A caller to the Kerrville Police Department reported that a well-dressed man in a new car was dealing drugs in the public restroom in Louise Hayes Park. She said the man would arrive about 10:00 AM, go into the restroom for about 15 minutes, then leave the park. He never slowed down or stopped anywhere except the restroom. The caller believed he was leaving drugs and collecting cash left there by customers. She provided his license plate number and state it was from, and the make of his car.
I was a detective at the time. The lieutenant assigned the case to me. I ran a check on the out-of-state license plate. It belonged on a different make of car.
Then I went to the park to check out the restroom. It was a filthy, smelly outhouse of a facility. I felt unclean just having gone into the small, dingy room to look around. But there was no place to hide anything in the spartan little cinder block cubicle. What was the man doing here?
On a hunch, I ran checks on the license plate numbers on either side of the reported number. Sure enough, a registration one number off came back to the same last name and address on the correct make of car. Apparently, the man and his wife had gotten consecutive license plate numbers and put the plates on the wrong cars.
The following day, I arrived in Louise Hayes Park around 9:00 AM to stake out the restroom. I was driving an unmarked car. Watching from a safe distance, I saw the car the caller had described pull in right on time. A distinguished looking man in a business suit got out of the car and hurried into the restroom. About fifteen minutes later, he came rushing back out, jumped into his car, and took off.
I followed at a distance until we were far enough away to disassociate the stop from his visit to the park. Then I turned on the red lights of the unmarked car and the man soon pulled over. I approached the driver’s door and through the open window, advised him that I had stopped him because his registration did not match the vehicle he was driving. I asked for his driver’s license, registration, and insurance. Everything checked out.
I asked what he was doing in Kerrville and he told me he was a consultant working on a short term contract in town. I asked if he owned a car of the make and model to which the license plate he was displaying was registered, and he said that would be his wife’s car. I thanked him for his courtesy and advised him to get the plates switched at his earliest opportunity. He said he would as soon as he got home. I thanked him and let him drive off.
Everything about the man checked out. He had no criminal history, not even a minor arrest. His driving record was clean. I also confirmed his contract employment.
There is a specific kind of deviant who will seek out the nastiest public restroom in his area for preferred use. Apparently, that was what we had here. I advised the rest of the officers and we left him alone to his harmless little perversion after that.