Deputy Rick

Throughout the different stages of change in the park we have tried all kinds of things to achieve our goals. Sometimes we have even followed and stopped people driving through the park that we didn’t recognize and asked them to leave the property. In the early months this was necessary because we had a drug problem, we had people living in the park who distributed drugs, so we had a lot of traffic in and out of the park to make their pick ups.

My right hand man is Rick Walls, he does our rehabbing of the mobile homes. In a previous life I think he was either a sheriff's deputy, a narc or a private investigator, he thinks nothing of stopping someone he doesn’t recognize if he sees them make more than one pass by of a home he is working on.

The drill usually goes something like this, who are you looking for, what lot do they live at, what’s their mothers name, what’s your cousins name, have you ever visited them here before ? Sometimes the answers don’t make any sense and we just ask them to leave.The manner in which we ask the questions is done with respect, but it’s not to hard to recognize by a persons reactions if they’re up to no good.

Last week we had a first, after seeing someone make more than one drive by Rick jumped into security investigator mode and followed the car around the park, he later told me he wanted to see what lot the vehicle ended up at, sometimes we will take down a license plate number and call it in if they make a quick stop or what looks like a pick up. After following the vehicle and the appearance that he was up to no good Rick finally stopped the driver only to find out he was there to deliver pizza which he had on the passenger side seat of his car. Mind you this is small town Georgia, this was a privately owned pizza shop and the vehicle had no markings identifying it as a pizza delivery vehicle.Rick then helped him find the lot he was looking for and went back to his rehab project.

Of course when Rick sheepishly told me the story we both had a good laugh. I’ve been telling him for a while now I’m going to get him a sheriffs badge. On a more serious note I have truly been blessed to have someone like Rick who watches out for my interests as well as the mobile home park. One of the best parts of this business is the relationships you build with people, after all isn’t that what life is all about, people helping people.

The last I had heard the pizza delivery man had asked to have his route changed, just kidding of course.

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