Sergeant Kent

It’s Monday afternoon, I’m at work and my front office gets a phone call claiming to be from the Davis County Sheriff’s Department and that it was urgent that he talk to me.  Tana who received the phone call gave me the message assuming it was with the Anti-drug abuse publication I donate to every year which they sponsor, so without much concern I called him back.  I introduced myself and the dispatcher person connected me to 'Sergeant Kent'.  He then informed me that there was an arrest warrant out for my arrest--WAIT--WHAT??? My heart sinks, immediately my mind franticly begins swimming, what could I have possibly done to get arrested!?  Snapping back to the conversation, He went on, the warrant is due to my failure to appear for a Jury Duty summons on December 05, 2017.  He then asked, “Did you knowingly or willingly not appear for your legally mandated Jury Summons?  I replied, “This is the first I’ve heard of this”.  “I never received any notice for Jury Duty”!

He replied, “I understand and I am sorry if that is the case”.  He then went on to validate the correctness of my home address (which he then read off, which was correct).  “Unfortunately, it appears that the County’s database is correct and you, therefore, were in violation of the summons.  Furthermore, the Honorable (So and So - I don’t remember) subsequently issued two violations against you (failure to appear for Jury Duty and Contempt of Court) and has since issued a warrant for my arrest. However, due to my lack of previous criminal record, they are able to extend a courtesy call making it possible for me to avoid any arrest and possible subsequent incarceration.  In order to do this, I would have to immediately leave work and post bond at the David County Sheriff’s office, otherwise the warrant would stand and an officer would be dispatched to bring me in.  Of course, my heart was racing.  “What was happening!??  Seriously???  I never got any summons??  This can’t be right!", continued to scream in my mind.  Sergeant Kent went on to explain, that after posting bond, I would be given a court date where I would be arraigned before the Honorable (So and So) and I could be heard concerning my failure to appear to jury duty.  After such appearance and any potential consequences I would receive my posted bail back in full.  He then asked me to write down my citation numbers with their corresponding bail fees.  They were both close to $1,500 each, totaling $2,994.97

Seemingly without any other option, I agreed to post bail at the Sheriff’s office.  I was told I had to leave immediately and that he would stay on the line tracking me by the movements of my phone ('Mobile Arrest'--like a portable ankle bracelet!).  I asked the front desk to clear out the rest of my day.  As I was fairly disturbed and resultantly loud on the phone everyone in the office, staff and patients, were all riveted to what was going on with Dr Flynn getting arrested!!!  

I went out to my car with Sargent Kent still on speaker.  He asked for my odometer reading.  I then waited for several minutes as he was doing something in the background.  Meanwhile I sent out a text to Sandra, Zack and Kristen stating what was going on.  He then returned to the phone and stated that the Davis County Sheriff’s department no longer took personal checks or credit card payments and that I would have to go through an authorized third party to purchase the required bond vouchers that I would turn in to the Sheriff’s department.  This took me as odd, but I remember watching the reality show years ago, ’Dog the Bounty Hunter’ who was a jail bondman, who financed jail bonds or something, so I figured this must be something like that.  He then confirmed that the grocery store Smiths by my house was an authorized third party.  He then said, Smiths doesn’t accept credit cards for vouchers and that I would have to go to my credit union or bank to get cash to pay for the vouchers.  Before I began driving, he then informed me that it was crucial that we do not get disconnect as this form of detainment was only valid as long as we were connected together through my phone.  Therefore, I was instructed to not accept or make any phone calls or texts while he was connected as any interference could jeopardize this connection, which would result in my physical arrest.  

I proceeded to drive to Utah First Credit Union and withdrew $3000 cash.  While I was waiting for the lady to count out the money, I put my phone & Sergeant Kent on mute and asked if I could use their phone to call my wife.  Before leaving the office I asked my staff to get a hold of Sandra and let her know what was going on, just in case I did get arrested and don’t come home.  I started feeling uneasy about this situation, more than an uneasy getting arrested feeling, more like, ‘What if he wasn’t who he says he was?  What if this is a scam?  I have no way of verifying the legitimacy of his claim or who he is--he has me hostage?”  I got a hold of Sandra and asked her to rush over to Smiths to meet me.  I got the cash and headed over there myself, although I drove slow and parked without informing him I had arrived to stall for time.  When I told him I had arrived, he then went on to explain the voucher process.  He said, I would go into Smiths and purchase the said total bail amount onto these green ‘Money PAX' voucher cards and that I would take these vouchers (which were like a portable money order) to the Sheriff’s Department to my post bail.  This process seamed completely unnecessary and redundant, but if I had the money vouchers and I was going to the sheriff’s office to turn them in, I couldn’t see a way I could lose the money if this was a scam?  Then he further explained, that the vouchers could only be made up to $500 each and so I would actually have to get six separate vouchers to be able to fund the total amount of bail required at the Sheriff’s department.  Red flags going off all over the place now—Really? This is how the Sheriff’s Department works, through this convoluted run around with six different money vouchers each with their own card numbers and authorization pins!?  It was all getting too phony.  

Sandra pulled up.  I got out and put the phone back on mute.  I took Sandra’s phone and immediately called my good friend, Scott Manookin, who works for the Clearfield Police Department.  I quickly gave him the rundown of what was happening to me, to which he replied, ‘This is Fraud—it’s a scam!’  Verifying what I’ve been thinking, I continued to question him, "Do the police ever do these type of ‘mobile arrests’? “No”, he replied.  “Is there a warrant for my arrest?”, I then asked.  He told me, it would take a minute to look it up, but "I highly doubt it”.  I then gave him the number I called to get a hold of Sergeant Kent.  He promised to call me right back.  I was nervous, is this real, is it a scam?  If it’s legit and I’m jerking this guy around or lose contact with him and have to go to jail that would really suck.  If it was a scam and I canceled the end of my day, lost a lot of money, embarrassed myself in front of my staff and patients that I was getting arrested, I’d be so pissed.  Scott called me back and informed me that the number I gave him was not a government number and it went straight to voicemail and that there was not a warrant out for my arrest—it was totally a scam!

I was so mad and relieved at the same time.  I turned off mute and told him I was back.  He replied, "Did everything go ok?”  I said "Actually, YES, everything is fine, especially since I have learned that there is NOT a warrant out for my arrest and that everything about this phone call is a scam!  He stated, “Why do you believe that?”  I informed him of my friend in the Clearfield police department who looked it up and it wasn’t there and that your phone number is not a government phone number!  Angrily I then chastised him for being "a lowlife preying on good hard working people, exploiting their vulnerabilities and ignorance and stealing their money.  Get a real job and actually work for a living!", I yelled, then hung up on him.

Glad it was over and it wasn’t real and I didn’t have to go through any more of this nightmare, but so utterly pissed that Mother F-er’s like this douche pile of dog turds is out there scamming people like me.  The world is mostly filled with beauty and kindness, but dang it all if it is also sprinkled with it’s fair share of vial Sergeant Kents!  

I once was given good advice: if anyone ever calls you and asked anything of you, never give it to them.  Find out who they claim to be and tell them you will call them back.  Look up a legitimate phone number (not the number they gave you) and ask for that person.  If they do not connect you back to the same person—they were not who they said they were and were probably fraudulent and just trying to get your information.  Unfortunately in today's world, you have to be skeptical of everyone.

Luckily, at the end of the day, I didn’t really lose anything.  I returned the money to the bank, with puzzled looks from the bank teller and went home safely to my family.  No cops ever showed up to arrest me.


Ironically, the very next day after dropping off a heavenly soft body pillow to my sister Christine for her birthday I was pulled over for speeding, 42 in a 30 mph zone.  Of course, at first my heart dropped again, “what if…”, but he was really nice and ended up giving me a warning—probably because I was also traveling with our sweet little teacup Yorkie-Chihuahua mix, Penny, sitting on my lap wearing her new princess pink dog dress and looking adorable!