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At times being Mayor is more akin to being a ringmaster; you never know what the clowns will do and every season the show is bigger and better. Last week the clown crew was in rare form and if they don’t make you laugh your funny bone needs an adjustment.
On November 17, a man and woman drove to the Capitan Bank and boldly tried to pass a forged check written on the “Billy the Kid” account owned by Tom Sullivan and me. I wondered what these two were thinking to forge a check on the Mayor and ex-Sheriff but the entertainment value alone is priceless.
I guess these brain-dead b didn’t take into consideration that the bank tellers wouldn’t be stoned when they tried to pass the worthless check and the bad guys were busted. First of all, they forged Tom’s name on the check so poorly the only thing that could’ve been worse is if they had signed it with a red crayon. Secondly, the account number was wrong. Third, it was obvious these scholastic misfits had slept through the first grade, had they been studious pupils, they would have realized the second number from the left in the amount of $2450 is spelled “four” and not “for” (in case they are reading this, left is your beer hand, not your sandwich hand). Fourth, they used a stolen identification card. Fifth. . .well, you get the idea. When the teller questioned them, they did what all caught crooks do, they ran.
Capitan Police Officers followed the leads and did some good police work. On November 20, Chief Big Bird, Officers Shaw, Haskins and our reserve officers (yes, Capitan has police reserves) quietly slipped up to the door of 412 West Second Street to execute a “no-knock warrant”. Bird with a .45 in hand put his number 12 extra wide Justin boot through the middle of the trailer door with his entire not-so-delicate weight behind it.
Now, I’m sure since Jimmy Chavez, 31, and Christine Alanis, 23, were not expecting a visit by the Capitan Police, it came as somewhat of a surprise to see the door bounce off the opposite wall. In my mind’s eye I see Jimmy stretched out on the bed watching Double Jeopardy as the cops kicked the door prompting Jimmy to jump to his feet too afraid to do anything but to run in place and weep as the cops yelled, “On the Ground!”
The Officers searched the place and found stolen; ID cards, driver’s licenses, and credit cards, one belonging to Lincoln County with more than $3,000 worth of gas charged to it. They found stolen social security cards; software used to forge checks, a computer stolen from the Hondo School, counterfeit money, and drugs. As a result, part of this case was turned over to the Secret Service making it a federal case Ouch!
In the November 2005 Mayor’s Report, you read the entire story of how Christ Community Church had their door kicked down by our local burglar in 2003 and subsequently a computer was stolen. I told you that according to a witness the burglar took the Church’s computer and traded it for drugs. Then a few days later the police
recovered the stolen computer when they served a search warrant. At what address do you think the burglar traded the computer for illegal drugs? Where do you think the cops found the Church’s computer? You guessed it: 412 West Second Street, the same place our police found the stolen Hondo School computer and the counterfeit money and drugs on November 20 of this year.
I told you someone was arrested in 2003 for the church’s stolen computer at that address. No, it was not the same guy but Christine Alanis is his stepdaughter. Not uncommon, a lot of fathers hand down the family business to their children. However, this business has Jimmy and Christine eating their commercially prepared breakfast with plastic forks wearing the color of the con: orange. I wonder if they know it was illiteracy that got them locked up and facing federal charges? They couldn’t spell “four”.
After reading this in the paper I had someone tell me, “The Village is in worse shape as it has ever been.” I have to disagree and say this Village is in good shape. Nearly four years ago when I ran for office, my campaign slogan was “IT’S TIME TO TURN THE LIGHT ON.” This light has been so bright at times you needed sunglasses. I kept my campaign promise to you. I pointed at the dead skunk in the middle of the table and told you how it stinks.
In the past you never, ever heard of a drug bust. A blind eye was always turned to the drugs being sold in the parking lots. Now, you read about our police taking down Meth dealers and drug dealers live in fear they’ll hear Bird and the boys coming through the door in the middle of the night. In the past the fact that the gas company charged you twice and then shorted you 22 percent was never mentioned. Now, I’m being told Capitan Carrizozo Natural Gas will be sold by mid-December. In the past you read how elected officials made trips to Washington D.C. or Las Vegas. For the last four years, you have not paid for one elected official to go out of state. Today the Village pays 100 percent of an employee’s health insurance; something no other place does. Why? Because in the past elected officials put themselves on the insurance as employees and you paid the premiums, you paid 100% of their premiums. Now, not one elected official is on the Village Insurance Plan. In the past, elected officials received money from the boards they appointed themselves onto; now that money goes to the baseball field or to
the library. In the past, elected officials had $1,000 bar bills; the Village doesn’t pay bar - -- bills any longer. In the past, none of your police officers were certified; now they all are.
In the past, you’d never hear this from a mayor: Our police hear the counterfeiters used
$3,000 worth of bogus bills to buy drugs that they cut and resold. The dope dealer who
sold the drugs is angry for being handed bad money and when the officers searched 412
West Second Street they found what the dope was being cut with: strychnine
Now the light is on. You see the secrets that were hidden in the past and I believe Capitan to be a better place for it. Well, that is unless you’re a doper and your drug of choice was being cut by one of your friends and they used poison. That’s why it’s called dope.
Merry Christmas, our gift to you is a cleaner, healthier, closer to drug free Village.