...Involving a police chase, fire extinguishers and the school bully

A long story about growing up in Huntington Beach,Ca.

Trick or treat day 1967 started out pretty innocently,with me and Bobby Hermann ( the school bully) but one of my best friends since elementary school,trying to come up with something different to do for Halloween.With both of us being 16,we kind of grew out of the dressing up to get some candy phase.So Bobby,who was very creative,but usually in a mischievious way,comes up with this idea to fill a couple of those chrome pump up fire extinguishers with water and spray the older kids out trick or treating.
I recently got my drivers license on my B-day in May,my grampa just got a new 1966 Ford Bronco that he let me drive sometimes.....great idea Bobby! We'll drive around HB and squirt some kids with water,WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG???? One of our other buddy's (who's name for the life of me I can't remember) decided he wanted go for a ride in the back of the Bronco too and spray some unsuspecting teen age tricksters.Well this was fun for about a half hour and Hermann,who got bored pretty easily comes up with another brainstorm..."let's go back to my dad's house and put some white latex paint in the fire extinguishers".Sure we're 16 and we did some pretty dumb things at that age,just add this to a rather long list.
So we're driving down Adams Ave. in HB and Hermann starts spraying whiite latex paint on stop signs,signal lights etc.We cross Main st. and slowly head down 14th street by the elementary school,when all of a sudden a barrage of eggs fly our way.One egg hits Bobby in the head,he immediately goes into his uncontrollable 'rage mode'.A bunch of kids are laughing their butts off in front of Mark Fennells' house.Mark was our age and went to HBHS too.Next thing I know,Bobby and the other kid jump out of the back of the Bronco,fire extinguishers full of white latex paint in tow,and chase the group of kids back into their parents house....me I'm the getaway driver hanging tight in the cab of the Bronco.
A couple minutes later the two sidekicks come running back out of the Fennell house,jump in the back of the Bronco and Bobby yells,"LETS GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE!"We then start cruising down Main St. towards the high school,it's getting kind of late probably close to 10pm,not many kids out that late so we're about ready to call it a night.

The Police chase
Just past Adams a police car is going the other way on Main St.Suddenly bright red lights start flashing on the cops roof in front of the church...Hermann says "step on it Chris the cops are after us!" Now we're a good two blocks ahead of the squad car because of the median that seperates Main St.,plus the fact he had to make a u-turn. Looking in my rear view mirror I could see this cop was dead serious,so I step on the gas and the hot pursuit ensues...(sorry OJ) but I think I was involved in the first Bronco police chase (NOT my finest moment btw).Stupid 16 year old me actually thought I could out run the cop car.I decide I better get off Main St. so I turn right on Utica go a few blocks and turned right onto Pine.Now I don't see any red lights flashing behind us anymore,'alright we must have lost him'!WRONG! Up ahead in the distance,it's very dark as there weren't many street lights in those days, I see a pair of headlights.I immediatetly flash back to something my grandfather (Sgt.Paul Darden) once told me.... "a perp may have a faster car,but he can't outrun our radios!"
My first thought was great a police roadblock,so I slow the Bronco down to almost a crawl.WRONG again,it was just a mom picking up her kids from a Halloween party.By this time the cop is right on my tail,lights flashing/siren blaring just like something out of Highway Patrol with Brodrick Crawford.I then turn left off Pine onto Adams and hear this loud banging sound,it's Bobby and the other kid tossing the evidence/fire exstinguishers out from the back of the Bronco bed.We finally pull over next to the curb on Lake St.
The officer walks up to the truck and says,"You kids are in BIG trouble!"My first thought was 'crap somebody must have seen us spray the stop signs'.The cop tells Bobby and the other kid to get in the back of the patrol,and asked me if I think I can follow him back to the police station without pulling anymore stupid stunts."Yes sir I'll follow you!" Driving from Lake St. to the station at 5th and Orange gave me a chance to reflect on why we're getting busted.Then it suddenly hit me,don't tell me something really bad happened when we stopped at The Fennell house and my two cohorts jumped out the Bronco and chased those kids into their house.
Did Bobby (known to have gotten in more than a few scuffles) beat some kid up?Did they break a window or something? Surely they didn't shoot off the fire extinguishers full of white latex paint inside somebody's home? THEY DID!!!! We are so screwed! Inside the police station,which I visited many times with gramps,we get grilled for a good half hour."Do you know how much damage you idiots did inside that house on 14th street?"No sir" was my response.Bobby just starts doing his 'maniacal,I don't take no crap off anyone' laugh.The other kid didn't say a word.
The night Sgt.comes in and says,"lock 'em up!" My first thought was gramps is going to be so pissed and embaressed,I'll never drive the Bronco again! On our way back to our cell for the night, we pass this older lady, drunk on her ass in the holding tank. "Hey officer put them boys in here with me,I'll show 'em a really good time!" Lucky for us the cop didn't pay any attention to her. We get back to an empty cell,the policemen acts like he can't find the cell key....this might have been an early version of 'Scared Straight'.
Next thing you know we get relesed to our parents,but we're charged with Mischievous Mischief....at 16 I didn't even know what that meant.Our parents (gramps in my case) have to come down to the station to pick us up.They were so upset with us all,staying in the cell with the drunk lady didn't seem so bad afterall.We get home and gramps gives me the third degree (and well deserved) NO BRONCO FOR A MONTH and STAY THE HELL AWAY FROM THAT HERMANN KID! "He's nothing but trouble!"
The next day I run into Bobby at school,I say "dude we're in so much trouble,why did you have to do that"? He says bluntly,"cuz one of those little a-holes hit me with an egg first'!Then he goes "don't worry Chris I'll take care of this." Not sure what he did or say but a few days later all the charges were dropped.

Bobby Hermann gets murdered
I had known Robert Leroy Hermann since probably 4th or 5th grade.He and I and Ryan Seltzer (the Chief of HBPD's son) would hang out all the time after school and especially during summer break.We were always coming up with some sort of mechanical contraption to experiment with or just goofing around.We were all 'gear heads' in the making! Like the time we made a mini bike made from an old lawn mower.Bobby made this 'upside down bike' that had the seat about 5 ft. off the ground.I really got the wind knocked out of me when I popped a wheelie and went over backwards,landing on my back.OUCH!
Anyway the Bobby Hermann I knew was a good guy,a little misunderstood probably due to the many migrains he had to deal with growing up.His dad Leroy,was a pretty tough guy! Having been a security guard at Todd Shipyard in L.B.he always had a story or two of beating somebody up.So Bobby didn't fall too far from that tree.Now me, I was one of those scrawny little kids,with a birth defect that got picked on from time to time at school....if Bobby was nearby, he always stood up for me.He was the bully to the bullies! And YES he did get in his fair share of trouble at school,probably more than any other kid at HB Elementary and later on at HBHS.
During our early 20's I was drag racing and turning wrenches for a living.Bobby on the otherhand just got out of a short stent in the Army.We ran into each other around HB from time to time,and I could tell he wasn't the same guy I grew up with.I talked cars he mostly talked about getting high,buying/selling lids and hanging out in Long Beach with a different crowd that was more into the music/party scene.
Well that party scene finally caught up with Bobby in a most horrific way.What I heard was a girl we all went to school with and her boyfriend confronted Hermann at his parents house on 15th st.They claimed Bobby was an informant for the police dept.and that he was the one who narced on them at a pot party bust in the Pacific Sands tract.An argument ensued,the boyfriend pulls out a gun and shoots Bobby Hermann in the head, right in his parents living rooom.
Turns out later Bobby WASN'T the informant....it was a sad day for some of us.
RIP Bobby Leroy Hermann