Compiled by Bethany Kohoutek bethany@dmcityview.com

Dispatcher: 911...

Caller: Yeah, there's a four-wheeler tearing up my street right now.

D: What's the address?

C: [4500 block of NW 1st Street.]

D: What is it?

C: An ATV... I mean, he's doing 80, 90 up and down the street...

D: Can you describe him?

C: Orange four-wheeler, looks like "The Dukes of Hazzard." He's an old guy. He's going to town. I'm standing out here now...

D: And he's on the street?

C: Oh yeah.

D: OK, we'll send them out there.

Officer's Report: I was called to the 4500 block of NW 1st Street, reference an orange ATV racing up and down the street. I located the ATV... [The rider] said the ATV was his, that he purchased it from [another man] on SE Vandalia on April 15, 2006. David showed a registration for the ATV. The registration showed the ATV to be a 2002 black and white Yamaha. The plastic covers had been repainted orange and the frame was red. No VIN number could be located. [The rider] advised that he would keep the ATV at [his residence] for further investigation.

Sucks to be you

Name: Eric Ray Richards
Place of Incident: Des Moines
Posed for this picture because: While on routine patrol, Des Moines police officers noticed a white Cadillac driving without headlights near Indianola Avenue. When the cops stopped the vehicle, the driver exited and ran. Officers caught up with him after "a short foot chase," according to police reports, and found a "small baggie of marijuana" on his person. The man turned out to be Eric Ray Richards, and when police ran his name through the system, they discovered he was wanted for robbing a US Bank on East Euclid Avenue the day before. Police believe Richards purchased the Cadillac with money stolen from the bank. (Perhaps he should have figured out where the lights were before taking his new acquisition for a joy ride.) He is currently being held on robbery, interference and narcotics charges.

Riding shotgun

In the passenger seat with Polk County Animal Control

One of the smaller pleasures of Melanie Bauer's job is knowing that she can do certain things most men won't. Like the time she arrived at a Des Moines home to find three burly men huddled in a nervous knot outside. "It's in there," one said with a shiver, pointing into the house. Bauer strode inside, located the object of their collective loathing, plucked it from the wall, and carried it outside. It was a tiny bat.

"They're just like mice with wings," Bauer says, shrugging, as she cruises Des Moines' South Side in a customized Ford pickup. "Some guys have no trouble picking a fight with another guy at the bar, but they can't get manage to get a bat out of their house."
I'm tagging along with Bauer, a Polk County animal control officer, on her 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. shift. She calls this a "slow day" - only 15 calls - but by day's end, I'm exhausted, and I want a shower. I would be hungry, if not for the lingering olfactory memory of the rotting woodchuck we scraped from the center line of Hartford Road this morning.

Bauer is talkative, pleasant and remarkably unafraid - of bats, snarling canines, hissing possums or roadkill, as evidenced by our first call: disposal of a dead deer on the shoulder of the road near Indianola and Jackson avenues. The doe has a clean bullet hole piercing her shoulder, most likely a mercy shot from a police officer. Bauer and another animal control staffer each grab two legs and drag the stiffening corpse to the truck, then swing it up into the bed.

As Des Moines' suburban sprint continues to swallow their habitat, deer and other wild animals creatures are forced inside city limits, Bauer says, and it's not uncommon for animal control to field several dead-deer calls per day. But the upswing in the number of kamikaze deer isn't the only recent shift in Bauer's duties. During her eight years with the department, Bauer has noticed more and more of what she calls "status" animals, or those that people keep solely to intimidate or impress others.

She usually encounters such creatures - mostly pit bulls, but sometimes tarantulas, scorpions or snakes - when Des Moines police request animal control assistance at crime scenes. Bauer was once called to remove a lunging pit bull from a suspected meth lab so officers could get through the door. Such pets often have been abused since birth and enticed to fight, rendering them too vicious for adoption, she tells me. Many are euthanized.
Not all of Bauer's work is as grisly as drug busts, abused dogs and deer guts. On this particular day, she responds to a call about a stray cat; when we arrive, the little yellow furball practically leaps into Bauer's arms and immediately starts purring (until we have to lock it in the cage in the back of the truck, at which point it meows the entire distance back to the shelter). If an owner doesn't claim it, this cat will have no trouble finding a home, Bauer predicts.

In one of the more interesting cases of the day, Bauer is dispatched to a residence in the 1100 block of Martin Luther King Parkway, where neighbors have complained of excessive bird poop in the yard. The elderly gentleman working in his garden admits he keeps several pigeons in the garage, and Bauer informs him that city code allows only three outdoor birds (chickens, ducks, geese) as pets. But the man says he uses the pigeons for food, and after consulting the code and peeking on the bird coop, Bauer admits that he is allowed to keep up to 30 birds for personal consumption, bids him a "nice day," and leaves.

Ever since budget cuts in 2003 whittled the animal control department from 12 employees to five, the officers have been overwhelmed with work. As a result, the department has eliminated some services, and callers usually have to wait longer after phoning in a complaint. On a typical day, only two officers patrol the entire city, and it's not unusual for them to field 30 calls each.

Despite this, Bauer, who has quite a few pets of her own, says she loves her job.
"Every animal in the city of Des Moines - dogs, cats, pygmy goats, ducks, chicken, geese, even the pit bulls and tarantulas - is our responsibility. Our first priority is the animal, and I take that priority very seriously."

On the clock

Des Moines Police - June 2

11:30 a.m.
Domestic assault in the 1700 block of E 32nd Street. The male victim reported that when he came home from getting a vasectomy, his wife became enraged because he hadn't told her about the procedure. The male victim told police that his wife threw objects at him and slapped him. Police arrested the female subject and transported her to Polk County Jail for simple domestic assault.

1:08 p.m.
Attempted suicide in the 100 block of E. Euclid Avenue. When Des Moines police arrived, fire department staff was already at the scene. They had bandaged the wrist of a woman who had attempted suicide. They also confiscated a small utility knife. The woman admitted she had been drinking. She was transported to Broadlawns and turned over to medical personnel.

6:30 p.m.
Assault at Lincoln High School. Officers made contact with a male victim who said he was punched three times in the face by another male. The victim was walking home from school. The victim and the subject reportedly have had previous run-ins.

11:45 p.m.
Officers were dispatched to the 1200 block of Highview, after an individual called 911 and said, "the police suck." Police located the female perpetrator, discovered that she has "unusual emotional needs" and requested the help of a mobile crisis worker. While the crisis worker was trying to get the woman to go to bed, the perpetrator slapped her. The perpetrator was taken into custody and transported to the Polk County Jail.

(Alleged) drunk drivers

Name: Michael John Blanchard
Arrested: Mary 30
Third or subsequent offense

Name: Ryan Todd Latham
Arrested: May 26
Third or subsequent offense

Name: Alfonso John Castellano
Arrested: May 25
Third or subsequent offense

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