You never know when you’ll need duct tape

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Last week I was at a traffic collision where a tow truck changed lanes and hit a car. When I got there the ambulance was leaving with the car’s passenger.

The vehicles were in the middle of the street and there was glass all over the place. I think the tow truck driver felt guilty because he was sweeping up the glass faster than I’ve ever seen it done before.

“I bought the car four days ago,” the man from the car said.

The man’s car was red and had paper plates. Both passenger side windows were shattered and both doors were damaged. The right front door was even missing a door handle. To add insult to injury, the ambulance had just driven away with his wife.

The man stood there looking at his car as he wondered what to do. He walked up to the passenger door and tried to close it. He slammed the door shut and it just bounced back like a ball because it wouldn’t stay closed.

“What am I going to do?”

“Well, you can’t drive it like that,” I said.

I then had an idea as I walked toward my patrol car. I carry duct tape with me in my traffic gear bag. The duct tape is for when I have to tape down a 300 foot tape measure in the street when I have a fatal accident. I actually call it the “duct tape of death” because it only comes out when something really bad happens.

I walked back up to the driver and showed him the duct tape as I asked, “Want to tape the door shut?”

He gave me a funny look and took the tape.  He then got to work on his car. When he was done he drove away with a duct tape band-aid on his car. I just didn’t tell him I call it “The duct tape of death” though. I figured he didn’t need to know that.

17 thoughts on “You never know when you’ll need duct tape”

  2. Surveillance rule 1: Do not draw undue attention to yourself. The two detectives were working an undercover job requiring entrance into a business and observing criminal activity therein. the detective car had to be parked several blocks away and the detectives had to walk in separately so the local lookouts did not sound the alarm. A suitable parking place was located and the detective driver was to leave first followed in five minutes by the detective passenger. Now, the detective driver was driving a “pool” detective car as his issued car had been totaled a week before in an “at fault” accident. This does not say much for the wisdom of the detective passenger but the driver was a former state trooper and well, they have high opinions of their driving skills. Anyway, detective driver opens his door which is then extracted, with violence, from his left hand by a large black pick-up truck and carried loudly down the street a ways. Undue attention was amplified when the local uniformed car showed up to write the accident report. Surveillance cancelled for the day. The only thing found in the “pool detective car” trunk was a length of 1″ thick, dirty rope. It worked. Looked ugly but detective driver got the car back to the pool with the driver’s door bound and gagged shut. I gave him a ride home from there.

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  4. No, he didn’t need to know that but, that was quick smart thinking to help a poor guy tho. ;0)
    P.S. My bf got me HOOKED on Duct Tape, seriously love the stuff, but I’m not as bad as him taping up holes in his work clothes. lol

    I tape his office chair up, his desk, and the holes in his jacket after I’ve washed and dried it. lol

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  7. I was making a cross-country trip by myself and was outside of Kansas City when the plastic front bumper shield fell off and started dragging on the ground. I tried to take the whole thing off but didn’t have the tools. I duct taped it on and made it halfway across Missouri before I met up with a friend who helped me remove it.

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