Murphy's Law

Lately my foot has been bothering me a lot due to an impromptu trip down the stairs I took this winter..... face first.... down two flights. Tore some ligaments in my foot. Seems once that happens things never feel right again. Being on my feet 8+ hours a day and climbing up ladders and hopping in and out of lookouts probably doesn't help the situation much either.
Anyway, this lead me to reminisce on my very first apprehension ever!

It was actually my first day of work and I hadn't been working very long. Just figured out how to get a handle on the CCTV system when I see a young lady with a huge handbag on the ground floor and man is she acting shady. I point her out to my LP partner in crime and he picks her up on another camera. Long story short - pretty boring theft, she conceals several pairs of high-end sunglasses in the bag and walks out of the store. So I'm all keyed up on adrenaline since I've never done this before and have no idea whats supposed to happen. My partner runs out of the camera room (which is on the lower level) with me following close behind him. For not being used to running I kept up with him pretty well... until we reached the escalator. He was taking the escalator steps two at a time and I was losing him! I thought to myself, well, I can take two at a time too. I think I made it up 4 of them before my foot caught on one and I face planted into the steps.
By the time I picked myself up and made it out to the mall entrance my partner was already stopping the girl and bringing her back in the store. He asks what took me so long and I so kindly mention I was busy picking my teeth up off the escalator steps. GREAT first impression isn't it? I believe he never did stop thinking I was few trees short of a grove.

The best part is, when we get the girl back to the office and start processing her my partner realizes she looks really familiar.
"Didn't I pick you up before?"
And with the ghetto speech impediment you can only hear in Philly:
"Oh, dat wuz here? I thought dat wuz at da udder Store X"

For as long as I live I will never forget that line. I mean, jeez, you steal that much you can't even keep track of which stores you got caught in?

Sometimes all you can do is shake your head. And maybe giggle a little bit when no one is looking.