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felony? Did I ever have sex while I was on the payroll as a New York City police officer? Did I ever steal anything? Yeah, everybody steals. You take a little money out of your mother’s pocketbook when you’re a kid and you steal money from other kids when you’re in school. Did I ever cover up a felony? The answer to that was no. I had never covered up a felony. Did I ever have sex as a member of the New York City Police Department? I answered yes to that one too. They didn’t specify on duty or off duty. The sergeant says, ‘All right. We’ll be in touch.’ I figured, that’s it—I flunked the damn thing.
    â€œThe following Wednesday I get a phone call. This guy said, ‘Henry Winter? This is Sergeant Reynolds, from the Arapahoe County Police Department in Colorado. We went over your application and we’d like you to work for us.’ So I said, ‘Oh, fine. I’m interested. But it will take me about a month or so to get squared away here. I have a wife and child. When do you want me to start?’ He said, ‘Monday.’ I said, ‘I have no place to live. I can’t just drop everything.’ He said, ‘They’re going to waive everything, all the learning and the academy.’ They were going to set me up in the police barracks until I could find a place. I’d have to learn the new gun laws and things like that. He said I could look for my own place and eventually move out of the barracks. I talked it over with Betsy and she said, ‘Yeah, go out and try it.’
    â€œSo I loaded up our 1971 Volkswagen bug, and took off. I drove all the way out to Arapahoe County in three days. I went in, met the guys, everything was fine. They said, ‘Here’s your hat, here’s your shirt, here’s your pants, here’s your boots, here’s your gloves, here’s your jacket, here’s your leather goods, here’s the keys to your car.’ The keys to my car? Turns out the car was mine twenty-four hours a day. We got to take the car home at night. That was nice. I didn’t even need my Volkswagen out there.
    â€œSo there I was. Deputy Sheriff. Deputy Dawg. They called us ‘Pepsi cans’. Our cars were red, white and blue with red, white and blue lights on the top. You had a bluish pair of pants, highlighted with a red stripe down the sides and a white shirt. We even had Smokey the Bear hats. The town was beautiful. It was the great outdoors. Every other store was a sporting goods store. Everybody carried guns. They were legal as long as you didn’t conceal them. I called up Betsy that night and told her it was really nice, clean.
    â€œEventually they found me an apartment in the nice section of town. It was four and one-half rooms, fully furnished, for one hundred forty-five dollars a month and five dollars more a month in the summer for air conditioning. An indoor/outdoor swimming pool. Tennis. I mean, really nice. It was excellent. I would ride up to Jefferson County, stand by the side of the road and see a deer crossing the field.
    â€œAfter two months, I called Betsy up and told her, ‘I like it here. It’s really nice country. Come on out and tell me what you think of it.’ She said, ‘No, Henry.’ I said, ‘What do you mean, No?’ ‘I thought about it and I don’t want to leave Valley Stream. I don’t want to leave my family.’ I told her, ‘Betsy, I’m your family. We’re married now. Come on. I think this is going to be good out here.’ But Betsy wouldn’t budge. She told me, ‘No, it’s too big a move. Come home.’ So she put it, not in these exact words, but something like, ‘Make up your mind. Do you want to stay in Colorado or do you want me?’ I said, ‘Okay, I’ll be home.’
    â€œI didn’t even think about the decision. I just loaded up their cruiser, went into work, and handed everything back