Pee in a Bottle

Darrell meander into my office and threw out, “We are heading out on surveillance. Wanna come and play?” I usually make an excuse like, sorry brother I’ve got a ton of staff work. The reality is I would love too but I don’t want to get in the way of real cop stuff. When the boss shows up it changes the dynamics of an operation. Why is he out here? Something wrong?

Cathy was working late and Nordies, the girls were out with friends and I was going to eat a chicken pot pie. Sure, I’d love to. But I don’t want to interfere with the operation. This group is tough to watch. They have burned ground and air units in the past. They use extensive courter surveillance techniques, both fixed and moving. They are paranoid that the police are following them and as it turned out for good reason, we were. They are dangerous. They are an organized crime group that profits from kidnapping and murder.

This particular night we had a host of undercover cars. We briefed up in alley behind Costco. Sandwiched between the freeway on ramp, a large hill and the famous brown cinderblock walled superstore, our group looked like a used car lot. There were mini-vans, mustangs, Jeeps, pick up trucks and SUV’s. As we briefed about our mission, we were there to stop/prevent a murder, the plane spotted the target moving east on the “L” street.

You can pull up most police frequencies on your iPhone, so cops don’t use street name, suspects or technology. If you ever want to know what we are doing just get an iPhone and tune in. The cars scrambled out of the lot each speeding different directions. 1921 I’ve got the eye. West on Q. I am naked with none for cover. Peel off on the 38, I’ll take it retorted 1924. This buzz of activity went on for sometime. The group working as a team managed to track the guy who was doing hard U-Turns, blowing traffic lights and hitting the curb to see who was following. At one point I sat in my car on top of a hill overlooking the area smiling at their expertise. I saw the target rolling west on a major thorough fare and every car on the adjacent streets were SDPD, FBI, DEA or ATF vehicles. Darrell was masterfully directing traffic. I was successful. I stayed out of the way.

The surveillance really got complex. Detectives began calling out counter surveillance cars. An ATF agent called out a white Buick with 22” rims. An FBI agent called out some guys on cell phones watching them. Darrell blurted out an order. Alright, we have enough units to cover the area so everyone hit a curb. Call out where you are so we can make sure the coverage will pick up any movement. Each person called out their 20. It was a tight blanket of under cover officers. I sat on Cottonwood and 40th, several blocks from the target location. We are now several hours into this cat and mouse game. My radio was turned down low as 3 Dog Night played in the background. The surveillance was on a scrambled frequency, CIU2D. The regular radio freq for the area command was busy as usual with emergency calls, fights, 5150’s and shoplifters. I turned it down low and reclined by seat all the way back. I was looking through the steering wheel just over the curvature of the dashboard. Life is good. We’ll almost.

One of the difficulties of being on surveillance is sometimes you just got to pee. Yup, a 52 year old guy, with two bottles of water and three cups of coffee in him is an emergency looking for a bathroom. I sat in the car thinking about where I was going to pee. I thought about the tree next to me but that was just wrong. I could knock on the door of a house but who knows who lives there and who they are aligned with. Besides I have been in hundreds of these houses and I’d rather pee myself. You can not imagine the disgust.

Now I would drive out of the area and hit the Jack in the Box but…the counter surveillance vehicle with two thugs decided to park on the same block as me. The last thing I want to do is blow this surveillance. Hundreds of thousands of dollars, countless hours and all this effort down the drain because one cop could not hold his pee. Now way! I began to wiggle my legs like a kid in his 5th grade class. That made it worse. The two jack asses in the counter car decided to get out a smoke a joint. Great! They are laughing and I’m dying. We are reaching a crisis point. I looked around the car. Cathy left a sports drink bottle in the car after one of our runs. That will work. They smoked, I peed and the radio crackled with chatter. While I’m filling the bottle my cell phone rings, Darrell wanting to know if I’m having fun.

Small things make a big difference. In operations like this, having to go the bathroom can ruin the hard work of others. So too in the spiritual realm. No you can’t pee in a bottle at church. Small things make a big difference in the spiritual realm. Paul discusses this concept in his letter to Philemon. “I hear about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints. I pray that you will be active in sharing your faith (by loving the saints), so that you will have a full understanding of every good thing we have in Christ. Your love has given me great joy and encouragement, because you my brother, have refreshed the hearts of the saints.

There are no deep theological truths just some practical advice. Love the saints! Small examples of love for each other will go a long way in being operationally sound.