Stealing My Own Car!

Location: Yuma, Arizona
Year: Roughly 1976-77

Yes, I was 'detained' for stealing my own car. Strange as it may sound, it happened in front of my own house in a car I had recently bought from a neighbor - that lived across the street from me! Here's what happened :

A neighbor of mine, Ron Grissom, lived across the street from me with his wife Robin. He was older than I was and I respected the Hell out of him because he was a good 'wrench' - he worked on cars. And I was certainly interested in cars, as I was around 16 or 17 at the time and owned a 1969 VW beetle. I needed some serious iron if I was going to be a real driver.

One day, I noticed a 'FOR SALE' sign on his 1970 El Camino (Robin owned a '68 or '69 El Camino, as well). It was white with a blue vinyl top that stretched to the tailgate of the vehicle. A little odd, but I found out later after I had the car repainted and the vinyl removed that it was fairly rare. Figures. So I asked Ronnie what he was asking and after a little 'broke neighbor' whining, we settled on $1800. DEAL!

I owned the car a while and was a very happy teenager. I also started hanging around Ronnie a bit more as I had NO idea what I was doing mechanically at that point.

One afternoon Ron and I went over to the house of a friend of Ron's, Mike Hansberger. He was sticking a Chevy 350, nicely warmed-over, into an older Jeep truck. We turned wrenches, discussed where this and that were gonna go, they drank beer (I was underage), cut and welded fittings, brackets, etc. - generally had a grand time. Mike and Ronnie taught me a LOT about cars. About 5 or 6pm, Mike said it was time to stop for the day and clean up. We said our 'Laters' and Ron and I went home. I was driving my El Camino, his former ride.

For whatever reason (time has blurred it into oblivion) I parked in front of Ronnie's house. My House was across the street. This is when the 'fun' started!

Ronnie got out walked through his gate towards the front door. I (again, for reasons I can't remember) got out and was beside the El Camino's door when around the corner came screaching an Arizona Highway Patrol cruiser with its 'Bubble Gum' lights on. It slammed to a stop in front of my car and out jumped (and I remember THIS precisely) Officer Art T. Gradillas of the Yuma Police Department. Besides being a total asshole known to most people in Yuma, he was ugly. But I digress.

He had his gun drawn (!) and yelled at me to put my hands on the roof of the car. I did so, asking what the Hell was going on. He told me to shut up and frisked me. He yanked my arms around behind me and cuffed me. Again I asked what's going on and again was told to shut up. This went on a number of times throughout the encounter. He asked me where my license was and I said it was probably in the glove box where I normally keep it. He rummaged through it a second or two and said it wasn't in there. Then I said more than likely it was at home as I didn't use it all day. That really set him off. I was going to be arrested, for reasons unknown, because this cop was PISSED.

I started to say that my wallet and my Dad were just across the street, in MY HOUSE, but was told to shut up - again. I looked over at the Highway Patrol Officer and made a face as if to say "WTF?" and the officer kinda shrugged and made the "Sorry, dude, I can't help you" face.

At this time, Ronnie stepped out from behind his tree in his front yard and asked Officer Gradillas what was going on. Gradillas looked up and recognised Ronnie (they evidently has a history with each other). He told Ronnie that a car matching the description of my car had been reported stolen nearby. Ronnie asked him if he had the license plate number of the stolen car. Gradillas said he did. (You can hear it coming, can't you?) Ronnie then asked him if my plates matched the stolen cars' plates. DING! You could almost see the light come on over the dumb cops head. He looked over to the Highway Patrolman and the officer shook his head 'no'.

I then proceeded to get VERY PISSED. You pulled a GUN on me, handcuffed me and wouldn't listen to anything I said and YOU NEVER CHECKED THE PLATES? How stupid ARE you?

Officer Art Gradillas then tried to save a little bit of his dignity by saying 'Okay, you're clear.' and uncuffing me. By then I was in full sputter mode and screaming at him about doing a crappy job as a cop. The words dumb, stupid, idiot and fuck were in there somewhere.

The cops loaded back up and left WITHOUT ANY APOLOGY. I can say I'm still pissed about it to this day, but you knew that, right?

It turned out that, yes, a white El Camino was stolen nearby. It was NOT the same year as mine and, oh yeah, the plates were nowhere near similar. The Highway Patrol was involved because they were acting as a "Task Force" (which reminds me of ANOTHER story).


P.S. Art T. Gradillas retired from the police department. Now his SON has retired from the YPD and gone to work as a 'constable', whatever the Hell that is. Luckily, I can find no information on the ass-hat that I ran into.

Here's the son:

The Assholes Son

Doesn't Junior look nice?