The young man on the other end of the line said he had been charged with carrying a concealed firearm. He was intelligent, well-spoken and talked with a slight Blackccent.

"You want to tell me what happened here, James?"

"I have the police report here, do you want me to read it to you?"

"Sure!" I replied. Most of the time prospective clients don't have the police report when they call me or it is illegible if they have it or they cannot read well enough if it is legible or they want to tell me their side of the story before they tell me the police version. James read well and understandably. It was a long police report and as he read I looked him up on the computer and saw his photograph.

"Responded to Wal-Mart located at [etc.] reference five black males in a car..."

"...one with a gun."

"Armed suspect described as black male with dreadlocks. Armed suspect was observed by Wal-Mart security to be placing a firearm inside his front pants in the parking lot before entering the store..."

"The armed suspect and another occupant of the vehicle were observed by store security to enter the store, exit the store after a few minutes and depart in their vehicle, red sedan tag number [etc.] traveling westbound on [etc.]..."

"BOLO issued, officers observed above vehicle and verified license plate number. Subject vehicle was observed turning into a second Wal-Mart store located at [etc.]..."

"This officer observed suspect vehicle in parking lot of second Wal-Mart and observed subject with dreadlocks (believed armed) exit vehicle and walk toward store entrance..."

"...Officer approached dreadlock suspect informing him of reason for police citizen contact and asked him if he was armed. Suspect replied affirmatively. This officer patted suspect down and retrieved firearm from front waistband. Subject arrested."

"James, is that all true?"

"Yes, it was my gun; I know I didn't have it properly concealed, I always carry it for protection, I've been robbed, got the shit beat out of me."

"Okay, well, son, you're lucky you're not dead and only charged with CCF!

"I know, I know."

"This is excellent police work and they obviously thought you were casing Wal-Mart to rob them, you didn't rob the first one for some reason and you then went to another one."

"I know, I know."

"What was going on here? Why did you go to two Wal-Marts?" I told him I had seen his picture with the dreads and said, "Son, you were rolling probable cause without someone seeing you with a gun! Five black guys in one car!"

"And they were both in white areas too," he said to me and I laughed out loud.

"To tell you the truth Mr. Harris, I have a very bad gambling problem and I was going to buy 'Play Five,'" [some lottery ticket] "and my mother buys lottery tickets too and..."

And here he paused for a split second and then sort of sheepishly said,

"...And she always told me to buy lottery tickets in white areas because you have a better chance of winning."


!!!!!!! OHHH! OHHH! LOLOLOLOL. 

"James, I can tell you THAT'S not true!" and we both laughed out loud.