Street Patrol
OWNING A VINTAGE POLICE CAR PROVIDES A UNIQUE THRILL By Lou Sitaras
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s a youngster, nothing is more exciting than watching an emergency vehicle go by. The questions begin immediately: What happened? Is there a car accident? A fire? Is someone sick? You look around for signs of smoke as you see the regular cars and trucks pull off to the side of the road while the emergency vehicles speed on by. It’s a sight I’m certain has led youngsters to dream of becoming firemen or police officers or paramedics. As adults, not much has changed. We still look and wonder as emergency vehicles come whizzing by. Some of us even foolishly follow fire trucks to the scene of a blazing fire. We can’t help but slow down and look as we drive by a bad car accident surrounded by emergency vehicles and wonder what happened. It’s just human nature. It’s who we are. For me, even as a kid, I distinctly remember when my hometown of Eddystone Pa. would get a new police car. I was 6 years old in 1968 when the police department acquired a beautiful dark green Dodge Coronet. In 1970 they traded it in on a new Dodge Coronet with the wildest front end I’ve ever seen on any car — let alone a police car. Even today, the 1970 Dodge Coronet is considered a unique milestone vehicle. Afterwards, the Eddystone Police Dept. switched to the Plymouth Satellite and by 1974, the Plymouth Gran Fury was the vehicle of choice before I moved away.
They say it takes a Mopar to catch a Mopar and that’s exactly what happened in Catawba County, North Carolina.
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My house at times looks like a community police department right out of the past with a 1977 Plymouth Gran Fury and a 1962 Chrysler Enforcer parked out front.
