Fifteen

From the Red Creek Review

Local Officer Solves Statewide Robbery Case

Red Creek police officer Clark Berger had never even investigated a theft before he cracked Texas’s biggest string of robberies from his bed last week. Based on descriptions Berger provided to state police, officers in Austin arrested an un-named suspect in the recent rash of early morning muggings that has plagued the city and many of the surrounding areas for the last three months.

“We feel confident that we have apprehended the so-called ‘Daybreak Mugger,’’ said state chief of police Dan Riddel at a weekend press conference to introduce the small-town hero announce big-city the capture. “Texas can once again rest easy thanks in large part to some top-notch police work from one of our less experienced, but no less capable county officers in Red Creek.”

Recovering in the hospital following a handgun accident, Berger experienced what he described as a “lucid memory” of a brief encounter with someone matching the description of the “Daybreak Mugger” outside the popular Austin eatery where the robbery spree began in June.

“Suddenly it was clear as day,” Berger explained. “I’d never even thought of it before then. It was just one of those millions of moments you ignore. I’d brought the family up to Austin for a country music festival, and one morning when I went out for cigarettes, I just brushed shoulders with him on the sidewalk. That’s all.”

At the time, Berger says, he didn’t make anything of the encounter. Still five weeks before a description of the suspect would emerge, he had nothing to match to the face. And later, when he did see the artist’s sketches on the news, Berger had long forgotten about the encounter.

But four months later, when he lay in a Red Creek hospital bed floating somewhere between sleep and waking, Berger experienced a sudden and overwhelming recollection of the man he’d bumped into. “It was amazing,” he explained. “I could play the moment back and forth in my mind like a video tape, and . . . [then] I realized that I could zoom in and out as well. That’s when I saw his name.”

The suspect, it turns out, had his wallet open as he left the restaurant and collided with Berger, incredibly allowing Berger to freeze frame this split second, zoom in on the name on the driver’s license, and connect a name with the face of one of Texas’s most wanted.

Yet, when Berger first notified state police, they were less than receptive. “At first, they questioned me like I was the suspect,” he recalled. “Being a cop myself, I can understand their suspicion, but I just told then, ‘Hey, check the guy out. I’m not saying my ID has to be your only proof, but I’m giving you a name you might want to look into. Take it for what it’s worth.”

While the nature of Berger’s identification was, and remains, a mystery to the authorities, Chief Riddel was willing to take a chance on the information. “In a case like this, you have to track down every lead,” he said. When they tracked down the name and address Berger remembered, police found the suspect in his apartment with the purses and wallets of his most recent victims.

The unorthodox nature of Berger’s tip means that it will most likely not be used in a trial. In fact, even after the suspect was brought into custody, state police interrogated the man they’re now calling a hero for eight hours to make sure that he wasn’t connected to the case in some other way. “This is all highly unusual for us,” Chief Riddel explained. “It was very difficult for our detectives to believe that Mr. Berger just suddenly remembered such specific details. But after thorough questioning, we’re satisfied that that is exactly what happened. So I don’t know how he could remember all this—I’m just happy he did.”

Just as happy is Berger himself, who miraculously only spent one night in the hospital with the gunshot wound to the head that apparently sparked the memory.

But while his police work has made him the toast of the precinct, Berger thinks the “Daybreak Mugger” case may be his last. “I’m thinking of going back to painting,” he explains. “I was really into art growing up but I was all drive and not much talent, if you know what I mean. I could draw all right, but I couldn’t hold an image in my head. Now, I’m just flooded with images, and I just can’t wait to put them down on canvas.”

If the paintings are even half as vivid as this standout policeman’s memories, Red Creek is no doubt in for some pretty stunning art artwork.