The Wheelchair Man

      It's late September in Fort Worth, Texas 1987. The temperature has finally cooled somewhat from the long hot summer and football season is getting into full swing. The nice weather allows two Fort Worth Police officers to drive through the downtown area in their patrol car with the windows down. The officers are in a special unit that conducts foot patrol throughout downtown. They drive into town first to see if there are any obvious problems. The officers are David Karstares and Mike Thompson. Karstares is a white male about six foot tall, medium build. He’s thirty three years old and has brown hair, a mustache, and green eyes. Thompson is five foot ten inches tall and trim build. He’s thirty four years old and has prematurely gray hair. He has brown eyes and a mustache you can barely see because it’s thin and gray. Karstares was born and raised in Texas, but Thompson is from Detroit, Michigan.

      They cruise through the downtown area at six thirty in the morning. The sun is rising, and people are flowing into downtown to start their workday. The officers cruise the better part of downtown when Karstares says, “Let’s go check the shelter and then we’ll walk for a while.”

      Thompson acknowledges, “Yeah, sounds good.”

      The officers cruise out of downtown about a half mile to the Union Gospel Mission Night Shelter. It’s a shelter for the homeless. There’s usually some kind of trouble there so the officers drive by in the morning to make sure everything’s alright. They head down Lancaster Street which is a main artery in and out of downtown. After several blocks they approach the night shelter. As they arrive there’s many indigents standing along the curb and lined up against abandoned buildings. The Shelter kicks everyone out in the morning but they don’t go far. The police unit comes around the corner to the front of the shelter. There is a small grassy area in front. Karstares see’s someone laying in the grass, “What the hell is that?”

      Thompson stretches his neck, “Is that a person?”

      Karstares pulls the car up to the curb and the officers exit the vehicle. They walk up to the subject laying in the grass. He’s a small Hispanic man with no legs. Even if he had legs, he’d still be small. He’s filthy and disheveled. The officers stand over him for a few seconds and Thompson says, “He’s got no legs.” He then turns to the guy on the ground who is groggy and says, “How the hell do you get around?”

      The guy looked up through glazed eyes at the officers and mumbled, “Like this.” He took his hands and clawed at the ground. He pulled himself several feet and stopped, out of breath, “That’s the way I do it.”

      Thompson turned to Karstares, “That’s terrible!” He then turned back to the guy on the ground, “Why don’t you have a wheelchair?”

      The guy languished on the ground for a few seconds and said, “Somebody stole it.”

      Again, Thompson turned to Karstares, “That’s pathetic. We’ve got to do something about this.”

      Karstares was looking around at the population of homeless people in front of the shelter who were watching the officers jack with the homeless, legless, hispanic guy. He turned to Thompson, “Let’s talk to our buddy at United Way and see if we can get him a wheelchair.”

      Thompson agrees, “Yeah, sounds good.” He then turned to the homeless guy, “What’s your name?”

      The guy answered, “Robert Rivera, they call me Birdie.”

      The instant Rivera said Birdie both officers realized how he got his nick name. He looks like a bird. He’s got a long-curved nose like a beak and little bitty facial features along with jet black hair and brown eyes.

     Thompson says, “Okay. We’re going to get you a wheelchair and you’ll be able to get around. Sound okay?”

      Rivera looked at the officers skeptically, “Yeah. Sounds good to me.”

      Thompson reiterated, “Stay right here. We’ll be back.”

      Rivera was kind of a smart ass, “Where am I going to go?”

      The officers left the area and immediately drove to United Way headquarters in downtown Fort Worth. They entered the offices with ease because they were well known amongst the staff. They went straight up to the head office of Tarrant County United Way and talked to the man in charge. After telling him the story he made a few phone calls and sent the officers to a handicap company in the downtown area.

      The officers arrived, and the workers had an old used wheelchair ready for them to take custody of. They put the chair in the trunk and drove back to the homeless shelter. When they arrived at the shelter, they noticed Rivera was still there but had apparently dragged himself further up towards the building on the sidewalk in the shade. It was beginning to get hot.

      The officers got the wheelchair out of the trunk. They rolled it up towards the building and presented it to Rivera. He was laying there on the ground and looked at them dumbfounded. They helped him up into the wheelchair and he seemed at home. He sat there for several minutes looking at the officers. He rolled the wheels back and forth and spun the chair around in a three sixty without moving an inch in any direction. He appeared to be almost ready to cry, “Thank you. Thank you.”

      Thompson, ever the police officer curious type, “How did you lose your legs. Were you in the war?”

      Rivera just looked at the ground, “No, I lost them in a car accident when I was a kid.”

      Now both Thompson and Karstares were looking down at the ground when Thompson said, “I’m sorry. I’m glad we could help.”

      Karstares told him, “Just enjoy it. If anybody tries to take it from you give us a call.”

      Rivera continued, “Okay, thank you. Thank you.”

      The officers went back to the car and left the area feeling quite full of themselves. It’s rare in police work you get to do something where everybody wins. Thompson was especially pleased with what they did, “This job sucks a lot but getting the chair makes you feel good, right?”

      Karstares was also in a good mood, “Yeah, we did a good thing. I’m glad he can get around now. We did our good deed for the day. Let’s get something to eat.” The officers finished out the day and went home for the night.

      The next morning the officers came in for foot patrol duty and did their routine through downtown Fort Worth. After cruising the area, they parked the car and began walking on foot. They walked until about nine A.M. and decided to take a break. They walked towards the Hyatt Hotel in the middle of downtown. As they approached the hotel a call came over the radio from the dispatcher, “Any unit close to the Hyatt Hotel. We have a disturbance in progress. Any unit who can respond.”

      Karstares immediately grabbed his handheld radio, “Paul three sixteen and Paul three eighteen we’re a minute off.”

      Paul units are the designated foot patrol units (typed as P-316 and P-318).

      The dispatcher came back, “ten four. There’s a man in a wheelchair in the lobby of the Hyatt causing a disturbance. They request officers immediately.”

      Karstares acknowledged, “Ten four. Put us on the scene. We’re walking in the lobby now.”

      The officers walked in the lobby and observed Rivera in his wheelchair sitting in the middle of the lobby shouting obscenities at everyone. He rolled over to a well-dressed man and woman and yelled, “Hey motherfuckers why don’t you give somebody a chance! Give me some money!”

      When the couple moved around him quickly, he approached two older men in business suits, “How about you. You got something for a legless man with no home?”

      These were dignified people in suits and dresses who were basically being assaulted by this crazy man in a wheelchair. The officers were shocked. They approached Rivera and Thompson said, “Birdie! What the hell ya doin?”

      Rivera turned and saw the officers and got a big smile on his face, “Hey guys! How’s everything going?”

      Karstares walked right up to the wheelchair, “It was going great until now. What the hell are you doing. You can’t come in here and start yelling at people. This is a high class hotel.”

      Rivera just laughed, “Yeah, I know. I’m really shaking them up, right?”

      Thompson went around behind the wheelchair and started pushing Rivera towards the exit. Rivera began yelling, “Hey, whaddya doin!? I don’t want to leave yet!”

      Karstares walked along beside the chair, “Yeah Birdie, it’s time to leave. You can’t stay here, or you’ll be in jail.”

      Rivera started grabbing the wheels of the chair trying stop the eviction, “No! I don’t want to leave!”

      Karstares got down in his face, “Birdie, you’re leaving or you’re going to jail. You decide.”

      “Take me to jail! Go ahead, take me to jail!”

      Both Karstares and Thompson got the chair outside and just looked at each other. Finally, Thompson said, “What do we do?”

      Karstares was pissed off, “Throw him in the back seat and put the wheelchair in the trunk.”

      They got in the car and Thompson was wondering what they were doing, “So, we taking him to jail?”

      “No, we’re taking him to the shelter and dropping him off. Can you imagine how pissed off the lieutenant would be if we brought a wheelchair guy to the jail. We’d be chastised forever. I kind of understand why they stole his other wheelchair. I think maybe we opened up a can of worms.”

      The officers drove Rivera back to the shelter and put him out on the front lawn in his wheelchair and drove off. It was alright. Tomorrow when the officers came to work everything would be fine.

      The next day the officers arrived for work and began their tour of downtown. They drove by all the hot spots and then got out to walk. Their job was to walk around downtown and talk to the businesspeople. It gives them a sense of security. After about an hour and a half the dispatcher came over the radio, “Any unit close to the Hilton Hotel. There’s a disturbance in the lobby.” She was hoping the foot patrol units were close, so she didn’t have to use a regular patrol unit. Karstares looked at Thompson. They were about two blocks off. Thompson took his hand-held radio, “Paul three eighteen and Paul three sixteen, we’ll take that call. We’re a couple of blocks away.”

      “Ten four both units enroute at zero nine seventeen hours.”

      The guys walked to the Hilton in another minute and called the dispatcher to tell her they were on the scene. As they entered the Hilton lobby people were leaving at a quick pace. Actually, people were running out of the hotel. The guys continued to walk through the hotel looking at each other fearing what they may find. They both had a funny feeling in their stomachs as they approached the main lobby and heard a familiar voice yelling, “Hey! Motherfuckers! I have no legs! I need money! Who's going to give me money!”

      The officers did not hesitate, they walked up to Rivera and Thompson again grabbed the wheelchair and started towards the exit. Birdie again protested his removal, “Stop it! You can’t do this to me! You’re arresting a poor legless man!” He turned to the people in the lobby and yelled, “See what you assholes did to me!”

      This was another high-class hotel, and the patrons were disturbed by the fact someone was in the lobby yelling about giving out money to a legless man. The appearance of the police being brutal to a poor man with no legs in a wheelchair didn't help matters. The officers didn’t care how it looked. They did not need this aggravation. After all, foot patrol was supposed to be a gravy job. Both Karstares and Thompson had put their time in patrol in one of the highest crime cities in America and now they have to put up with this wild card.

      Thompson rolled him outside and both he and Karstares stood there while Rivera cooled off for a few seconds. All three caught their breath. Karstares and Thompson were pissed. Rivera was laughing, “Y’all don’t know what you’re doing do you?” It was hard to get mad at the guy. He was a nice guy with a sense of humor but then he went crazy in the high-class hotels. It’s obvious this could not be tolerated. The feeling of security for the downtown people was beginning to fade.

      Thompson looked at Karstares, “Maybe we should take him to jail this time.”

      Karstares was adamant, “Nope. We’ll take him to the shelter, and he’ll be done for the day.”

      The boys took Rivera back to the shelter and dropped him off. They continued their patrol of the downtown area.

      As they cruised Karstares said, “Maybe we should consider getting rid of old Birdie.”

      Thompson slowly looked at Karstares, “What do you mean?”

      “I don’t know. Let’s talk to our buddy Jim at the bus station. Maybe we can send him out of town on an extended vacation. If you know what I mean.”

      Thompson's head now whipped around, “That’s a great idea. We can send him to some other city and let him live in their shelters.”

      “Yeah, we’ll talk to Jim tomorrow.”

      The next day the officers went straight to the Greyhound bus station. They found Jim throwing luggage onto an outbound bus. Thompson approached, “Hey Jim, how’s it going? We need some help.”

      Jim turned around with a big smile, “Hi guys, what do you need?”

      “We need to send a guy to another city at a very cheap price, one way.”

      “Well, step right over to my counter and let’s see what we have.”

      The three men went over to the ticket counter and Jim began checking over the schedule and prices. He suddenly looked up and smiled, “I got a one way ticket to Waco for twenty seven dollars.”

      Karstares and Thompson looked at each other smiling. “We’ll take that one. What time does the bus leave.”

      “Uh, it leaves at thirteen ten hours, that’s 1:10PM to you civilians.”

      Thompson nodded slowly, “That’s just about right. Let’s go get him and inform him of his trip.”

      They both went through their pockets and came up with the necessary twenty seven dollars. They grabbed the ticket and set off to find Birdie.

      The boys left the station and started circling the downtown area. They knew it wouldn’t be long before a call went out involving Birdie. Sure enough, about eleven fifty hours a call came out at an exclusive downtown liquor store. A disturbance involving a guy in a wheelchair. The boys have found their man. They took the call from the dispatcher and raced to the liquor store to find Birdie in full form. He was sitting in the middle of the store yelling, “Come on cock suckers! I need some money. You can’t tell me no one has any money in here!” All the hoity toity businesspeople were shopping for their evening liquor consumption and were shocked by the events.

      The officers walked in and slowly approached Birdie with a big smile. They weren’t upset this time because they knew what was going to happen. Birdie looked up, “Hey guys, how’s it going?”

      Thompson took charge, “Well Birdie, it’s going great. We have got a great deal for you. When’s the last time you did any traveling?”

      Birdie thought for few seconds, “I haven’t had a good vacation in a long time. What’s it to you guys?”

      Thompson pulled out the bus ticket to Waco, “You, my friend, have been chosen to go to Waco Texas free of charge. You’ll even get twenty dollars spending money. What do you think about that?”

      Thompson hadn’t discussed the twenty dollar spending money with Karstares and he winced at the thought but didn’t say anything.

      Birdie sat there a second and appeared to almost cry, “I don’t know what to say. How did this happen?”

      Thompson continued with the bullshit, “Well, there’s a little known fund at the police department that helps people out. You are the person being helped by this fund today. It’s a joyous day!”

      Birdie seemed to be accepting an academy award. He started crying and thanking everyone, even the liquor store clerk, as Thompson and Karstares pushed him out of the store. They loaded his wheelchair up in the trunk of the police car and put him in the back seat. He was so grateful. Karstares made Thompson give him the extra twenty dollars since it was his idea without clearing it with him. Karstares told Thompson he’d buy him lunch later.

      They arrived at the bus station and chit chatted with Birdie until it was time to load the bus. They informed the driver of Birdie’s handicapped situation and put his wheelchair below with the bags and carried him on the bus. There was more thanking from Birdie and the bus was ready to leave. The officers stood outside and waved as it pulled out headed for Waco. They looked at each other and high fived as the bus disappeared towards IH-35 south. Both guys were feeling really good, their pain in the ass was gone. Karstares said, “Okay, let’s hit the Mexican Inn, I’m buying.”

      The boys spent the rest of the afternoon in the restaurant eating and enjoying the peace and quiet of no wheelchair Birdie in town. All was right in their world.

      For the next two days the boys went about the downtown area with only the usual routine calls. There was the stolen purse and the wino passed out at the courthouse. There was a robbery call at a downtown bank which turned out to be a wino with a piece of paper he gave to a teller saying he had a gun. The teller gave the guy money because she was scared. The boys picked him up about five minutes later walking down Commerce Street. He still had all the money on him, and they returned it to the bank as they took him in for just being a wino. The guys later ate lunch at Whataburger downtown. They were doing police work as usual with no wheelchair man, “Birdie”. It was nice getting back to their normal routine of scumbags and quick fix calls. This is what they liked about working downtown. There were always a lot of things going on but nothing they couldn’t handle.

      The third day the boys came to work at six thirty in the morning. The businesspeople were starting to pour into the city. This was their time. They made sure everything was running smoothly as the offices of the big downtown buildings were stirring. Karstares was driving down Commerce Street and everything was as it should be. Commerce Street is one way south bound. Karstares suddenly noticed something coming up the street towards him. There shouldn’t be anything coming towards them. It was a one-way street. He slowed and alerted Thompson, “What the hell is that?”

      Thompson was now aware, “I don’t know, it looks like a guy in a wheelchair.”

      Both men looked down the street closely. Karstares stopped the car. It was a man in a wheelchair rolling full blast down the middle of the street with no regard for public safety. Both men got a sick feeling in their stomachs. Karstares and Thompson at the same time Yelled, “Son of a bitch!”

       About that time Birdie pulled his wheelchair up next to the driver’s side window of the Fort Worth police car with a big smile, “Hey guys, how’s it going?”

      Both officers were staring at their nemesis. Birdie was wearing a baseball cap. The baseball cap was navy blue with big white letters, “Waco PD” on it. They were foiled. The Waco PD apparently figured out what they’d done.

      “Son of a bitch!” Karstares yelled, “They sent him back!”

      Ah yes, the Waco Police have a sense of humor. Birdie continued with his infectious smile, “Those guys in Waco are really nice. I spent a few days down there and then they said they would pay for my trip back home, and here I am!”

      Birdie was all smiles as he rolled off north bound on a one way south bound street. He was rolling right down the middle of the street with cars coming at him and honking. Karstares just put his head down for a second in defeat. He then looked up and accelerated away from the area in a hurry. Thompson was also in shock, “What do we do? Do we need to go get him?”

      Karstares turned on the overhead red and blue lights and siren and left the downtown area, “Nope, we’re leaving. I think a patrol unit needs to handle the situation. He’s in traffic. We’re foot patrol, right?”

      Thompson nodded, “Yeah, I agree. Let people in cars handle the situation.”

      Thompson started laughing and Karstares asked, “What’s so funny?”

      “I would love to have seen those Waco PD guys face when they asked him how he got there, and Birdie said these two real nice Fort Worth Police bought me a ticket. Can’t you just see the light bulb in their head go off. They must’ve been so pissed at us.” And he laughed louder.

      They were outside the downtown area and Karstares turned off the lights and siren and proceeded out West Seventh Street to a little café. They called the dispatcher and told her they’d be out of service to eat. The dispatcher took them out of circulation. They could not get a call. Only two minutes later the dispatcher comes on the channel, “Frank one fourteen, Frank one sixteen (designated F-114, and F-116) copy call. Copy signal fifteen, disturbance at the Hyatt hotel. A man in a wheelchair yelling at customers.”

      Both F-114 and F-116 acknowledged the call. Karstares and Thompson sat back at the café and ate a great breakfast of over easy eggs, pancakes, and bacon knowing what the following days were going to bring. Birdie became part of their mornings. They made the rounds and answered a call or two a day on Birdie. The boys would show up and have some banter with him before rolling him back out in the street. He was a good guy; he was just crazy. This went on for a month or so and then Birdie just disappeared. No one knows where he went or what happened to him. That’s the life of the crazy homeless person. One day they’re running roughshod over your district and the next day they’re gone. The thing is, with homeless people, anything could’ve happened to him. He could be dead, he could have decided to go back to wherever it is he came from, hell, he could have had some millionaire feel sorry for him and put him up in a mansion. One old homeless guy had a long-lost daughter come get him and fly him from Dallas/Fort Worth to Los Angeles to live with her in a multi-million-dollar beach mansion. You never know. It just goes to show you, no good deed goes unpunished. Karstares thinks back on him occasionally and wonders what happened. He’s concerned if he’s dead, or if he still has a wheelchair. He was a pain in the ass, but he was still a good guy. Dealing with so many homeless people gives you a new perspective on the human condition. Dealing with Birdie was a unique experience, but Karstares and Thompson gained many things from him that they still think about to this day.