SpringfieldNewsSun.com

SPRINGFIELD, Ohio — There's the story of how officer Bob Roller got his head stuck under a bathtub.

Then again, there's the time he dragged a drunk through the crowded Big Four train station as the man's pants descended to his ankles.

Whether either one of those is better than the tale of how a wallet and ticket book that caught on fire saved Roller's tail .... well, why don't you decide?

Atlhough Roller was on the Springfield Police Division only from 1945 to 1952, he emerged from it with the kinds of stories retired policemen love to tell.

First, a little background/

Roler signed on to the force Aug. 21, 1945, after serving with the Marines in the Pacific theater in World War II.

He was awarded two Purple Hearts during his service days. One came after an exploding ammunition dump tossed a chunk of concrete 500 feet onto his calf. The second came after the concussion from the explosion of a huge Japanese shell knocked him out for three days, ending his combat time in the service.

The 1942 graduate of Springfield High School came back home, "and I was appointed seven days after my birthday," he said. "I'm the youngest person ever to be appointed in Springfield" at age 21.

Although he didn't make it a career, at 83, he still carries around his police stories. Here they are.

Head-butting the bathtub

Roller was having his lunch at Baker's Cafeteria downtown when a call came in about a shooting in the city's South End.

Flying out there on his motorcycle, he arrived and was briefed on the situation.

"This fella had just been released from the asylum sometime during the day. And he lived upstairs from Mrs. Detrick."

When Mrs. Detrick went to take out the trash, the disoriented man aimed a gun out the upstairs bathroom window and shot her dead.

"The fire department gets there to try to get to her, and he's shooting at them," Roller said.

So Roller and another officer settled on a plan.

"Jim McGuff says 'When we go through the door, I'll hit him high and you hit him low.' "

Roller went too low.

"I went underneath the bathtub (one that was on feet) and got my head stuck. They had to lift it up to get me out, and I'm fighting with him the whole time."

Number two in the Big Four

"Bob Meiser and I were partners at the time, and we got a call at the Big Four Station that there was a drunk in the rest room," Roller began.

The man apparently was drunk enough that he had mistaken the hand washing basin for the toilet and was misusing it badly.

"At that time, the station was full. It was about due to have a train," Roller said.

His partner, Meiser, pulled up the man's pants "and we got on either side of him," one arm around each elbow, and proceed to drag him through the train terminal, Roller said.

"By the time we got out to the cruiser, his pants had dropped around his ankles," much to the amusement of the traveling public, Roller said.

Preoccupied with the dragging job, Meiser was unaware of the dropped drawers. So it was only when he reached back to grab the man by the seat of the pants that he discovered his pants weren't there.

"He kept saying 'Oh, Oh, Oh,'" Roller recalled.

"People were on the floor laughing in the depot," Roller said, "and me right along with them."

Two accidents and job interview

The man who had been awarded two Purple Hearts eventually resigned from the police department because of the danger of motorcycle patrol.

"I had to hang it up after three accidents in six months," Roller explained.

The first accident gave him an up close introduction to the hazards of cobbled pavement.

Riding on Lagonda Avenue near the intersection of Sherman, he had to slam on the brakes to avoid an accident. With cobbled brick streets, the back end of the motorcycle was bouncing all over the place.

"I went into the back end of a panel truck. With my left knee, I broke the bumper," he said.

Roller found himself rolling down Lagonda toward a car that "went up on the sidewalk to keep from hitting me."

The second accident came while he was chasing a speeder who turned into a side street off of Sunset Avenue.

"I had him clocked about 90," Roller said, and when he turned the motorcycle on the side street to continue his pursuit he made an unfortunate discovery.

"The city had put fresh gravel out that day," Roller recalled.

His motorcycle tumbled, then "went up and wrapped around a telephone pole," he said.

Meanwhile, Roller went skittering across the pavement.

He found himself riding on what served as a small leather sled in his back pocket.

"My billfold and ticket book was in the pocket," he said. And when a neighborhood woman came up and asked what she could do for him, he said "put out the fire" that had started from the friction against the leather.

"All I got was a burn out of it," he said.

Not so with the third accident, which caused him to resign and eventually led to a job interview.

While riding his motorcycle on patrol, "some car went through a stop sign and clobbered me," he said.

The impact sent his Ray Bans to the pavement and broke them, and the car's hood ornament smacked his elbow.

With his arm hanging down, "I'm giving that guy hell about breaking my glasses," Roller said.

Roller was off work for eight weeks and out of commission.

"I went back and I said, when this shift is over with, I want to hang it up." Roller said. "A year later, I went to work for the guy that hit me, Don Six, and worked for him for 18 years."

During that time, Six would often start a conversation by saying, "Did I ever tell you how I hired Bob?"

Contact this reporter at (937) 328-0368 or tstafford@coxohio.com.

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