Played a Little Trick on the Boys

By Dick Mauer


The year was somewhere in the early 80s and I was working afternoons on
a summer midweek night with Stan Gruber.  Along about 10pm we were
advised that the Niagara Falls PD had encountered a young female
Canadian in one of the local watering holes. We responded and
encountered a 16 year old spitfire with a suitcase who told us she was
headed for California. We determined she had entered as a passenger in a
friends car who had since returned to Canada. We took her to the Rainbow
Bridge and did a fast I-213 on her as an Immigrant w/o visa, and pointed
her, on a nice warm night, to walk back to Canada. The gal had resisted
all instincts toward pleasantness and when she found out she was heading
back to Canada she threw her temper into high gear and departed in a
torrent of invective.

The Rainbow Bridge from U.S. to Canada is, I'm now guessing, about 400
yards long and at 11pm on a summer night, was completely free of
traffic. She started walking and Stan and I were talking to the
Inspector in the only traffic lane open. We were laughing about having
our parentage and illegitimacy questioned. After a few minutes we looked
out on the bridge and saw her suitcase in the middle of the bridge with
her no where in sight.  MY GOD, she jumped! We roared out onto the
bridge to where the suitcase sat and looked over the side at the 187
foot drop to the Niagara River. Here she is, crouched down and clinging
to the outside. She is also laughing her hiney off at us for falling for
her prank. We dragged her back, cuffed her and put her in the car for
the rest of the short trip to Canada Immigration. (We should have done
this to start with, but, well, you know, things have a way of
escalating) Lesson learned! I admit, she raised our blood pressure with
her prank, and, I guess, got even.