Colorado Police Communications Center employees are tough on crime--just ask the police dispatcher accused of stealing a hot dog cart. Apparently she’s serious. Or seriously thinks she’s a street cop. That part’s a little unclear since the dispatch officer is arrested for stealing a hot dog man’s cart after pinching him. She also kind of punched a bar bouncer twice in her supposed quest for a felon.
It's a good call: Colorado Police dispatcher Kayla Hogan and Heather Locklear are equally bad mug shot lookalikes.
It seems someone has been watching way too much ‘Law and Order’. It was a hot pursuit. And Kayla Hogan was insistent that trail could not go cold, supposedly the reason the police dispatch officer tried to drive off in a Colorado Springs hot dog vendor’s pickup truck. His snack cart was kind of hitched to the back at the time, so he wasn’t too keen on the idea.
"I'm commandeering your truck," the police dispatcher reportedly told the Colorado hot dog vendor: "I'm after someone."
But cops had another idea within the minutes that followed. They were after someone too – the police dispatcher. The employee of the Colorado Springs police communications center was put in cuffs June 26, arrested on suspicion of attempted vehicle theft.
It was a scene right out of a movie. The scenario that exploded near closing time caused a melee like the Copperhead Road Honkey Tonk Saloon has probably never seen – even after-hours. Right outside of the bar at 3330 North Academy Boulevard, police say the Colorado Police Communications Center dispatcher pinched the hot dog vendor. Yeah, that’s funny. But not half as funny as a bouncer getting bounced: The dispatcher then punched a bar bouncer not once, but twice, after the Copperhead Road Bar was trying to save the poor hot dog vendor.
For those who believe cops protect their own -- or even their communications personnel -- the events that followed may provide confirmation of that idea: The arrest of police employee Kayla Hogan somehow didn’t make it into the Police Department's online record. The police blotter had a noticeable absence of the dispatcher incident and subsequent arrest -- nor did the Kayla Hogan scenario appear on the Colorado Springs Police Department's Facebook page and police blotter updates.
Based on the crazy scenario allegedly sparked by dispatcher Hogan, it doesn’t seem too surprising that the police employee’s got not one, but two, previous convictions for drunk driving. It seems the department’s employee likes ‘doubles’, matching the number of times she reportedly punched the bar bouncer. For now it seems Hogan is still employed with the department that hasn’t spoken otherwise on the subject.
If it’s smart, the Colorado agency may wish to reconsider that employment: Police dispatcher Kayla Hogan is the third police employee to be arrested – in less than three months, since May 2011. The Colorado arrest affidavit references a bar bouncer’s concern after seeing Hogan standing in the bar parking lot near 1 a.m. Bouncer Curtis Lille claims to have approached the dispatcher to ask if she needed help but says the questions were ignored when Kayla Hogan allegedly "kicked off her high heel shoes" and took off through the parking lot on foot, according to police.
Just minutes later, hot dog vendor Charlie Gast got his own encounter with Colorado police dispatcher Kayla Hogan, when he "saw a female wearing no shoes run up to his truck and get into the driver's seat" of his pickup. Apparently that’s when the pinching and thrashing began. Reportedly things turned to the next level when the hot dog vendor tried to stop the police dispatcher from the turning the ignition key, to take off in his truck – at which point Hogan reportedly told the vendor: "You're really aiding and abetting a felon."
The hot dog man had good reason to be protecting his goods: While the GMC pickup is worth about $15,000, the real value lies in what was attached. It remains unclear how Kayla Hogan supposedly intended to chase down a ‘felon’ with a hitched trailer on the back of a speeding vehicle -- but that vending trailer alone is worth another $25,000 grand, according to cops.
Hogan’s due in court late August and could technically face a Class 4 felony for attempted aggravated motor vehicle theft – a charge that carries up to a 12-year sentence in prison. But since the police dispatcher’s arrest didn’t even turn up on the police blotter, it’s a bit unclear what will come of any penalty. If it’s any indicator, the police department hasn’t even said it’s firing the employee.