By Michael D. Martin, E.C.P.D.
Retired
About the author...Michael Martin (pictured front row, far right in the
1981 photo) is a retired veteran of 25 years on the Eden City Police
Department, and has penned a number of anecdotal writings recalling his
experiences.
XXX. Take-Down at the Eden Mall
I guess this was about 1987, not too sure about the date but it was warm,
sunny weather, Eden Detective Division had been investigating some
burglaries that seemed odd to us when we were contacted by our pals at
Danville, PD. They were looking for a couple of Danville natives that were
supposed to be in prison in North Carolina.
About the same time we were
contactd by Martinsville, Virginia P.D. who were searching for a couple of
burglars from Danville who had stolen a car from Martinsville. We were also
contacted the same week by Detectives from Greensboro, N.C. who were looking
for the same men. Danville City officers had been in contact with an old
girlfriend of one of the men who reported that in one burglary, they had
stolen a pistol and since the heat was not on in the Eden area, that's where
they planned to hide out. on this particular day, Eden P.D. was host to
detectives from Danville and Greensboro and Martinsville officers were on
their way as soon as they cleared court. I seem to remember that Officer
Donnie Dickerson spotted the stolen car stashed near the Eden Mall and he
alerted detective division. We did not want the fight, but it seemed certain
that the fight was going to be in Eden this time.
The Danville detective remembered the girlfriend as
saying that the men only had the bullets that were in the gun and needed
more. We figured that they had stashed the car and walked to K-Mart in the
Eden Mall to get more ammunition. all Eden plain cars, the Danville car and
the Greensboro car headed for the mall to observe. Detective
"Buddy" Moretz was with me in my old burgundy Plymouth when we
spotted the two, heavily tattooed men walking out of the mall and heading in
the direction of the stashed car. We drove to within seven or eight feet of
the men and I slammed on brakes and Bud rolled out with a 12 ga. Riot gun
and screwed it in the ear of the closest man, the second man was frozen for
a second and I cleared the front of the car and put him on the ground. This
took two seconds flat, in three seconds the area was full of Eden Detectives
and Patrolmen. Bud yelled to me, "my man is clean, your man has the
gun!! he was trying to reach his back pocket as we handcuffed him and I
reached into the back pocket and pulled out a loaded pistol. We bucked the
two against the patrol car and one of the men said "thank you sir"
I asked, "for what?" and he said "thank you for not
killing us!" When I heard that, I realized.......these two fools were
as serious as we were!
Later, one of the Greensboro Detectives told me
that he had been on the force for twenty-seven years and he had never seen a
takedown that quick.
Bud and I shared a few beers later that night and
we both agreed we were somewhat scared, but neither of us were willing to
let "big city police" go back and say Eden City Police Officers
were a bunch of crackers!
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