Police don’t let quiet fool them
Juno Beach may be a quiet town, but police still get their share of dramatic calls, from catching an armed robber who slipped his handcuffs to performing life-saving CPR.
Police and residents caught up Wednesday at a monthly “Coffee with a Cop” event at the Town Center. One of the more dramatic stories came from a call two weeks ago when Juno Beach police helped Palm Beach County Sheriff ’s deputies find a man who threatened a homeless person with a knife and stole his shoes and a cellphone.
Sgt. Steve Smith said he and two other officers kept up a search for the man. They found the assailant, and deputies took him into custody in a restaurant just up the street from where he attacked the homeless man.
The man had stolen property from a store at the other end of the restaurant’s plaza, the sergeant said. Smith went to investigate, and when he came back, he noticed people bailing out of the restaurant. The man had somehow managed to slip out of his handcuffs.
It was Juno Beach Police Chief Brian Smith and Major Paul Fertig who caught the suspect for the second and final time, the sergeant said.
The chief brushed off the praise.
“Police officers when they have a job to do, they do it,” the chief said.
The homeless man was uninjured, although he was upset about losing his belongings. One of the sheriff ’s deputies bought him a new pair of shoes, the sergeant said.
“She told him, ‘Don’t worry about it. We’ll get you a new pair of shoes.’ She delivered on her promise,” he said.
In other news, patrol officers will have 10 new automated external defibrillators to replace ones that are more than 10 years old. Jon Luther, treasurer of the newly formed Juno Beach Police Foundation, presented a check to the chief for the portable medical devices that cost about $1,000 a pop.
The devices are used to deliver an electrical shock to reestablish the heart’s rhythm in people who suffer a sudden cardiac arrest. As the batteries in the devices get older, they become less reliable, especially as they’re subject to the heat in the trunk of the patrol cars.
Sgt. Smith has used an
AED to save at least one life. About a year ago, he and another officer broke a car window to get to a man who crashed in the 12000 block of U.S. 1. The man, who was in his 40s, was unresponsive and pale.
Smith, who is a CPR instructor, and the other officer performed CPR and shocked him twice with the AED. He had a sustained pulse by the time paramedics arrived.
A printout of the man’s heart rhythm from the AED went to the man’s cardiologist and proved vital in his recovery, Smith said.
The man made a full recovery and later called to tell them they broke his ribs when they performed CPR. They apologized, but he told them no apology was necessary because he was alive.
The man’s mom and girlfriend called to thank the officers, too. A few months later, he got engaged, and now the girlfriend is his wife.
During his update, the sergeant cautioned people to lock their car doors and keep valuables out of site because officers had responded to a few car break-ins at Loggerhead Park on Saturday afternoon.