The wife found a stiffy this morning...

Zeldman

Touchdown! Greaser!
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This morning around 0930 my wife was driving towards town to go shopping for clothes. (I learned long ago to not join her for clothes shopping)

As she got near the intersection where the road we live on turns onto Historical Rte 66, right next to the underpass where old Rte 66 goes under I-40, near where the grass doesn't get cut, she saw a person laying on the ground. She called me to tell me and I asked her if the person was moving. She said no. She sat there on the side of the road for another 10 minutes and saw no movement.

So I said wait, I'll come check it out. So I drive out, and sure enough there was someone laying in the tall grass, weeds actually. I watched for several minutes and no movement. I get out, climb over the guard rail, cross the road that is the beginning of the entrance for I-40 and at about 50 feet away I can see that the person is deceased.

I call the police and they ask me the same questions I asked my wife. I said no movement and the person appears deceased. The dispatcher told me that a passed out person may appear deceased. I just replied, ''Ok, I'll call back when the buzzards start landing then.''

The dispatcher said she will send a patrolman when one gets time. I said no hurry, this person is not going anywhere.

A state trooper was the first one on scene. I walked up to his window, keeping my hands visible and coming towards the front so he can keep an eye on me. He asked me where I saw the body. I told him we have to walk up the hill a little to see from this angle. We walked up to about 50 feet away and he saw the deceased.

So, the usual calls go out, ambulance, investigators, morgue, even the sheriff showed up with just about every police car in the county.

The state troopers round up the usual suspects, the wife and me. They ask the usual questions, gets our IDs and calls them in. After about an hour they are finished with us, satisfied that we did not have anything to do with this body being there.

The investigation did not take long. It appeared the person was walking on the interstate, and at the guard rail he decided to climb over, then tumbled down the embankment and either died because of the fall, or passed out and died a little later. Alcohol was a big factor.

It really shook up my poor wife. She is not used to finding dead bodies. To be truthful, neither am I. But it has happened before and is not really big news here. There is a community service van, commonly called the ditch patrol, that patrols the town 24/7 looking for people that have passed out on the side of the road.

In the 11 years I have lived in my house, there has been at least 6 bodies that I know of being found near the road leading to my property. Alcohol was involved with all those found. Usually the person passes out the succumbs to the cold weather.

Sad, yes. It is usually the first Americans that have the worse problems with alcohol. Gallup used to be known as Drunk City, USA but I see several towns in Wisconsin now hold that title.

 
Weird. The one time I stayed in Gallup, a dead body was found near the airfield, next to the railroad tracks. The police seemed bored by it and it was apparent they see it every day...

...Drugs.
 
this thread is not what I thought it was going to be...

Yeah, I was expecting a little English also.

A coworker found body under similar circumstances. He said the first cops onn scene were pretty serious about cuffing and stuffing him the back of the cruiser until they put together the fact the deceased was stiff as a board and that my coworker was actually walking to his car after pulling a 12 hour shift. They let him go after they got his statement and a phone number.
 
Is Gallup have a large Native American population? This scenario plays out in an area of Montana I used to visit often...not to far off the reservation and first place to have bars and alcohol sales...sad
 
How was it known that alcohol was a big factor just by looking at the body? Wearing a spudz mackensie t-shirt?
 
Weird. The one time I stayed in Gallup, a dead body was found near the airfield, next to the railroad tracks. The police seemed bored by it and it was apparent they see it every day...

For some reason that is a popular place to find body halves. One night my wife and I saw the police using flashlights and looking in the ditch next to the train. She asked me what they were looking for. I told her the other half of what they already found. It happens way too often.

Is Gallup have a large Native American population?

Oh yes. The Navajo rez on most sides, and the Zuni rez south of us. When the government checks come in to the rez this little town doubles in population.

How was it known that alcohol was a big factor just by looking at the body?

The smell was still quite noticeable.

Bring back prohibition?

Used to be a local ordinance here prohibiting the sale of alcohol to first Americans after 3pm. Alcohol is prohibited on the Navajo Reservation by first Americans and anyone else.

Sadly, most drunk drivers in Gallup are caught before lunch.

Don't get me wrong. The Navajo people are some of the best folks to live around. They love to laugh and play jokes. They are some of the hardest working folks I know. But you have to learn they live a different lifestyle. Once a person accepts that then it is much easier to live here. And once accepted by the Navajo, you are in. It is an honor to be called friend.

But like every race, the few bad ones get the most attention.
 
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This thread makes me want to keep on trucking if I see a deceased body, talk about being treated like criminal. I would stop and report though, but damn.
 
Several years ago, a friend of mine with a CCW shot someone trying to carjack him in Bakersfield. Cops showed up, took a few notes, coroner picked up the body, and that was the end of it.
 
I used to work with a guy who bought a Jeep Cherokee and was always raving about the utility of its four-wheel drive. Then one morning we had this conversation:

JOE: You'll never guess what happened to me last night.
ME: What?
JOE: I found a dead body in the middle of the beltway.
ME: I guess that was nothing the old four-wheel drive couldn't handle.

It was wrapped up in a plastic bag. It was unsure if someone dumped him in the beltway on purpose, or they were transporting him to some other disposal site and he fell out prematurely.
 
Yeah, I wasn’t being serious. People need to learn more self control, not more government control.

It's not nearly that simple. Some people are predisposed to addiction, most are not. If you are not, it's very easy to put that stuff aside, if you are, getting clean is hard, hard, hard.
 
Slight tangent, but what would happen if you followed the "Don't Talk to the Police" advice after calling this in?
 
Slight tangent, but what would happen if you followed the "Don't Talk to the Police" advice after calling this in?
I would suspect that few who follow the 'don't talk to police' advise would bother to call it in. My hunch is If they did call it in and then refused to talk, they would likely end up detained quite a bit longer than they otherwise would have been.
 
An update.... Turns out this was one of two bodies found on Saturday.

Another deceased person was found north of the railroad tracks. Excessive alcohol is believed to be a contributing major factor.
 
Slight tangent, but what would happen if you followed the "Don't Talk to the Police" advice after calling this in?
You'd be better off calling it in as a good intent "man down" call and refuse call-back info to the dispatcher. Then EMS will show up and babysit the body until LEOs show up.
 
I worked briefly for the Navajo Tribal Council, flying their Aztec out of Window Rock.

One of the senior members asked me why they couldn't have a Piper Navajo... They sold that plane and I was out of a job.

I don't remember any alcohol related incidents on the reservation, but there were a few "negligent discharges." Most of the bad stuff all happened in Gallup.
 
You'd be better off calling it in as a good intent "man down" call and refuse call-back info to the dispatcher. Then EMS will show up and babysit the body until LEOs show up.

Yup , 'check on the welfare of'.
Those are always a box of chocolates and depending on the jurisdiction it's the LEOs that make the first contact to determine whether it's a drunk, a body, a heroin addict, an elderly person who has just fallen or a bag of discarded clothes.
 
I worked briefly for the Navajo Tribal Council, flying their Aztec out of Window Rock.

One of the senior members asked me why they couldn't have a Piper Navajo... They sold that plane and I was out of a job.

I don't remember any alcohol related incidents on the reservation, but there were a few "negligent discharges." Most of the bad stuff all happened in Gallup.

Alcohol is prohibited on the reservation, so they come to Gallup to drink. That makes Window Rock look good...:lol:

How long ago was it when you flew here? There was talk of getting a couple brand spanking new KA 350s, but the tribe President vetoed the idea.
 
How long ago was it when you flew here? There was talk of getting a couple brand spanking new KA 350s, but the tribe President vetoed the idea.

It was early in 1981, I was only there for a few weeks, since they quit their flight program.

I also worked for Grand Canyon Airlines in Tusayan for a short time around then. I was laid off because the Japanese tourists did not show up that year due to their domestic economy going South.

I left for Alaska shortly after that and kinda wish I had never come back! ;)
 
An update.... Turns out this was one of two bodies found on Saturday.

Another deceased person was found north of the railroad tracks. Excessive alcohol is believed to be a contributing major factor.

You know, all I'm going to say is, they died doing what they loved. How awesome is that??
 
I would suspect that few who follow the 'don't talk to police' advise would bother to call it in. My hunch is If they did call it in and then refused to talk, they would likely end up detained quite a bit longer than they otherwise would have been.

That assumption and wanting to avoid the inconvenience is what’s landed many an innocent soul in prison. Call in, be polite but no I’m not going to answer endless questions and certainly not probing ones. “Am I being detained or am I free to go?”

My late brother was a cop so I am no cop hater... but when your freedoms on the line that is why our founding fathers wrote in the 4th and 5th amendments- not for the guilty but for the innocent- knowing full well that not all law enforcement will always be fair or right...
 
An update.... Turns out this was one of two bodies found on Saturday.

Another deceased person was found north of the railroad tracks. Excessive alcohol is believed to be a contributing major factor.

When I was a kid in the 60s, we moved between Albuquerque and Holbrook several times. My dad's sheet metal business did a lot of work for the BIA in Tuba City, Shonto, Cibique, and other towns on the reservations, so he built a big shop and a house on the east side of Holbrook, just a couple hundred feet from 66. They're still there, behind a Motel 6.

I remember driving through Gallup on 66 several times, usually on the weekend at night, and there were always several intoxicated men passed out on the streets.

It was just another sad facet of reservation life. I had Navajo and Hopi friends, they were taken off the reservation and kept in the boarding dormitories next to the school. Their fathers were afflicted by alcohol too. They were just kids, and life was already tough. There's nothing humorous about Zeldman's story, and I'll just ignore some of the comments made. The Navajos and Hopis have been the butt of cruel jokes for a long time. They deserve better.
 
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