One of the first things I did when we got back to the office, after letting him talk to legal aid (his lawyer re-iterated that he did not want me to go through the truck.. hmmm) was to search the duffle bag. It didn’t take me long to figure out why his hand was lingering in the bag, as I quickly found a 9mm semi auto handgun. This is the reason we have little voices to listen to.
By this time all of us knew that there would be a reason why Michael J. did not want us to search his property, little did we know that he would provide us with the best evidence of his activities we could hope for. Now I’m not usually good at providing advice to criminals but I’ll make an exception just this once. Listen, if you are going to break the law, and you really want to get away with what you’ve done do not, repeat not, take detailed notes about your activities.
Michael J. had obviously intended to escape into the wilds of Canada. His truck and boat were full of food and other supplies, enough to last for a very long time. Costco had done well by him. Behind the seat of the Bronco lay a very expensive Weatherby Magnum rifle, and a Browning Semi-automatic shotgun. One of our best gun laws (in my opinion) is the requirement that firearms be securely stored. I’ve attended one too many deaths of a child shot by another child while they played with real guns (and I almost died enroute to the call but that is another story). Leaving your firearms in a truck in a public parking lot is not securely storing them. We found a licence plate stolen from the States under the seat of the truck (cleverly stolen from another white Ford Bronco I might add). And another stolen trailer plate from BC in the boat. We found over $1000 in cash in the truck, but what we really found were notes. Reams and reams of notes, detailing his activities starting shortly after a judgement in his divorce ordered a substantial settlement to his (now ex-) wife. I wish that I had copies of them all but they made for excellent reading.
There were notes such as “I did it!!! Now my sweet wife and her excellent lawyer will never see any of this money” er.. maybe he used different adjectives. Notes detailing his liquidating his assets and smuggling them across the border into Canada. Details of his working (illegally) in Canada. Notes on the different forms of licence plates and drivers licences for most of the provinces of Canada. Notes working up various aliases, including the alias he was booked into the Friendship Centre under. My personal favourite “Blend in with locals” and “Avoid checkstops”. He had a note on his dashboard that said “FAW RCMP” and I never did figure out that. The closest we could determine was that it was Fish and Wildlife and Royal Canadian Mounted Police although what purpose it was to serve to him was a mystery.
Significantly there were also receipts for two storage containers in Calgary.
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This story gets more and more incredible! I love your accounts of your work in the RCMP, although some of it is occasionally quite heartbreaking. But this one! Why would anyone write up his criminal “memoirs”? Perhaps he thought it would be a best seller to fund cigarettes and toiletries when he’s in prison? Can’t wait for the next episode.
I agree with Pam. Pretty bizarre story. Almost sounds like he was keeping notes to write the Great American Novel or something. Looking forward to finding out where this is going.