LONG DISTANCE WIFE PROBLEMS

Police department communication centers receive hundreds if not thousands of calls each year. Most are legitimate in nature requiring quick thinking and immediate dispatch of emergency services. Some, however, are examples of why people shouldn't be allowed in public unsupervised. Back in the middle sixty's, one such instance of this moronic behavior happened to Sacramento Police Department Officer Kevin Mulderrig. While assigned to the communications center, he received the following phone call from an irate husband. The man was complaining about his wife, saying that she was nagging constantly at him and that he wanted the police to come and take care of her. Noting the bad reception on the phone line and believing it was probably a long distance call, Officer Mulderrig asked where he was calling from. With confidence in his voice, the male caller replied "Los Angeles." Hearing this, Officer Mulderrig questioned back, "Sir, do you know this is the Sacramento Police Department? Why don't you phone the Los Angeles Police Department with your spousal complaint?" Without hesitation, the man replied, "I did that. They told me that there was nothing they could do about it, and if I didn't like it, I should phone Sacramento (State Capitol) and that's exactly what I am doing." In the emergency service, we call this action-job security.

Kevin Mulderrig, Lt. (Retired) Sacramento Police Department. Service - July 1, 1958 - December 28, 1989