How George Became a Cop on a Horse.

Lisa
Hi. It’s Lisa Richard Hernandez. And welcome back to our view where we talk about life travel in real estate. I’m here with my husband, George, today. We’re going to talk about all the time that he spent in law enforcement. Is that law enforcement? As a mounted police officer which means he rode a horse.

George
Thank you for clearing that up.

Lisa
Yeah, I just said there was a clarification. You know what a Mounted Police officer was? And then he also spent a lot of time in, narcotics and drug interdiction. So, uh, we like to play the game driving down 95. Dad, would have pulled that car over. So any, uh, tell us just any exciting, interesting stories that you want to share about your police days that we should know about

George
That could be a whole another podcast. Yeah, So If you talk to any police officer, they’ve got a Million stories. So before that I was actually an accountant. My degree is in accounting. I did 12 years of accounting and I became a cop because accounting was too stressful. Believe it or not, and tell that people that tell that to people honestly, I had to leave accounting. It was just it was stressing me out. Just there’s too much. I don’t like it. And so I had moved to Charleston and I was just looking for something new. I always wanted to be a cop. I had it in the back of my mind when I moved to Charleston; my father in law at the time came in one day with a little clipping from a newspaper and I was Chief Reuben Greenberg was looking for Spanish speaking officer. So I said, Hey, George, here, why don’t you give it a shot? I said, All right, I’ll give it one more shot and I went in and I applied and, uh, filled out my paperwork and a couple weeks later, I got a call from the city and they said the chief wanted to have me come in. So I went in and I did an interview, and then they actually brought me in the chief’s office, which I was surprised about, and I sat there and then I was even more surprised when Chief Greenberg did the whole interview, basically in Spanish, and I was just amazed because I was not expecting it. I had heard a lot of stuff about Reuben Greenberg. He was an incredible Police Chief. He was the first black police chief in the South during the worst times of the South. When he became chief, KKK was still having rallies in Charleston and protests and all that stuff. So he came into the middle of that. And he’s a fascinating guy. If you ever got a chance, read his book. It’s just amazing. So I did the interview with him. He sent me upstairs to, um, personnel and long story short. They told me to don’t quit your day Job is takes forever to do the process and it could take months. Well, three weeks later, I got a call. You’re off to the academy. Pack your bags. Let’s go. Chief wants you. So I did it. I loved law enforcement. It was the most fun, the most crazy, it was stressful. There were good days and bad days, but overall I just totally enjoyed my time. And as Lisa said, um, I did one year on the Street after all my field training and the academy and the chief called me in his office one day and said, hey, would you go into the horse patrol unit for me? And I said, Chief, I’m from New York. I‘ve never rode a horse in my life and he said, don’t worry about it. That’s perfect. You know, they’ll do all the training. I just would like for you to go into the horse patrol unit. So I said, Why me? And he said, Well, I just want to be able He was all about publicity. So he said, I just want to be able to tell people that I got a Spanish speaking officer who rides a horse in downtown Charleston.
And I said, Okay, so I said, Well, you know what’s in it for me? Basically, and he said, If you get me three years, where would you like to go? And I said, Well, I would love to work narcotics. They said, Okay, give me three years and I’ll put you over on narcotics. So, I did my three years. I really went in with kind of a bad attitude and I didn’t want to be in horse patrol at the time. Horse Patrol was where bad officers went to disappear. And so I didn’t want to fall into the out of sight, out of mind kind of place. But it turned out to be of fantastic experience. You know, I always laugh and tell people, Hey, I got paid to ride a horse in downtown Charleston. So it was just it was fascinating, it was fun, it was different. But I did my three years. I’ve learned a lot. I can ride a horse quite well. Now

Lisa
You know what? We never gone Horseback riding
George
I know we should do that sometime. We’ll put that on our list and we’re going to blog about it.
So, I did my three years, and on the three years today I went and I knocked on the chief’s office and said, Hey, Chief, today’s three years and he said, come on in for a second. Let’s talk, he said, You know, those three years went by pretty fast. Can you do me a favor? And I said what and said, Can you give me one more year? And I said, Chief, he told me three. Why one more? He said, I just need one more year. And I said, Okay, I’ll give you one more year. But, you know, you gave me your word that we were going to do this in three years. So I left thinking I got another year on Horse patrol. Well, the next day, I received my paperwork that I had been transferred over to narcotics. So I went over to narcotics, started my whole process there. And then when I ran into chief weeks later, maybe as the chief, I thought you wanted one more year and horse patrol, and he said, no. I just wanted to see how you would react. And I appreciate that you would have done it for me. So you stayed narcotics and just do your thing, and he just left me there. We started a unit drug interdiction unit. I did some undercover stuff, and like I said, that’s a whole another Podcast.
That’s going to be the long version of that story.

Lisa
Yeah, So we all know you’re retired now? Um,

George
hardest working retired man. I’m now

Lisa
Right, and planning our travels. So what’s our next big trip? We’ve got plans.

George
So our next big trip is Mardi Gras.

Lisa
So, Mardi Gras, I’m super excited. And that is another podcast for a different story. So thank you, friends, for listening in. And I hope that you find this entertaining and got to know my husband, George a little bit better. And, just share this info. Share this podcast with your friends on your social media. Follow us on the RView podcast on Instagram. And if you’re interested in our RV life and hearing more about our travels, you can go to us on Instagram also, at RView from the road storage manages I love to your questions and topic ideas. You can email me at [email protected]. Thanks so much for listening. And we will talk to you soon. Meanwhile, have a great life