Humans of Downey - Garth (1/2)

"My major in college was architecture. I was going to Cal Poly Pomona and soon, I was going to transfer to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. Some friends of mine, that were in law enforcement, went with me in my 1970 Camaro to the Lakewood outside theater to see a movie. I parked my Camaro, with its Pioneer Supertuner Cassette Player, in the lot. I came out after the movie and both doors are broken into and they had stolen my stereo. My friends say, 'Hey dude, you got ripped off.' I'm thinking, 'My friends are policemen. Hey, you guys get paid to catch these guys.'

"So, at the time, I was weighing my future plans and what I was currently doing, the drafting and all the drawings. That was a turning point for me, my being a victim of an auto burglary. For me, it wasn't so much that they took the stereo, it was insured, but the damage they did to get to the stereo is what bothered me. So, the next thing you know I applied at Los Angeles PD, Los Angeles Sheriff, and Downey PD. Downey got me and that was the start of my career at Downey Police Department.

"The interesting thing is that the skills I cultivated during my architecture major days, I've used during my policeman days. I've used it to draw crime scene drawings that are very exact and used in prosecutions. We had a murder investigation of an Orange County officer, Tommy De La Rosa, and I was involved in the crime scene drawings for that case. Also, my skills with AutoCAD were used during the O. J. Simpson trial regarding showing elevation of a crime scene. E.g. if you are 6 feet tall and you're across the street, this is what you can see. So, I got to be a part of that which was pretty unique.

"So, that was the beginning of my career in police work. I heard the stories of my friends and thought, 'That would be interesting and exciting.' And it has been. It turned to be exactly as I thought."
~ Garth