The Ticket

(Paperback)

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Christoph Lewis Friedman and Timothy Patrick "Redbone" Obrador are partners pushing a black and white for LAPD in South-Central's 77th Street Division. Friedman has nearly twenty years on the job and is worn down by his once beloved department becoming a failed bureaucracy. Redbone is still brimming with youthful exuberance but sees policing as nothing more than a means to an end. They are quietly living out their lives one shift at a time in a world of hookers, gangsters, scandalous Command Staff, and the citizens they've sworn to protect. Everything changes when their strategy of playing the lottery at the nastiest liquor store in the Division pays off and they hold the winning ticket for one of the biggest payouts in California history. They devise a plan with their new high-end lawyers to ensure their anonymity, but there's a caveat: A key component of the plan delays collection of their winnings for six months and so they must continue patrol as if nothing has changed. While planning their future, they come to realize that they are in a unique position to exact a bit of revenge on behalf of everyone they know who has been wronged by the Big Blue Machine. Their new-found financial freedom combined with an incredible case of "short-timer's syndrome" leads them down a fabulous path of destruction where the twists and turns of everyday police work force them to make life altering decisions. Along the way, Freidman and Redbone learn a lot about themselves while careening toward an unforeseeable catastrophic set of circumstances that tests their skill as Officers, and their personal bond of friendship.

Author Bio

Christian Wecker is a 28-year veteran of law enforcement born and raised in San Pedro in the shadow of LAPD's Harbor Division. As a UCLA graduate with a History degree, he appreciates the responsibility of precision in historical narratives while embracing the poetic license afforded by historical fiction. He worked as a cabinetmaker after high school and was first hired by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority Police Department when the construction industry failed in 1994. In 1997 MTAPD's officers were absorbed by the Los Angeles Police Department and Los Angeles Sheriff Office, and he began a raucous ride with the LAPD that continues to this day. He has worked various assignments within the LAPD, but his heart has always been in the wild world of South-Central geographic patrol. The excitement of car chases, uses of force, crime scenes, and the general malaise of the Los Angeles public has afforded him countless stories to draw upon for his works of fiction.