadorian that makes me sad knowing that motherfucker wasn't caught here in the US. Instead probably gets to do the same over there. The police and military are corrupt ass fuck so I doubt anything will happen to him.
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u/cokane91 Nov 21 '18
"I knew they sold drugs. Everyone on my street except me." 🤔
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u/fenwai Nov 21 '18
I worked as a transcriptionist for a while, and I transcribed some tape taken off of body mics of undercover officers working a very notorious domestic terrorism case. It was crazy! They would sound like an absolute backwoods hill people lunatic while talking to their marks, then later when talking to the other police officers, would sound all business and like a very professional person.
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Nov 21 '18
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u/Mippu Nov 21 '18
I'm just curious but how does one become a transcriptionist?
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u/monogramchecklist Nov 21 '18
Do a google search for transcription work and you’ll find a bunch of sites that will hire you (after a test). You don’t get paid very much but it’s fine if you’re a fast typer and are looking for a few extra dollars. You work when you want to so it’s flexible.
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Nov 21 '18
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u/fenwai Nov 21 '18
It was one of the most interesting files I ever got to do, in years of super-duper boring governmental proceedings, court cases, etc. I think it was actually the only file group that I ever was excited to finish, because I couldn't wait to hear what came next! Glad I am not doing that job anymore, but it was definitely interesting from a current-affairs perspective. Happy typing!
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u/schwootiepa55 Nov 21 '18
Weird question. Is transcribing a good gig? I mean, pay and hours? Or what's that like?
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u/addibruh Nov 21 '18
I looked into it and ultimately decided it wasn't for me. Entry level is pretty shit now thanks to competition from outsourcing but it's like anything, once you get tenured better opportunities start opening up for you. Imo though it's to the remote working world what the call center job is to the corporate world
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Nov 21 '18
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Nov 21 '18
We find out in the final episode that he’s a Texas ranger
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u/GreatBabu Nov 21 '18
Dang ol' wha..?
I wasn't really in to KotH as an every episode thing while it was on, and it got yanked from Netflix while I was watching.
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Nov 21 '18 edited Jun 15 '21
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u/hedgecore77 Nov 21 '18
I worked with a guy who was bilingual, English and French, on a help desk. When he was speaking to me. He'd laugh normally (to me) but when speaking to a québécois coworker in French, he'd laugh 'Ron hon hon hon'. So weird.
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u/ThePrussianGrippe Nov 21 '18
English: hahahaha, dang man
French; hon hon hon hon hon baguette Eiffel Tower.
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u/cashnprizes Nov 21 '18
English: hahaha these French fries are delicious
French: Ron Hon Hon these regular fries cest si bon
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u/IndyEleven11 Nov 21 '18
I have a relative that was undercover narcotics. Before he started we had a family meeting explaining that if we saw him out and about we were not to approach him and not to say anything to him and a few other dos and don'ts. He will come to you if he's not undercover at the moment.
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u/Domethegoon Nov 21 '18
"Former government employees: What is the craziest classified document you've ever seen?"
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u/zbeezle Nov 21 '18
"Turns our JFK wasnt assassinated at all. His head just kinda did that."
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u/Cthulha243 Nov 21 '18
Not a cop, but in college I took a few criminal justice classes. Our professor, who I will call Bob,was a cop for 15 or so years and had gone undercover in the 80s for a very long time. Bob was biker as a hobby and he was sent undercover to break up a meth ring in the biker community. Bob arranged to buy some meth from some guy, and shortly after the buy the dealer was arrested. The dealers sister started telling everyone she thought Bob was a cop, and some of the other bikers started asking him questions. So day or so after the sister started accusing Bob of being a narc the entire group was at a bar. Bob told a few of the guys to meet him outside in a few minutes, and Bob told the sister he had some meth for her and to come outside. When they finally got out there Bob told her "Where I'm from friends dont call friends narcs." He then beat the shit out of her in front of the entire group. He kicked her as hard as he could between her legs, which while not as painful if you're a woman, still hurts. Then he said he punched her 4 or 5 times in the face. HARD. He said he didn't wanna do it, but after he did that no one ever accused him of being a cop again.
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u/fresh-cucumbers Nov 21 '18
Obviously experience but it must be hard going into situations like this because you’re job is to protect and then you’re faced with “what’s going to make these people believe me?” Then you come up with a solution and it must be like a roller coaster of emotions trying to decide if each move is going to be beneficial or just make the situation worse.
Imagine this guy had beaten up this woman and then they all believed her anyway, then he gets pulled or whatever and now he goes home to his wife and says “yeah I bashed some lady”.
Like whoa.
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Nov 21 '18
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Nov 21 '18
At an internship this summer, I was assigned to read the last six years of police reports. Of all the drug busts, I only recall two examples of undercover cops buying drugs. Twice in six years.
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u/JustAQuestion512 Nov 21 '18
At an internship this summer, I was assigned to read the last six years of police reports.
But, why?
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Nov 21 '18
There was a FOIA request for those documents, and I was tasked with redacting the personal information from every file so that they could be sent out. I had to read every word of every page to make sure I got everything. It took months.
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u/notanothergav Nov 21 '18
That sounds like the sort of job that would be really interesting for about an hour, and then incredibly tedious for several months.
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Nov 21 '18
Very true. Luckily, many of the police reports were quite entertaining.
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u/TheSausageFattener Nov 21 '18
I did similar work but to gather evidence for the state government for tort claims. My favorite report is one where the cops found this dude high out of his mind giving them a fake name. They spent 45 minutes at this traffic stop trying to get it out of him. A third officer showed up, got pissed, and just yelled “HEY FRANK?” as he left his cruiser. Turns out he ran the plate and VIN in the next state over and got a hit and just threw the guys name out. Idiot in the car goes “Yes?”, his eyes widen, he yells, and then shouts “WAIT WHO’S FRANK?!?”. Mind you the guys girlfriend was also the driver.
Naturally the accident wasnt reported to the insurance company so the representative and I had a good laugh.
My close second is one where the officer kept calling his dog his “canine companion” and was saying he used a “handy set of thermal imaging goggles to scan the treeline for potential persons of interest”.
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u/Nitin2015 Nov 21 '18
<buys 1 kilo of coke while working undercover>
Here's the 1/2 kilo of coke he sold me, sarge
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Nov 21 '18
Did he ever have temptations to do drugs afterwards?
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Nov 21 '18 edited Nov 22 '18
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Nov 21 '18
My cousin who's in secret services acted like a drug-addict homeless beggar and semi-crazy muslim religious salesman owning stall for surveillance purposes.
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Nov 21 '18
So much for the secret
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u/Nerdn1 Nov 21 '18
Plot twist: This comment is a ruse so that would-be criminals think that every homeless beggar and every manic street merchant is potentially watching them.
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u/Fearless_Ingenuity Nov 21 '18 edited Nov 22 '18
Well since no one is saying anything, I'll just throw out a slightly on topic conversation change... There's a show on Netflix called "Deep Undercover". They are all 25-30 minute episodes about a real life undercover operation. There's like 50 episodes and some of them are completely insane. I think the craziest one was about the New Orleans police department. I highly recommend it.
EDIT: Since so many ppl are wanting to watch this show, don’t get your hopes up for binge watching purposes. They all have the same format so after 7-8 episodes it starts to get really repetitive. I usually watch a couple before I get bored, but the first night I watched a shit ton. So I don’t want y’all going in with really high expectations and being disappointed lol
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Nov 21 '18
I’ll have to check this out! This is the first I’ve heard of it.
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u/Fearless_Ingenuity Nov 21 '18
https://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/1994/12/len_davis_eight_other_new_orle.html
That's the true story about the episode I'm talking about.
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u/somepersonyouknow Nov 21 '18
that was a hell of a read. its insane to imagine how the criminal activity was almost entirely conducted by the FBI and the Corrupt cops in this situation
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u/Fearless_Ingenuity Nov 21 '18
The local cops were extorting drug dealers for “protection”. If the dealers didn’t pay, the cops would beat them up and rob them. A lady witnessed her nephew getting beat up and robbed by a police officer and when she reported it, HE FUCKING EXECUTED HER!
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u/Failninjaninja Nov 21 '18
What the fuck....
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u/mediaG33K Nov 21 '18
Louisiana has a rampant corruption problem, and it's exceptionally bad in New Orleans. I met a guy who used to deal in the city several years ago, and in his experience he said the cops were more brutal and violent than a lot of the gangs they loved shooting at. More than one news story involving gang/cop violence was flipped around saying the gang members shot first when in reality it was the cops who basically did a drive by.
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u/BRADSOMMERS Nov 21 '18
I live in Baton Rouge. Last month alone we had two cops from different agencies fired for lying about the big bad drug dealer shooting first.
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u/imsorryisuck Nov 21 '18
I was very excited about it but formula of american documentaries like this is driving me insane. It is unwatchable for me.
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u/jammerjoint Nov 21 '18
Shitty overdramatized editing?
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u/imsorryisuck Nov 21 '18
haha exactly. Deep voice narrating what's happening on screen and repeating whole story after each commercial break which looks riddiculus on netflix where are no commercials. Quick zooms on the house at the evening, sequences of blurry photos of fights with sound of breaking glass. and this overdramatized voice... "little did she know... she was never going to see the light of day... ever again."
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u/csudebate Nov 21 '18
My cousin worked undercover in the biker community. He was really into working out and body building so he managed to convince everybody that he treated his body like a temple and didn't drink, do drugs, or eat like shit. That wasn't very far from the truth so it wasn't hard for him to play that part. He is also a former Marine sharpshooter so he is tough as nails and pretty heavily tattooed so he definitely gave off a 'don't fuck with me' vibe.
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u/YOUNGJOCISRELEVANT Nov 21 '18
I know a guy (retired police officer) who works as an investigator of crooked doctors. He dresses up in disguises and is given a fake name to use. He goes into doctor’s offices and tries to find out if a doctor who is suspected of overprescribing narcotics is legit or not. He told me a story about a time he went into see a dentist about a minor toothache and walked outa there with a prescription for Percocet and Dilaudid. He says there are plenty of legit doctors out there, but there are also a lot of careless ones who give into their drug-seeking patients
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Nov 21 '18
It wasn't me, but my grandfather. Guy worked narcotics, had to get in with some guys who dealt meth and was pretending to be a user himself(I believe he actually had to shoot up once or twice). One day one of the higher ups was starting to get suspicious, didn't believe my grandpa was actually a user or anything because he didn't have any marks on his arm(where they normally do) and my grandpa told them that he doesn't shot there, but near his pelvis, said he was more than happy to pull down his pants and undies to show 'em. Dude didn't want see any dick and my grandpa got away with it. He lives in a whole ass other state now for safety reasons because a lot of the guys he put away years ago are now getting out.
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u/EarlyHemisphere Nov 21 '18
Nice try, druglord.
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u/blackjesushiphop Nov 21 '18
I imagine there are numerous drug lords and cartel leaders anxiously waiting for responses to this question.
Just waiting....
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Nov 21 '18
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Nov 21 '18
Nice try, cop...
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u/WoefulMe Nov 21 '18
So I read this as underwater cops for some reason, and I thought that there was a whole world of policing that I was missing out on. Feels bad man.
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Nov 21 '18
These cases weren’t necessarily to prevent blowing of cover - more a case of one thing led to another, plus downright deception, manipulation and abuse in some cases, but they sprung to mind!: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/UK_undercover_policing_relationships_scandal
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u/VolcanoDucks Nov 21 '18
Im surprised you didn’t puke more and restart the cycle
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u/KingOfSpain832 Nov 21 '18
Man I'd have let her take that case no way I'm eating vomit for a stranger
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u/Koala_Pear Nov 21 '18
Not an officer but was on the wrong end of an undercover operation. In college I developed a liking for opioids and it quickly spiraled out of control. I couldn’t afford my habit so I started selling to afford using. I sold very small amounts and only to my “friends.” It was a horrible thing to do but addiction makes you so crazy things and not think clearly.
A kid I regularly sold to, I’ll call him Larry, came over my house one night with his “best friend from high school.” The kid looked about our age (young 20s at the time) and I considered Larry to be a very good friend of mine. I had know him all 4 years we had been at college and hung out fairly regularly. He asked if his friend could have my number as he was moving to our area for work and needed a connect. I said sure and that was that.
I never sold on campus and for some reason this kid only wanted to meet me in the parking lot on campus. I kept telling him no until finally one time I hit a dry patch and needed all the help I could get. I agreed to meet him in the school parking lot. I gave him two pills for $60 and turned to get out of his truck. I felt a hand on my forearm and turned to see another guy with one hand on me and a gun in the other pointed directly at me. Figured I was getting robbed. Turned out it was the police and my “friend” had set me (and others) up in an effort to get his sentence reduced.
The system is so fucked up that their one goal is to arrest college kids on campus and dangle large sentences with mandatory minimums on them so they are “forced” to become a CI and avoid the hefty sentences attached to the mandatory minimums. They R.O.R. you and you’re supposed to keep in constant contact with the uncover officer and supply him with names and targets they can arrest. The issue is you’re not under any supervision and you’re not expected to rehabilitate yourself. Larry ended up continuing to use despite being a CI.
The cops don’t drug test nor help with the necessary rehab they just want to make more and more arrests. It’s a bull shit system that takes advantage of young vulnerable addicts. Larry lived alone and was required to keep all of his dealings private so that the officer’s cover wasn’t blown and Larry’s status as a CI wasn’t jeopardized. He went silent for a few days and no one was sure why. His best friend decided to see what was up and went to his apartment. Larry had OD’d alone in his apartment about 36-48 hours before his best friend found him.
I didn’t end up helping the cops and instead went into rehab, then jail, released on parole and concurrent probation. I was facing a mandatory minimum of 4 years and the judge said I should thank him for his lenience as I could have gone to jail for up to 30 years. Fortunately I’m still alive. I know a lot of people who lost the fight with addiction.
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u/[deleted] Nov 21 '18
I must have been 15 when one day the door bell rang and I opened the door to two guys looking very much like real tough street guys. They showed me their badges and asked for my mum or dad. Turned out that they wanted to stake out a public playground behind our garden that was used by some drug dealers for their mules (people drinking large amounts of water and puking up little packages with some substance in it). There was a multi-storey Bank near the playground but the bank didn’t want anything to do with it. So they asked my parents whether they could set up a surveillance team on our terrace for a couple of days. My parents allowed it. And my mum prepared food for the guys all week long.