Police Scanners Are Fun

[Jesse James]

I don't know about you guys, but I am a neb ****, and I like listening to a police scanner...  My old one keeled over on me not long ago...  It was given to me by a woman who just didn't want it anymore, and I was hooked.

Got a new one, and I have to say that it's just a blast if you're home and have it on...  I'll even mute what I'm perhaps watching on TV to listen to what's going on.  And being the 4th weekend, there's a LOT going on.

I just listened to a great high speed chase...  It's like a good movie, you can't leave that thing because you keep hearing the cops going back and forth about the chase, and setting up blocks, and trying to cut the guy off, and it's great...  You hear the ID go out, then come back with the guy's name (or this case the temp tags indicating where the car was from), and sometimes I even hear people I know come across the thing...  It's funny.

Tonight's chase was great.  Edge of your seat kinda ****, seriously.  A red Pontiac or Chevy blew past an Apollo,PA cop at 110 mph and the chase was on.  The guy outran the cop too out near where my brother used to live...  The State Police were involved, 3 local police all from separate townships/boroughs...  I have to admit that I'm sure I could have found other stuff to do tonight, but since I've been busy all week I decided to stay home, and that made it partly worth it. 

Plus the banter they have back and forth is great...  The Apollo Cop told them to wake up the auto dealer where the car was registered and get him "down here"...  It's a little private dealer.  THe dispatcher replied later with, "I got him up and he's on his way...  He wasn't happy", and the cop says, "Neither are we", haha...  It's probably the dealer's kid driving the car too, making it all the more funny.

So anyway, do any of you have one?  I'm so into this I'm wanting a CB/Scanner in my car anymore just because I love listening to this stuff.  It's kinda like Cops without the picture I guess.

But, I will say...  I hate when a call for an ambualnce comes out because somewhere out there is a "rectal bleed".  Ah!   

[Angry Ewok]

I've been wanting a scanner for a long time... Alabama cops are especially interesting to listen to.

[Jesse James]

I highly recommend picking one up...  Mine's always on in the background, and while a lot of nights out here are quiet and mostly just ambulance calls (kinda dull), you get those odd cop calls that just erupt into something you HAVE to listen to.  Definitely need one of these Brad.

[Nathan]

You lost me at "neb ****" .... ?

[CorranHorn]

You lost me at "neb ****" .... ?

me too, but now we know what we should call JJ

as for listening on a police scanner, a friend of mine has one and I've listened in on it a few times. nothing as outrageous as what you heard tonight, mostly dumb **** like gangbangers making a racket in a residential area. but i can definitely see where the entertainment value could come from, there's just so many dumbasses out there...

[Jesse James]

Well, the cops got the guy's name via the temp tags on the car and traced him to a town near Apollo and on the last road they're pretty sure he was on (this was very fascinating...  The Apollo cop lost the kid but caught some black skidmarks onto a road and it turns out this road goes to the town they've tracked him to...  All very fun to listen to).

So the kid's on the S-List of the police, and it turns out his DOB is *drumroll* today...  hah.

The one cop says, "Well when we catch him we can tell him happy birthday".  Haha...  Yeah!  This is great!

So they're tracking him down, they called some State Troopers in from the county seat to come down and sorta surround him so he can't run again.  Great stuff.

Anyway, a "Neb ****" is a Pittsburgh term...  Means the same as a busy body, or basically someone who sticks their nose into business that isn't theirs....  Thus I'm a "Neb ****" for listening to a police scanner just to hear all the goings on of my area.

Gangs aren't a huge issue in Pittsburgh let alone my area, so stuff out here tends to be more or less minor stuff.  The occassional "big" thing happens though.  This has been a fun night, but I gotta get some sleep here... 

[Jesse James]

Tonight, just fireworks calls here and there...  Meh...

[Taminar]

I work in a TV newsroom, so we have scanners going all the time.  I always had a sick sense of humor, but some of the stuff is really funny to me. Like Friday there were a couple of suicide threat calls, in one case the guy told the cops he wasn't going to kill himself right now, eventually, but not right now.  In the other case, the guy said the woman was trying to kill herself and the woman said the guy was trying to kill her. Don't get me wrong -- domestic violence is a terrible thing, if in fact that's what it was, but the description on the scanners was hilarious. 

It can also be very tragic and gruesome -- I've heard the cops describe walking into a house and seeing blood everywhere after a teenager stabbed his uncle.  I heard the calls when a transient got caught under a semi-truck and ripped apart.   

Other days are pretty boring -- stolen cars, fender benders, and yeah, this time of year, fireworks complaints. 

[Jediknight760071]

So how does one go about getting a police scanner?

[Jesse James]

Radio Shack carries them...  I got mine at an Emergency Services store that supplies uniforms and junk to cops but also has any # of random police/EMT/Firefighter-oriented stuff...  Plus he programmed it for me since finding some codes was a real pain in the ass.