It was a lovely Easter Sunday day. It was warm, sunny, and we had plenty of candy. I was 13 years old and my brother was 11. We were getting ready to go to church that night, as usual. That particular night, Eric and I decided to walk to church. So off we went walking to church.
As we were walking by Pasadena High School, a green Cadillac pulled over to the side. There were two guys in the front of the car, and one in the back. The guy in the back got out of the car and approached me and Eric. He put his hand on his hip and pulled up his shirt. I saw what looked like a knife handle sticking out of his waist.
He asked for our hats (that's what we get for wearing our hats to church). I flipped my hat to him. Eric gave up his as well. He then asked if we had any money. Neither of us had any, but Eric reaches into his pocket and pulls out some Easter candy. Eric said, "I have some candy." as he puts it in his hand.
The guy looked at it and dumps in on the ground, as he got back into the car. The car pulled away and Eric said to me, "Remember I D E E". He remembered "3 0 4". (He had his cop instincts way back then...he got the license plate number.)
So we got to church, told our parents what happened, and the cops came to take a report. Turned out that the license plate was 1DEE304. The best guess was that we were a part of a gang initiation. Luckily no one was hurt.
One might think that given the plate, they would be able to track down these hoodlums. Well, less than a week later the cops had other issues taking up their time. The Rodney King verdict came down.
