Chapter 634 No Major Problems, Minor Problems Everywhere
Luke’s meaning was: Call me if you need anything. I’m a pro at beating up people, at your service!
Elsa accepted without a qualm.
She wasn’t exactly an outstanding fighter, and neither was her new partner, Simmons.
Luke’s combat ability had always been the foundation of her confidence.
Elsa had always been sure that her former partner and current subordinate was definitely the most capable fighter in L.A..
Ten minutes after arriving at the police department, Luke and Selina drove out again.
The police intercom had practically crashed. The operators were already trying to work on the signal jam, but many police officers still wanted to throw their walkie-talkies away.
Luke’s solution was much simpler. He gave Elsa a satellite phone since cellphones could barely get through either, with everybody calling each other to confirm that they were okay.
There was nothing Elsa could say about her subordinate’s extravagance.
Not only would he beat people up for her, he even gave her a special means for calling him – how considerate of him.
Once they left, Luke and Selina were constantly busy on the streets.
They caught some small hoodlums. If they were obedient, then fine. If they wanted to run, Luke and Selina roughed them up a bit and had them relay a message to their boss.
The message was basically what Dustin had said. The police department’s intention had to be spread far and wide.
It was just that this sort of threat couldn’t be directly said on TV by the police bigshots.
They could only speak with veiled meaning on TV; there was no way that the uncultured and brainless gangsters could understand.
The most effective approach was to have the detectives of the Major Crimes Division warn them in plain words.
A distant bigshot couldn’t hold a candle to the person who dealt with you directly – everybody knew this. Furthermore, it was the distant bigshot who was now telling the person in charge to crack down on things. LAPD was definitely one of the most sensitive police departments when it came to public disorder. Learning from their mistakes in the past, their current methods weren’t wrong. Luke and Selina ran around the entire morning, mainly to spread the word among the hoodlums. In pa.s.sing, they also arrested six groups of hoodlums totaling fifteen people. Some of these guys were low-level hoodlums, and some were just slackers. They didn’t care what the police said. All they cared about was what they could steal and loot.
Seeing how L.A. was a little chaotic due to the earthquake in the morning, they couldn’t help taking advantage of the situation.
Altogether, these people had looted a phone store, an appliance store, and four small supermarkets.
In the end, the ones who looted the phone store only took ten to twenty… display models.
Who knew if they would collapse once they found out that these phones didn’t even have a battery or a motherboard.
The pair who robbed the appliance store were very diligent. Holding the salesperson at gunpoint, they began to move everything from TVs and fridges to consoles onto their pickup, as if they were going to replace all their home appliances for free.
In the end, Luke and Selina who were pa.s.sing by stopped them. This pair were so busy moving the appliances that they had put their guns away.
When Luke and Selina pointed their guns at them, they didn’t dare yell “hands up” as usual. Instead, they shouted, “Steady! Hold that LCD TV steady! Don’t raise your hands, or we’ll shoot!”
After instructing the two diligent robbers to put the TV down in the back of their pickup and handcuffing them, Selina looked at the appliances they had already loaded and scratched her head. “…Do we have to call the forensics department?”
Luke also found it amusing.
Those two guys had moved appliances weighing at least hundreds of kilograms onto the pickup. The forensics department would definitely curse if they had to transport the appliances back to the police department as evidence.
He shook his head. “Let the street patrol take over. They can call whoever they want. We’re only responsible for catching them.”
They decisively tossed the responsibility over to the street patrol. The salesperson at the appliance store looked at them and asked, “Can we move the appliances back for sale again?”
Luke and Selina quickly shook their heads.
If the appliances were moved back, that would be troublesome for the street patrol. It would be best to hand over all aspects of the follow-up to them from the start, including the diligent pair.
These two groups of robbers were quite ambitious, but the other four groups proved how low the bar was for thieves.
These four groups all looted convenience stores, mostly for snacks; they didn’t even take the money.
That was right, all they looted was snacks.
The snacks each group stole were worth less than two hundred dollars. It was all junk food.
Two of the groups had slightly better taste. One looted two bottles of whiskey, and the other stole two beers.
But that was all.
It was also why Luke wasn’t heavy-handed with thieves who didn’t hurt anyone.
It would be like shooting someone in China for stealing a bag of vegetables, which was too ruthless.
The two thieves who stole the whiskey, for example… They committed the robbery after getting drunk.
At first, the shop a.s.sistant at the convenience store called the police because someone was smas.h.i.+ng up their store.
But after Luke and Selina headed over and listened to their drunk tale, they realized that these people were there to steal the whiskey.
They could only chuck the two drunkards into the patrol car and send them to the custody center to sober up.
And while Luke and Selina were confronting this pair, three men and one woman were about to run off with two beers, only to be blocked at the door by the sales a.s.sistant. Luke and Selina didn’t know whether to laugh or
cry.
After scaring the group with a few words, they found out that these four were just kids.
They were all high school students who weren’t even sixteen yet. What could Luke say?
Give them earnest advice? That wouldn’t help, and he didn’t have time for that.
These were just four brats who couldn’t buy any alcohol, and who wanted to take advantage of the chaos to steal some.
He could only write down their addresses and warn them that he would go to their homes to arrest them if they did this again.
Watching as the four kids, who had yet to fully recover from their fear, leave, Selina said to Luke with a smile, “You really are like an old man. The way you spoke just now reminds me of Robert. That’s exactly how he scares the kids who steal alcohol in Shackelford.”
Luke sighed. “Kids tend to be adventurous. Some people may be obedient and responsible in their forties, but they might have been the worst brats when they were younger. Besides, didn’t you drink beer in secret when you were a teenager?”
Selina chuckled. “My parents couldn’t be bothered to care. As long as I didn’t drink right in front of them, they pretended not to know.”
Luke was lost for words.
Mario and Sandra were Mexicans.
Twenty years earlier, they were also absolute brats who dared elope for the sake of their unborn baby.
Luke and Selina spent the whole morning dealing with petty issues like these. Nothing major really happened. Luke wasn’t really surprised.
Generally, it was the brainless guys who popped up first whenever there was bedlam.
It was when everything was utter chaos and the police department was overwhelmed that the smart professionals would find a chance to do something big.