A&E True Crime asked Live PD analyst Sgt. Sean “Sticks” Larkin to tell us about the most memorable arrests he’s made throughout his career in law enforcement.
From suspects hiding behind fake walls to chasing naked peeping Toms, here’s his list, in no particular order.
Car Pursuit While Being Pursued
In 2004 I was on patrol one evening when our dispatch put out the description and license-plate number of a car that had been stolen a short time earlier. I noticed that the car was in the lane next to me and traveling in the same direction. I pulled up behind the car and it immediately took off, with me in pursuit.
A few moments later I noticed the exact same model of the stolen car was behind me, chasing me! We drove through a neighborhood with all three cars driving at a high rate of speed in a perfect line.
The car I was chasing eventually pulled over and the driver bailed and ran. (I caught him, I was much younger then.) The second car continued on, and other officers ended up chasing that car. They eventually caught that driver—it turned out that car was stolen as well.
Belly Flop Results in Hospital Detour Before Jail
One evening several officers responded to a call about two males who had broken into an occupied home. We arrived and immediately took one of the guys into custody. The second guy ran into the garage of the house and climbed up the hot-water tank. He punched out the drywall around the tank and climbed up into the attic.
Officers went up into the attic to try and catch the suspect. He was a big guy (on steroids) and he tried to crawl away from the officers. He ended up going over the front porch of the house. One of the officers caught up to him and crawled onto the guy’s back. Because of their combined weight, they fell through the porch roof. The officer rode the suspect all the way down and the bad guy belly flopped onto the porch right in front of me.
He ended up splitting his head open and fell unconscious. His night ended with a trip to the hospital—and then to jail.
Hidden Wall Arrest
My partner and I were on patrol in a neighborhood known for drug dealing. This was back when crack was being sold everywhere. As we were driving by a known crack house, we saw a gang member in the front yard who we knew had felony warrants for his arrest.
The guy was 6 feet 4 inches tall and probably weighed 280 pounds—none of which was muscle. He sees us pull up and he ran into the house.
My partner ran straight to the back of the house and I covered the front. We got a few more officers there and got permission from the homeowner to go inside. We searched the whole house (no more than 1,000 square feet) with a K-9 and could not find him. A woman in the house told us that he ran right through the house, out the back door and got away. We were like, “There is no way!”
My partner and I go back through the house again. We looked inside a bedroom closet and my partner realized that the wall in the closet was moving slightly. We pushed on it and it pushed back at us! We pulled the false wall down and found the monstrous man behind it.
Fastest Half-Naked Man Ever
Early in my shift I had a foot chase with a fit 18-year-old guy who was selling drugs. I caught him within the first 50 yards; I felt good about myself.
Later in the shift, I was at a stop light when a citizen pulled up next to me and told me there was a naked man window-peeping in his neighborhood. He said the suspect had just left in an old station wagon.
While we were talking, the station wagon drove up behind the citizen’s car at the stop light. I maneuvered my police car behind the suspect and the next thing you know, we are in pursuit. (The car I was chasing was like the Griswold’s station wagon from National Lampoon.)
The driver eventually comes to a dead end in an industrial area and has to bail from the car. An overweight, older guy jumped out of the car wearing a T-shirt, brown loafers and nothing else! He was butt naked from the waist down and took off running.
I chased after him and it took me two whole blocks to catch him. The guy was much more determined to get away than the 18-year-old I caught earlier in the shift.
Pursuit Leads to Jail (Literally)
A church van was stolen in downtown Tulsa. An officer spotted the van within a few minutes and a car pursuit started.
As this was going on, I was leaving the jail, which is also located in downtown Tulsa, and I joined the chase. My partner and I ended up as the third car in the pursuit as it continued through downtown Tulsa.
Eventually, the suspect drove the stolen van right though the closed sally-port doors at the jail (electronic doors for police and jail transport vans only), right into the “Law Enforcement Only” garage at the front of the prison entrance. He jumped out the car with his hands in the air and lays down to be arrested. He literally drove himself to jail—in a stolen church van.
