Sarge and the Robbery
Before I get into this week's story, I highly recommend that you take a few minutes to read Jim Amey's story on The Idora Park Experience Museum's Facebook page: "The Idora Park Football Throw Booth 1976." Go laugh your butt off, and then come back and read about Sarge.
Don't forget about the Idora Park Experience Museum's opening on the weekend of September 30/October 1. It's the only place where you can get professionally handcrafted jewelry made with authentic artifacts from Idora Park.
When I started working my first full summer, I started as a breaker. Those were the people who made sure that everybody on the Midway games got their break.
I remember one such day when things didn't go quite right.
It was a very dreary day at Idora Park. The skies were overcast, and all day long it look as if it were to rain. One of the larger company picnics was there, and it was very crowded. Even on company picnic days, people still came to the park.
One of the men who worked security at the park was named Sarge, or at least that's what everyone called him because he was a sergeant on the police force. He was a very nice person, but when it came to his job, he commanded respect.
I couldn't tell you how old Sarge was at the time—being kind of young, I wasn't used to guessing people's ages. But if I had to guess, I would say late forties. He was a black police officer, approximately six foot two, probably around 320 pounds. And although that seems kind of large, he had very big arms and could still move quite quickly.
I just finished giving most the people their breaks, and it looked like something was going on at the Skee-Ball machine. I walked over to ask the two young guys that were working there what was going on. Two men in their twenties had run up to the two workers at Skee-Ball machine and ripped off their change bags.
They were upset because they were just getting ready to empty out their bags and they had quite a bit of money in them. They pointed the two men out to me, and I'd noticed that in the direction they were running that Sarge was at the top of the hill.
I ran up behind them and yelled at Sarge, “Grab these two!”
He was able to get one but not the other. Sarge ask me what was going on, but he could see that the one man still had the change bag in his hands.
I said, “These two robbed the workers at the Skee-Ball machine game.”
So, he took the one down the office where there was like a setup like a little jail.
About a half hour later, I went into the arcade that was located by the office. A machine had jammed up, and they had asked me to look at it. I was just talking to Ann, the lady who was working at the change cage, when somebody walked up behind me. It was the other man who had helped rob the Skee-Ball game.
He said, “You got my friend sent to jail, and I'm going to kill you.”
Ann said, “Chuck, hurry, you can get in the cage with me.”
Well, I usually didn't back down from a fight, but I also wasn't upset that walking into the arcade at the time was the guy who worked at the penny arcade—Jimmy Wellington. I'd heard stories about what a good fighter he was, so I was even less worried.
As the robber started to approach me, I said, “You better look behind you first.”
He saw Jimmy standing there holding some of the change for the game. Four seconds later, his luck got even worse when Sarge walked in.
Sarge recognized the robber and he was not happy that he ran away when Sarge had told him to stop.
He tried to fight his way out, but between Jimmy and Sarge, it wasn’t happening. Sarge slapped on the cuffs and took him to the office, and then they sent him to jail too.
Pat Duffy Jr. and George Goodman called me into the office and asked if I was all right, and I said yes, I was fine.
They said it was quick thinking and that they were glad that I left it up to security to catch them instead of trying to catch them myself.
They asked if I wanted to go home, and I said, “No, I'd rather just stay.”
I wish I could remember Sarge’s real name. I have the utmost respect for that man. Idora Park was lucky to have him in security, and furthermore I was lucky in getting to know him and working with him.
His family should be very proud of who he was and what he was.
See you on the midway!