Warehouse Wino
      This is a true story. I don’t usually use people’s real names in my stories but this time I am. I don’t care about this guy and he’s probably dead. The guy was a kid in the mid-1980’s.
      He’s a white guy, nineteen years old, six foot two, skinny build. He was skinny because he never ate. He was homeless and spent all his money on wine and was constantly drunk. To this day I’m not sure of his name. He had no ID and when you asked his name he just slurred, “Douglashaw.”
      I don’t know if he was saying Doug Lashaw, or Douglas Shaw. We started booking him in jail under both names just for fun to mess with the jail personnel.
      He was a real pain in the ass. He would drink and become belligerent with the good citizens downtown. He never assaulted anyone, but he would get in their face and yell obscenities. He basically wanted to intimidate them into giving him money for more wine. We tried to arrest him once for robbery because of the intimidation factor but the district attorney, who was a coward, would have none of it. He just roamed the streets until he went to jail. When he got out, he got drunk again and the process would start over.
      Everyone knew ol Doug, or Douglas if you prefer. Every police officer in the downtown area loathed him. If someone would’ve killed him it would’ve been what we called a misdemeanor murder.
      One night he went into the fanciest hotel in Fort Worth, The Worthington. I was working foot patrol with my partner. Doug started yelling at the occupants of the hotel in the lobby. We got the call and arrived quickly on the scene. Normally, he wasn’t violent but this night we told him to come with us and he pushed my partner. Big mistake. He went down for the count in an instant. His face was smashed against the floor, and he was handcuffed with extreme prejudice. We called a regular patrol unit to transport and made the report to the jail lieutenant.
      I told the lieutenant, “This guy attacked my partner, and I want charges filed.”
      The lieutenant could see I was upset at the situation, “Okay, we’ll file it, but you know the D.A. won’t take it.”
      “I don’t care. I want it on the record.”
      The lieutenant acknowledged and went to his office to start the paperwork. The fact aggravated assault charges were filed meant Doug spent several more days in jail than usual. He had no alcohol and was starting to get the whips and jingles. Withdrawal from alcohol can be a tough thing. Doug was pushed to the limit. He was sweating and shaking in a bad way. By the time he walked out of the jail he was fit to be tied. He had enough money to buy a bottle of cheap wine. There was a convenience store across the street from the jail. He went straight from the jail to the store and bought a bottle. He immediately guzzled it halfway down. Within minutes he started feeling better as he continued to drink, trying to figure out where his next bottle would come from.
      He began walking the streets begging for money. Some people of goodwill donated to his cause. It didn’t take long, and he had enough to buy several bottles of the elixir. Doug was soon back to his old self, causing problems at local downtown establishments.
      This pattern continued for several years, excluding the assault. Doug became normalized to his alcoholic state and realized he couldn’t endure an extended stay in an environment with no alcohol. The officers working downtown hated the guy.
      The calls on Doug (Douglas) began to mount up. The situation became the same thing over and over again. The call would go out he was disturbing the peace. Even though he was drunk he would never assault anyone because he wanted out quick so he could get drunk again.
      One evening I was working foot patrol with my partner. We had access to a car, and it was dinner time. We decided to drive out of the downtown area to a small café. The main artery out of downtown was W. 7th Street. We approached the café which was about a half mile and there was an old, abandoned warehouse on the south side of the street. We noticed smoke billowing out of the building. We pulled into the parking lot and there was an open bay door. The building was fully engulfed in fire, and we called the fire department. We pulled down to the next bay door and there was a body laying against the wall. The body was backlit by the flames. We told the dispatcher and jumped out to go get him. The heat was intense, but we managed to drag him out of the warehouse to the parking lot. The smoke had gotten to both my partner and me. We called the dispatcher for an ambulance. We finally looked at the guy and it was Douglashaw. He was starting to become conscious and looked up at us with a smile.
      We started questioning him. I said, “Did you start that fire.”
      He still had a dazed, drunk look on his face. He had no clue what was going on. He shook his head no. My partner and I were now upset and wondering if there was anyone else in there. We ventured in on the perimeter but didn’t see anyone else. We couldn’t go in any further.
      The fire department still was not on the scene and other police units were showing up. One of the units was our foot patrol sergeant. He came up to us, “You guys alright?”
      We both said, “Yes sir.”
      The sergeant then said, “Who did you drag out of there?”
      I pointed and said, “That guy.”
      The sergeant walked over and saw who it was. His eyes got big as he whipped his head around towards us, “You got Douglashaw out of the building? You need to drag him back in there quick before the fire department arrives!”
      About that time the fire department started showing up. An ambulance came and Doug (Douglas) turned out to be alright. He continued his drunken ways in the downtown area for several more years until one day, as with many transient/drunks, he just disappeared. The old sergeant never let me, or my partner live that down. He spread the word we were the ones who saved Douglashaw. My partner and I were shunned by our peers. I’m kidding, it became a running joke the other officers harassed us about it for years.