Events around assisting Colorado State Troopers

A couple of Saturdays ago, I happened to be out at the fuel pumps when a State Trooper comes up with siren and lights on—unusual of course. He asked if I could assist by taking him up to search for a kidnapping, high-speed-chase suspect in a particularly rough area near the airport.

We quickly pulled my Super Cub out and hopped in. Being within a few miles of the airport, we were on-scene within a few minutes. As you can see from the pictures, the terrain is rough. Limited 4-wheel access with numerous gulleys and steep hills. Though there must have been 10+ law enforcement vehicles nearby, they couldn’t get close enough in vehicles to see or even hope to apprehend the suspect.

We circled the area for perhaps 5 to 10 minutes before sighting the suspect. He was really moving fast on foot. Using his radio, the trooper with me was trying to vector in law enforcement but they couldn’t get close using trucks and cars.

We continued to circle and radio directions. Ultimately law enforcement got an ATV, which enabled them to get close enough to be effective on foot. After circling and directing for perhaps 30 minutes, they had him in custody.

The trooper with me was very appreciative, thanking me for my help. His comments, “…without me helping to first locate then assist in vectoring in ground officers in place it, would have been a far more complex and time consuming process to apprehend him.”

To say the least, it proved to be an interesting morning—certainly not what I anticipated when heading to the airport that day.

I was surprised, to say the least, at the recognition I later received at a County Commissioner meeting, both from County staff and from our County Sherriff. I’m humbled and always happy to help.

Ted,

Great job, and great write-up. Sounds like an invaluable service you provided and nice to see that you were recognized accordingly.

Don't take this wrong, but it may be worth noting for anyone who finds themselves in a similar position that a standard Avemco policy and probably others specifically list police operations and surveillance under their exclusions. Also, as someone that used to perform SAR as a job, the managing agency in the area always signed volunteers in and out. Purpose being that the volunteer would then be covered under the agency version of worker's comp in the event of personal injury. Just bringing it up because I suspect most of us would like to imagine ourselves doing what you did here.

Cheers, and again, nice work.

-DP

Well done

From the sounds of it if you didn’t volunteer doubt they would have got the kidnapper

Great job and definitely "brownie" points for keeping the airport .

My first thought when reading this was how laid back that Colorado State Trooper must be (and you also) to ask a person in the community for assistance in doing his job. You probably made his day by giving him a ride in your Super Cub.
In this area of New England the Troopers are way too persnickity to think of doing such a thing. Trust me you wouldn't want one of our troopers in your plane anyway haha.

Anyway...good story!!

Awesome! Glad you were able to help rid this country of another bad guy!

Geesh, I never thought of the insurance angle. Still would do it though regardless.

The trooper was super cool. He saw my leather seats went back to his car and took off his belt (all the sharp stuff) remarking that he didn’t want to accidentally cut the seat.

And the trooper thought riding was cool. He has about 30 hours toward earning his private. With all the “yanking and banking” I wondered if he’d get sick, but he was fine.

About 20 minutes into the search it finally dawned on me, “Gee, I hope that guy doesn’t have a gun and start shooting at us.”

Good on ya Ted, well done.

Very cool, Ted!

If that happened at my airport and the deputy came by looking for a plane and pilot, I'd take him back to my hangar to show him the Bearhawk fuselage.

What a cool story and good on you for helping out. The world needs more people like you!

Good job Ted. There is a few of us up here that have done similar a few times. It's always rewarding to use our planes for something meaningful.

Awesome!!

Super cool Ted!

We all dream of using our airplanes and skills for heroics...

You had the opportunity and rose to the occasion. Well played and a great story.